【正文】 own. 　　Couldn39。d rather be here by you, said Sue. Beside, I don39。m tired of waiting. I39。ll not be gone a minute. Don39。til I e back. 　　Old Behrman was a painter who lived on the ground floor beneath them. He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo39。s robe. He had been always about to paint a masterpiece, but had never yet begun it. For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of merce or advertising. He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony who could not pay the price of a professional. He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his ing masterpiece. For the rest he was a fierce little old man, who scoffed terribly at softness in any one, and who regarded himself as especial mastiffinwaiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above. 　　Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly lighted den below. In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel that had been waiting there for twentyfive years to receive the first line of the masterpiece. She told him of Johnsy39。t. But I think you are a horrid old old flibbertigibbet. 　　You are just like a woman! yelled Behrman. Who said I will not bose? Go on. I e mit you. For half an hour I haf peen trying to say dot I am ready to bose. Gott! dis is not any blace in which one so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick. Some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall all go away. Gott! yes. 　　Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs. Sue pulled the shade down to the windowsill, and motioned Behrman into the other room. In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine. Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow. Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit miner on an upturned kettle for a rock. 　　When Sue awoke from an hour39。 I want to see, she ordered, in a whisper. 　　Wearily Sue obeyed. 　　But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf. It was the last one on the vine. Still dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from the branch some twenty feet above the ground. 　　It is the last one, said Johnsy. I thought it would surely fall during the night. I heard the wind. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time. 　　Dear, dear! said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow, think of me, if you won39。ve been a bad girl, Sudie, said Johnsy. Something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to want to die. You may bring a me a little broth now, and some milk with a little port in it, and no。s thin, shaking hand in his. With good nursing you39。 but he goes to the hospital today to be made more fortable. 　　The next day the doctor said to Sue: She39。s all. 　　And that afternoon Sue came to the bed where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and very useless woollen shoulder scarf, and put one arm around her, pillows and all. 　　I have something to tell you, white mouse, she said. Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia today in the hospital. He was ill only two days. The janitor found him the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless with pain. His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold. They couldn39。t you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah, darling, it39。s masterpiece he painted it there the night that the last leaf fell. 基本簡介：　　真實姓名：威廉波特(William Sydney Porter) 　 　 筆　名：歐（歐西德尼他出生于美國北卡羅來納州格林斯波羅鎮(zhèn)一個醫(yī)師家庭。當銀行出納員時，因銀行短缺了一筆現(xiàn)金，為避免審訊，離家流亡中美的洪都拉斯。他創(chuàng)作第一部作品的起因是為了給女兒買圣誕禮物，但基于犯人的身份不敢使用真名，乃用一部法國藥典的編者的名字作為筆名。 　　歐他的作品構(gòu)思新穎，語言詼諧，結(jié)局總使人“感到在情理之中，又在意料之外”；又因描寫了眾多的人物，富于生活情趣，被譽為“美國生活的幽默百科全書”。其中一些名篇如《愛的犧牲》、《警察與贊美詩》、《麥琪的禮物》（也稱作《賢人的禮物》）、《帶家具出租的房間》、《最后一片藤葉》等使他獲得了世界聲譽?！?《歐亨利（）出生于美國北卡羅來納州有個名叫格林斯波羅的小鎮(zhèn)。1862年他出身于美國北卡羅來納州格林斯波羅鎮(zhèn)一個醫(yī)師家庭。他原名威廉波特(William Sydney Porter)。1884年以后做過會計員、土地局辦事員、新聞記者。他還辦過一份名為《滾石》的幽默周刊，并在休斯敦一家日報上發(fā)表幽默小說和趣聞逸事。 正當他的生活頗為安定之時，卻發(fā)生了一件改變他命運的事情。他為了躲避受審，逃往洪都拉斯。在獄中曾擔任藥劑師，他創(chuàng)作第一部作品的起因是為了給女兒買圣誕禮物，但基于犯人的身份不敢使用真名，乃用一部法國藥典的編者的名字作為筆名，在《麥克呂爾》雜志發(fā)表。 正當他的創(chuàng)作力最旺盛的時候，健康狀況卻開始惡化，于1910年病逝。亨利在大概十年的時間內(nèi)創(chuàng)作了短篇小說共有300多篇，收入《白菜與國王》(1904)[其唯一一部長篇，作者通過四五條并行的線索，試圖描繪出一幅廣闊的畫面，在寫法上有它的別致之處。他把那兒的街道、小飯館、破舊的公寓的氣氛渲染得十分逼真，故有“曼哈頓的桂冠詩人”之稱。作者企圖表明道貌岸然的上流社會里，有不少人就是高級的騙子，成功的騙子。亨利對社會與人生的觀察和分析并不深刻，有些作品比較淺薄，但他一生困頓，常與失意落魄的小人物同甘共苦，又能以別出心裁的藝術(shù)手法表現(xiàn)他們復(fù)雜的感情。因此，他最出色的短篇小說如《愛的犧牲》(A Service of Love)、《警察與贊美詩》(The Cop and the Anthem)、《帶家具出租的房間》(The Furnished Room)、《麥琪的禮物》(The Gift of the Magi)、《最后的常春藤葉》（The Last Leaf）等都可列入世界優(yōu)秀短篇小說之中。他還以準確的細節(jié)描寫，制造與再現(xiàn)氣氛，特別是大都會夜生活的氣氛。亨利還以擅長結(jié)尾聞名遐邇，美國文學(xué)界稱之為“歐有一種被稱為“含淚的微