Question

write a summary of d story Heart and Hands

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Answer 1

Answer:

The tale Hearts and Hands by O. Henry is played out on a train. The train journey is highlighted by a reunion of two former friends. Young and beautiful Miss Fairchild is surprised to see Mr. Easton, her old friend on a train. He is sitting with another man, just in front of her seat.

On recognizing his old friend, Mr. Easton offers his left hand for a shake as his right is locked in handcuffs. The other end of the cuffs is tied to a burly man seated next to him. Surprised to see him in cuffs, Miss Fairchild is lost for words. The strange man tries to break the awkward silence. He says that he was caught for a counterfeit fraud and was sentenced to a 7-year prison sentence. Mr. Easton was the escorting Marshal and was responsible for his safe transportation to the prison in Leavenworth.

This information settles Miss Fairchild’s nerves as she had already assumed the worst in regards to her old friend (Mr. Easton). They start talking together making up for their time apart.

Mr. Easton tells her that he has adopted a life of struggle and responsibility as a law officer and given up his luxurious ways of the past. Now, he was living in the West after moving from Washington, where they both met.

Miss Fairchild confesses her love for the West as well. She feels tied down and restrained in her life in Washington. She feels that there she has to live according to other people’s opinions and judgments there.All through the conversation, she continues to stare at the metal bracket around Mr. Easton’s right hand. Observing her discomfort, the prisoner again offers an explanation saying that it was customary for the Marshal to keep them on so that the prisoner does not try to escape.

Then he asks Mr. Easton to take him for a smoke as he has not smoked for a while and is craving it. Mr. Easton wishes Miss Fairchild well and leaves with the prisoner.

Answer 2

Answer:

The story “Hearts and Hands” is set on a train, eastbound B. M. Express, where an elegantly dressed, luxurious pretty young woman Miss Fairchild meets by chance one of his old acquaintances Mr. Easton. Mr. Easton greets her with his left hand as his right hand is handcuffed with the left hand of another glum-faced, heavily built and roughly dressed man seated next to him.

Miss Fairchild is surprised to see that they are handcuffed. Sensing Mr. Easton’s embarrassment, the second man comes to the rescue by explaining that Mr. Easton is a marshal who is taking him to Leavenworth prison as he has got seven years of jail term for counterfeiting.

This gives Miss Fairchild some relief, as she started to think something bad about her old friend. Then, they continue the conversation further. Fairchild comes to know that Mr. Easton has given up his luxurious life in Washington and has taken the job of a marshal in the west. Then the woman says she also loves the west and wants to live there.

At that point the second man demands that he must be taken to the smoker now as he hasn’t had a smoke all day. So, Mr. Easton rises and leaves with that man bidding good-bye to the woman.

Two other passengers in a nearby seat heard the entire conversation. One of them comments that the man (Mr. Easton) holds such a prestigious post of a marshal at a very young age. Then the other man comments that he has never seen an officer to handcuff a prisoner to his right hand.

So, at the very end of the story, we come to know that actually the glum-faced man is the officer and Mr. Easton is the prisoner.