Springtime a la Carte Questions and Answers — O. Henry | Summary & Themes

The story follows Sarah, a freelance typist in New York, who misses her fiancé Walter — a farmer she fell in love with the previous summer. While typing a restaurant menu, she unconsciously types "DEAREST WALTER" instead of "dandelions," and this accidental message leads Walter, who was dining at the restaurant that very evening, directly to her address.

Sarah was typing the restaurant's daily menu when she reached the item "dandelions with hard-boiled egg." Dandelions were deeply significant to her — Walter had crowned her with a wreath of dandelions when he proposed. Seeing the word while she had received no letter from him in two weeks overwhelmed her with grief and longing, and she broke down crying.

Dandelions serve as the central symbol of the story. They represent love and memory — Walter wove them into Sarah's hair as a romantic gesture. They also symbolise spring and hope, as dandelions are one of the first flowers of spring, which is when Walter promised to marry her. Finally, they represent unconscious longing — Sarah's fingers type "DEAREST WALTER" instead of "dandelions" because her heart overrides her hands. O. Henry even calls the dandelion a "true soldier of fortune" and uses the French translation dent-de-lion (lion's tooth), elevating a humble weed into something poetic.

Walter arrives at Sarah's door after spotting something odd on Schulenberg's typed menu. He noticed the "cranky capital W way above the line" — a quirk of Sarah's typewriter — and recognised her handwriting. When he pulled out the card, Sarah saw that in her distracted, emotional state she had typed "DEAREST WALTER, WITH HARD-BOILED EGG" in place of "dandelions with hard-boiled egg." Her subconscious love for Walter had literally written itself into the menu — and delivered him to her door.

Sarah notices that Schulenberg's menu is handwritten in an almost unreadable mix of English and German. She types a neat, properly formatted version and shows it to him. Schulenberg immediately agrees: Sarah will type new menus every day for all 21 tables, and in return Schulenberg will send her three meals a day. This arrangement keeps Sarah fed through the cold winter.

The main themes are: love and longing — Sarah's love for Walter colours everything she sees and does, even a humble menu becomes a love letter; city vs countryside — New York is cold and mechanical while Sunnybrook Farm is warm and full of promise; spring as hope — spring symbolises reunion, new beginnings, and the fulfilment of promises; and O. Henry's signature irony — the coincidence that reunites the lovers feels both surprising and inevitable.

O. Henry uses irony — the menu that represents Sarah's bleak city life becomes the thing that reunites her with her love. He uses symbolism — dandelions, spring, and the typewriter all carry meaning beyond their literal function. He uses personification — spring is described as a bride, a witch, and a messenger. He also uses humour and wit, addressing the reader directly and gently mocking storytelling conventions, and metaphor — "the world was an oyster" extended into Sarah prying it open with a typewriter instead of a sword.

Walter explains that he came to New York a week earlier and visited Sarah's old address, only to find she had moved. He had been searching for her ever since — with the help of police and other means — but could not find her new address. His letters likely never reached her because of the address change.

O. Henry's narrator frequently interrupts the story to comment on storytelling itself. He warns the reader not to begin a story with "It was a day in March," admits that using flashback is "bad art," and directly addresses the reader as "Madam." This self-aware, playful narration is one of O. Henry's signature techniques — it creates intimacy and humour without breaking the emotional core of the story.

"À la carte" is a restaurant term meaning you choose individual items rather than a fixed set meal. The title works on two levels: literally, the story revolves around a restaurant menu (a bill of fare); and metaphorically, spring and love are things you choose for yourself, item by item, on your own terms — not things that arrive on a preset schedule.