“A Chaparral Prince”
by O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi and Other Stories (2002)
* * * * (Great) Fable
Lena, a child of eleven, toils at the Quarrymen’s Hotel while dreaming of a prince out of Grimm’s tales to rescue and return her to her loving mother.
Okay, I don’t understand the title here. The word chaparral has something to do with a dense growth of shrubs or small trees. I thought Lena’s prince was the band of mail thieves that rescued her from the hotel? The robber band do tie the mailman whose load contained Lena’s letter to a tree, and it is his cart they slip the child in to carry her home, but what does that have to do with a “chaparral prince”? Anyway, I did enjoy the story mostly for the personal wish I had at the moment of reading for a rescuer to come and save me from my punishing ride across Iowa (RAGBRAI). Granted, my wish was for a rich princess to swoop in with a helicopter to carry me away from the ride, but it’s the same basic idea.
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