Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

The sentence reduces human experience to three emotional registers: deep grief (“sobs”), minor but persistent troubles (“sniffles”), and moments of happiness (“smiles”). The punchline—“with sniffles predominating”—suggests that most of life is not defined by grand tragedy or sustained joy but by the nagging, ordinary discomforts in between: small losses, anxieties, inconveniences, and compromises. The humor is dry rather than bleak; it invites recognition and resilience by naming the everyday as the true majority of experience. In that sense, it fits O. Henry’s broader interest in the pathos and comedy of common life.