The Scarlet Letter (Ch 1-2)

The Scarlet Letter opens with a group of men and women talking about the prisoner, Hester. The women are very manly, and they are talking about the wrong doings of Hester. Hester then comes forth to the crowd of people holding her child, Pearl, and a red scarlet letter embroided on her chest. She seems to be very proud of the letter because she doesn't take any interest in hiding it. The towns people follow her through town as she has to stand forth on a steeple in a stockade for three hours. The scene closes with a flashback of Hester's life.

"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place"

This short story is about two waiters with completely opposite views of life. They find themselves constantly waiting on an old, lonely man who sits outside the cafe every night and drinks beverage after beverage of alcohol. The older waiter sees this man to be very lonely and he understands why he wants to drink away his lonliness. The younger waiter, however, sees the old man to be a bother because he forces him to stay at work and wait on him when he could be at home with his family. The older waiter tries to show the younger waiter the sympathy he should feel, but the younger waiter only ignores him. He then tells the old man how he should have killed himself the past week when his niece found him hanging himelf. The older waiter is disgusted. They close the cafe down, and as the older waiter is walking home, he notices a bar that is in no comparrison to his own. It is very well-lighted, but it needs to be polished and cleaned.

"Hills Like White Elephants"

In this short story, a couple finds themselves arguing about a situation at a train station bar. They begin drinking two beers and the woman starts to daze off at the hills. She compares the hill to white elephants and the argument begins. The man tells her he has never seen a white elephant and she smarts off by saying, "No, you wouldn't have."
They begin arguing about silly things when the real problem comes to attention. "It's really an awfully simple operation, Jig," the man said, "It's really not an operation at all." "And if I do it you'll be happy and things will be like they were and you'll love me?" Jig said. "I love you now. You know I love you," the man said, "I said we can have everything. We can have the whole world. We can go everywhere. It's ours" "No, it isn't. And once they take it away, you never get it back," Jig said.
They have another beer and Jig orders the man to stop talking. The bar tender comes back and informs them that the train will arrive soon. The man takes their luggage to the train stop and when he comes back, he asks "Do you feel better?" "I feel fine," she said, "There's nothing wrong with me. I feel fine."

"The Short, Happy Life Of Francis Macomber"

In this short story, a man, Francis Macomber, and his wife are being toured through a safari to hunt. Their tourguide, Wilson, is a very experienced, handsome man. In fact, Margot, Mr. Macomber's wife, has a "thing" for Wilson. Everyone knows, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Macomber would never seperate becuase Francis has the money and Margot has the looks.
At the beginning of the adventure, Francis and Wilson are hunting a lion, when Francis chickens out and runs away in terror. Wilson, in turn, stands up to the lion and kills it himself. Francis had showed himself, very publicly, to be a coward. Margot is very embarrassed and shows her feelings very conceitedly. She will not drop the subject and continues to replay the day, showing Francis to be even more of a coward. She is prooving to him where his place in their relationship is. Then, she disappears is the middle of the night. When she comes back to her tent, Francis asks her where she had been. She tells him she had just gone to get some fresh air, but he knows she was secretly with Wilson because she had previous history of doing so.
The next day, Francis wants to hunt more. They decide to try and hunt some buffalo. When they arrive to the site, they see three very large-sized buffalo. Francis gets a huge burst of energy and shoots the first two, and the third one gets away. They get into their vehicle and chase after it. When they get close enough, they get it down, too. Francis feels like a new person. He feels like he is on top of the world and bigger than anything. Margot however, sees that it was very unfair to chase the poor thing with a vehicle.
All of a sudden, a worker of Wilson's tells them that the first buffalo was not completely dead, and it had gotten up and went into the brush. They go back and wait for the buffalo to calm down.
Finally, they move closer and the buffalo charges. Gun fires are coming from every direction and the buffalo hits the ground. Then, in a split second, Margot raises her gun and aims in right at Francis's skull. She fires.
"Why didn't you just poison him? That's what they do in England," Wilson says. Margot continuously tells him to shut up, but Wilson refuses. Finally, she says please and he cooperates.

"A Day's Wait"

In the short story, "A Day's Wait" by Earnest Hemmingway, a nine year-old boy finds himself waking up early in the morning with a fever. "You go up to bed," his father said, "you're sick." "I'm alright," the boy said. When the doctor arrived that day, he finds the boy to have a temperature of one hundred and two. He tells the father that his son will be fine; he just needs some rest and medication. At this point, the father tries to convince the boy that he should sleep, but all he tells his father is to leave him so he doesn't have to be bothered. So the father goes out to hunt. He shoots two quail and misses five. He then calls it a day and decides he was happy there were so many left to find on another day.
Back at home, he finds the boy in the exact position he had left him earlier that day. He then realizes that something must be wrong. He takes the boy's temperature again and finds it to be one hundred and two and four tenths. Then, he sees the fear in his son's eyes. All of a sudden the words spill out. "What time do you think I'm going to die?" the boy says. "At school in France the boys told me you can't live with forty-four degrees. I've got one hundred and two." The father is relieved. He explains the difference between the units. The boy relaxes and is suddenly a little better.