不诉离殇

I didn’t read many English written works, still, among the few “the Last Leaf” is one of my favorites. The author O Henry is the pen name of William Sydney Porter, a great American short story writer who lived in 19c. His short novels are featured with abrupt plots and unimaginable endings. Such as “Maggie’ s present”,“The Police And the Psalm”, etcetera. But there were some people criticized his works being shallow and contrived. Anyway, still he was one of the great novelists known to all. The character old Behrman which the author figured impressed me profoundly. At the first blush it seemed he was just a fierce little untidy old man who drank gin to excess, what’s more, always mocked terribly at others’ softness. For the rest, he was good for nothing: a poor allegedly artist. There were two young painters lived above his dimly lighted studio, one named Sue, the other who unfortunately fell a victim of Pneumonia is called Joanna. She lost heart in getting well and thought nothing but longed for leave the cold world like those poor tired leaves of the ivy vine out of her window. Both Sue and Behrman loved Joanna so much that after Sue went to Behrman for help hopelessly, at a chilly snowy night, mingled with persistent raindrops, the old man who had been boasting of his coming masterpiece for years did fulfill it! He climbed up a ladder and painted a leaf——before the last leaf fell——at the cost of his life! Imagine a senior exposed himself for the whole night wet through, no wonders he would catch a cold and infected with this acute disease. At the meantime, Joanna was surprised by the tender but dour last leaf and got aware of her cowardliness. She recovered her courage and survived the illness at last. When Sue came to her bed to tell her all the truth with tears in her eyes I just can’t imagine what Joanna’s reaction will be. As for me, each time when I read to the last paragraph I can’t hold back my tears and as a result, the very page of my College English book has always been rumpled----