Some cases of functioning of grammatical groups (Simple, Continuous, Perfect, Perfect Continuous) and tenses (Present, Past, Future) in the text of fiction (on the basis of O. Henry’s works) are investigated in the article. Different tenses are not considered separately on the paradigmatic and syntagmatic level, but they are considered on the level of the text that unites them. The material about the scientists and researchers who studied or compared tenses with artistic time and the definitions of terms, which were used by us, were submitted in this paper before analyzing. The range of functioning grammatical groups and tenses, their intertwining, mixing, dynamics of the transition from one group to another is analyzed here, the interaction and mutual influence of tense and artistic time in the short stories and novels of the selected author is studied, the role of grammatical means of expressing artistic time in the text is considered too. The article also characterizes the typical features of correlation, interinfluence, transfusion of artistic time and tense in the works of an American writer; the favorite tense specifiers are listed; frequency and dominance of tense using (as well as their impact on the development of the plot) are statistically calculated; lexical means which participate in the transmission of the forecast-prospective or retrospective functions are noted; the advantages of non-localization of the action in time, used by O. Henry, are explained; the role of grammatical means of expression of artistic time in building a meaningful picture of the artwork is examined too. The structured conclusions regarding artistic time and tense, which represent various systems (structuring, interpreted refraction of objective time, the using a reference point on the time axis, the presence and absence of temporal resources) have common features (multidimensionality, continuity and discontinuity, reversibility , the definition of events` correlation, participating the verbal forms in the category of artistic expression of time) in the analyzed by us O. Henry`s stories, are supplied at the end of the article.