Answers to Inquiries

Read the complete short story “Answers to Inquiries” by O. Henry.

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Dear Editor: I want to ask a question in arithmetic. I am a school boy and am anxious to know the solution. If my pa, who keeps a grocery on Milam Street, sells four cans of tomatoes for twenty-five cents, and twenty-two pounds of sugar, and one can of extra evaporated apples and three cans of superior California plums, for only—

There! There! little boy; that will do. Tell your pa to come around and see the advertising manager, who is quite an arithmetician, and will doubtless work the sum for you at the usual rates.

Complete classic story. English source: Standard Ebooks. The source edition identifies the text as public domain in the United States; copyright rules vary by country.

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