When O. Henry wrote the following, he may have discounted his own creativity. ''A favourite dodge to get your story read by the public is to assert that it is true, and then add that Truth is stranger than Fiction.'' Although life can be stranger than fiction, O. Henry proves that fiction can be just as strange. Whirligigs, comprised of 24 short stories and published in 1910, is evidence of this. O. Henry writes of love and loss, of mystery and drama, of journalism and murders and trials. He creates a tapestry of characters, young and old, wealthy and poor.