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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 bulldozing the grocer, and the vegetable

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

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silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied three times.

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Della counted it one dollar and eighty seven cents, and

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the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly nothing

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to do but flop down on the shabby little couch

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and howl. So Della did it, which instigates the moral

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reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles,

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with sniffles predominating, while the mistress of the home is

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gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second. Take

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a look at the home, a furnished flat at eight

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

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it certainly had that word on the lookout for the

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mendicancy squad. And the vestibule below was a letter box

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into which no letter would go, and an electric button

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from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also

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appertaining thereun two 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 Miss James Dillingham Young came home and reached his

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flat above, he was called Jim and greatly hugged by

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

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which is all very good. Della finished her cry and

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attended to her cheeks with a powder rag. She stood

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by the window and looked out dully at a gray

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cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. 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 far.

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Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always

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are only one dollar eighty seven cents to buy a

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

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had spent planning for something nice for him, something fine

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and rare and sterling, something just a little bit near

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to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

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There was a peer glass between the windows of the room.

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Perhaps you have seen a peer glass in an eight

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dollar flat. A very thin and very agile person may,

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by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips,

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obtained a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender,

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had mastered the art. Suddenly she whirled from the window

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and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly,

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but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds.

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Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall

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to its full length. Now there were two possessions of

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the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a

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mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been

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his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair.

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Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across

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the air shaft, Della would have let her hair hang

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out the window some day to dry, just to depreciate

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her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor,

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with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim

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would have pulled out his watch every time he passed,

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just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

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So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and

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shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below

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her knee and made itself almost a garment for her.

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And then she did it up again, nervously and quickly.

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Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while

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a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet,

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on winter old brown jacket, on winter old brown hat,

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and with a whirl of skirts, and with the brilliant

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sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door

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and down the stairs to the street, where she stopped.

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The sign read Madame souffrony hair goods of all kinds.

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One flied at. Dela ran and collected herself, panting. Madame large,

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too white, chilly, hardly looked the SOFFRONI will you buy

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my hair? Asked delah I buy hair, said Madame. Take

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your hat off, and let's have a sight at the

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looks 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 Della Oh. In 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 val you.

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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 Della

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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. Della

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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 everyday things, and

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

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still pretty. The door opened and Jim stepped in and

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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 quail. His eyes were

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fixed upon Deella, and there was an expression in them

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

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

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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.

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Speaker 2: Nice, what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you.

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You've cut off your hair, asked Jim laboriously, as if

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he had not arrived at that pat In fact, yet,

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even after the hardest mental labor, cut it off and

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sold it, said Dela.

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Speaker 1: Don't you like me just as well? Anyhow? I'm me

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without my hair, ain't I? Jim looked about the room curiously.

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You say your hair is gone, he said, with an

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

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said Dela. 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, Jim seemed quickly

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to wake. He enfolded his Della 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 the flat. For there lay the combs,

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the set of combs side and back that Dela had

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worshiped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell,

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with jeweled rims, just the shape 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 singed cat and cried,

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oh oh. Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present.

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She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm.

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The dull, precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection

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of her bright and ardent spirit. Isn't it a dandy, Jim?

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I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have

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to look at the time a hundred times a day. Now,

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give me your watch. I want to see how it

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looks on it. Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on

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the couch and put his hands under the back of

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his head and smiled. 'n Dell said he let's put

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our Christmas presents away and keep them awhile they're too

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nice to use. Just at present I sold the watch

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to get the money to buy your combs. And now

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suppose you put the chops on the Magi. As you know,

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were wise men, wonderfully wise men, who brought gifts to

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the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of

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giving Christmas presents. Being wise. Their gifts were no doubt

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wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case

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of duplication. And here I have lamely relied to you

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the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat,

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who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures

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of their house. But in a last word to the

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wise of these days, let it be said that of

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all who give gifts, these two were the wisest of

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all who give and receive gifts, such as they are

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wisest everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi. And

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of the gift of the Magi. By O. Henry