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1、THE GIFT OF THE MAGI（America）O.Henry One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until ones cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such cl
2、ose dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles,
3、 and smiles, with sniffles predominating.While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.In t
4、he vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name Mr. James Dillingham Young.The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity
5、 when its possessor was being paid per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to , though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called Jim and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingh
6、am Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only .87 with w
7、hich to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesnt go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only .87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for somethi
8、ng nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling-something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his ref
9、lection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds.
10、Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jims gold watch that had been his fathers and his grandfathers. The other was Dellas hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived i
11、n the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majestys jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to se
12、e him pluck at his beard from envy.So now Dellas beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still w
13、hile a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.Where she stopped the sign read: Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods
14、 of All Kinds. One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the Sofronie.Will you buy my hair? asked Della.I buy hair, said Madame. Take yer hat off and lets have a sight at the looks of it.Down rippled the brown cascade.Twenty dollars, sai
15、d Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.Give it to me quick, said Della.Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jims present.She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other l
16、ike it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation-as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jims. It was like him. Quietness and value-the descrip
