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Speaker 1: The gift of the Magi by O. Henry one dollar

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and eighty seven cents. That was all, and sixty cents

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of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two

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at a time by bull dozing the grocer, and the

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vegetable man and the butcher, until one's cheeks burned with

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a silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied

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three times. Dellah counted it one dollar and eighty seven cents,

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and the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly

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nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little

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couch and howl. So Dellah did it, which instigates the

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moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles,

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and smiles, with sniffles predominating, while the mistress of the

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home is gradually subsiding from the first stay the second.

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Take a look at the home, a furnished flat at

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eight dollars per week. It did not exactly beggar description,

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but it certainly had that word on the lookout for

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the mendicancy squad. In the vestibule below was a letter

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box into which no letter would go, and an electric

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button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring.

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Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name mister

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James Dillingham Young. The Dillingham had been flung to the

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breeze during a former period of prosperity, when its possessor

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was being paid thirty dollars per week. Now, when the

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income was shrunk to twenty dollars, though, they were thinking

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seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming d But

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whenever mister James Dillingham Young came home and reached his

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flat above, he was called Jim and greatly hugged by missus.

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James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della, which

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is all very good. Della finished her cry and attended

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to her cheeks with a powdered rag. She stood by

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the window and looked out dully at a gray cat

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walking a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow

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would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar

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and eighty seven cents with which to buy Jim a present.

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She had been saving every penny she could for months.

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With this result, twenty dollars a week doesn't go very far.

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Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always

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were only one dollar and eighty seven cents to buy

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a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour

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she had spent planning for something nice for him, something

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fine and rare and sterling, something just a little bit

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nearer to being worthy of the honor of being owned

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by Jim. There was a peer glass between the window

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of the room. Perhaps you have seen a peer glass

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in an eight dollar flat. A very thin and very

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agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid

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sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of

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his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art. Suddenly,

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she rolled from the window and stood before the glass.

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Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost

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its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her

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hair and let it fall to its length. Now there

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were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which

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they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold

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watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The

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other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived

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in the flat across the air shaft. Della would have

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let her hair hang out the window some day to dry,

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just to depreciate her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King

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Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up

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in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch

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every time he passed, just to see him pluck at

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his beard from envy. So now Della's beautiful hair fell

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about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters.

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It reached below her knee and made itself almost a

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garment for her. And then she did it up again,

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nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and

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stood still while a tear or two splashed on the

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worn red carpet. On went her old brown jacket, On

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went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts,

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and with a brilliant sparkle still in her eye, she

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fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street,

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where she stopped. The sign read Madame Soffronie hair goods

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of all kinds one flight up. Della ran and collected herself, panting.

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Madame large, two white, chilly, hardly looked the Soffrannie. Will

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you buy my hair, asked Ella. I buy hair, said Madame.

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Take your hat off and let's have a look at

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the stooks of it. Down rippled the brown cascade. Twenty dollars,

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said Madame, lifting the mass with a practiced hand. Give

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it to me quick, said dollah Oh. And the next

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two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor.

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She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present. She found

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it at last. It surely had been made for Jim

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and no one else. There was no other like it

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in any of the stores, and she had turned all

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of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain,

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simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by

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substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation, as all good

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things should do. It was even worthy of the watch.

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As soon as she saw it, she knew that it

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must be Jim's. It was like him, quietness and value.

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The description applied to both twenty one dollars they took

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from her for it, and she hurried home with the

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eighty seven cents. With that chain on his watch, Jim

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might be properly anxious about the time in any company.

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Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it

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on the sly on account of the old leather strap

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that he used in place of a chain. When Dellah

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reached home, her intoxication gave way a little to prudence

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and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted

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the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made

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by generosity added to love, which is always a tremendous task,

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dear friends, a mammoth task. Within forty minutes, her head

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was covered with tiny, close lying curls that made her

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look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her

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reflection in the mirror long, carefully and critically. If Jim

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doesn't kill me, she said to herself, before he takes

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a second look at me, he'll say, I look like

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a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do? Oh?

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What could I do with a dollar and eighty seven cents.

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At seven o'clock, the coffee was made and the frying

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pan was on the back of the stove, hot and

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ready to cook the chops. Jim was never late. Dellah

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doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on

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the corner of the table, near the door that he

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always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair

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away down on the first flight, and she turned white

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for just a moment. She had a habit of saying

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a little silent prayer about the simplest every day things,

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and now she whispered, Please God, make him think I

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am still pretty. The door opened and Jim stepped in

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and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow.

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He was only twenty two and to be burdened with

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a family. He needed a new overcoat, and he was

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without gloves. Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as

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a setter at the scent of a quail. His eyes

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were fixed upon Dela, and there was an expression in

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them that she could not read, and it terrified her.

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It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror,

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nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for.

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He simply stared at her fixedly, with that peculiar expression

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on his face. Della wriggled off the table and went

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for him, Jim Darling, She cried, don't look at me

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that way. I had my hair cut off and sold

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because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you

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a present. It'll grow out again. You won't mind, will you.

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I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast.

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Say Merry Christmas, Jim, and let's be happy. You don't

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know what a nice, what a beautiful, nice gift I've

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got for you. You've cut off your hair, asked Jim laboriously,

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as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet,

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even after the hardest mental labor, cut it off and

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sold it, said Dellah, don't you like me just as well? Anyhow?

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I'm me without my hair, ain't I. Jim looked about

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the room curiously. You say your hair's gone, he said,

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with an air almost of idiocy. You needn't look for it,

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said Dellah. It's sold. I tell you, sold and gone too.

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It's Christmas Eve boy. Be good to me, for it

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went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,

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she went on with sudden serious sweetness. But nobody could

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ever count my love for you. Shall I put the

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chops on Jim. Out of his trance, Jem seemed quickly

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to wake. He unfolded his dullah for ten seconds. Let

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us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the

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other direction, eight dollars a week or a million a year,

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what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would

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give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts,

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but that was not among them. This dark assertion will

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be illuminated later on. Jim drew a package from his

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overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table. Don't make

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any mistake, dell, he said about me. I don't think

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there's anything in the way of a hair cut, or

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a shave, or a shampoo that could make me like

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my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package,

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you may see why you had me going a while.

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At first, white fingers and nimble tore at the string

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and paper, and then an ecstatic scream of joy, and

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then alas a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails,

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necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of

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the Lord of that flat. For there lay the combs,

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the set of combs sighed and back that Delah had worked,

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shipped long in a Broadway window, beautiful combs, pure tortoiseshell,

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with jeweled rims, just the shade to wear in the

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beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and

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her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without

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the least hope of possession, And now they were hers.

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But the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments

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were gone. But she hugged them to her bosom, and

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at length she was able to look up with dim

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eyes and a smile and say, my hair grows so fast. Jim,

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and then Della leaped up like a little singed cat

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and cried, oh oh. Jim had not yet seen his

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beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon

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her open palm. The dull pressure metal seemed to flash

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with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit. Isn't

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it the dandy Jim? I hunted all over town to

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find it. You'll have to look at the time a

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hundred times a day. Now, give me your watch. I

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want to see how it looks on it. Instead of obeying,

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Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands

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under the back of his head and smiled. Dell. He said,

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let's put our Christmas presents away and keep em awhile

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they're too nice to use. Just at present, I sold

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the watch to get the money to buy your combs.

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And now suppose you put the chops on the magi.

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As you know, were wise men, wonderfully wise men, who

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brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented

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the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise. Their gifts

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were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of

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exchange in a case of duplication. And here I have

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lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish

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children in a flat, who most unwisely sacrificed for each

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other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a

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last word to the wise of these days, let it

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be said that of all who give gifts, these two

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were the wisest of all who give and receive gifts,

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such as they are wisest, everywhere they are wisest. They

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are the Magi. End of the Gift of the Magi

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by O. Henry