The Ransom of Red Chief

3 March 2017

I probably had to read this book for some school project . . . just no idea what year . . . I was young though since there's a reason I brought this story up in the first place! It was written by O. Henry in 1910 as a short story . . . first published in The Saturday Evening Post.

It's the story of a boy who's a bit . . . ummmmm . . . we'll just say that the kid is a pretty rotten boy! The son of a wealthy man, he winds up being kidnapped by two small town criminals . . . their hope is to hold him for a handsome ransom! Unfortunately, once the plan is set in motion, and they wind up at their hideout, Johnny, who refers to himself as Red Chief, proceeds to wear his kidnappers out with pranks, non-stop chatter, and demands!! The kidnappers, tired of Johnny, write the father a letter, lowering the amount of the ransom. The father, who knows what a handful his son is, rejects their offer and demands the kidnappers pay HIM to take the boy back! Out of desperation, the pair return the boy to his father with the required money . . . glad to be rid of him!

They made a couple of movies based on the book, one in 1959 . . . the other in 1998. It was also featured in one of the ABC Weekend Specials . . . short movies shown on Saturdays that brought children's literature to life . . . no idea why they don't bring these back!

 
So, this was actually one of my favorite stories when I was little . . . for a lot of reasons! I thought he would have made a pretty great playmate, but more importantly, he liked to dress like a Native American . . . and I wanted to be one! Kid even wore feathers in his hair!!

Heart of this blog . . . I used the story to justify making my sister go first sometimes . . . especially if I had to go outside after dark.

You see, as big and tough as I thought I was, I was really pretty scared of the dark. Now let me clarify something . . . if I was already outside, and it got dark, that was okay . . . but if I had to walk out into the dark after coming inside . . . or go down to the basement after all the lights had been turned out . . . well, that was another story!

I remember having to go out to the car once . . . after it was pitch black outside . . . and standing at the door trying to work up the courage. For some reason, the story of Red Chief popped into my head, and I called my sister downstairs. She wasn't the most well-behaved child . . . sometimes could be quite a terror . . . and in my mind, a little like Red Chief. I figured if his kidnappers had to pay the dad to take the kid back, anyone who snagged my sister would likely suffer the same fate . . . she'd wear them down so quickly that they'd just return her. One of the VERY few times her safety did not come before mine in my mind!

Me . . . I was such a well-behaved child that any would be kidnappers out there would just keep me . . . not even offer me back for ransom.

But my sister . . . 

There were a number of times, before I finally grew out of my fear of the dark, when I sent my sister first . . . just in case.

I'm really relived, however, that nobody took her . . . I would have been pretty devastated!

 Just to be clear . . . I never had to pay her anything!

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” ~ Unknown

Of course, there's always the flipside to that statement:

Use your best judgement!