Textbook: The Gift of the Magi | English Kumarbharati Class 10 (Maharashtra SSC Board) PDF Download

 Page 1


 The Gift of the Magi
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 one’s cheeks 
burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that 
such close 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, 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 $8 per week. It 
did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had 
that word on the look out for the mendicancy squad.
In the 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 
there unto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James 
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 
during a former period of prosperity when its possessor 
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income 
was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously 
of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But 
whenever Mr. James DillinghamYoung came home and 
reached his flat above he was called ‘‘Jim” and greatly 
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already 
introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
u			 Why do you think 
Della counted the 
money three times?
 O Henry (1862 - 1910) William Sydney Porter, better 
known by his pen name, O Henry, was an American short 
story writer. He was famous for his art, and his stories 
which had surprise endings. ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is 
a story of an impoverished young couple, who have no 
money, yet wish to buy each other Christmas gifts.
u		What signs indicate  
      that Della was very 
      poor ?
l 	bulldozing : 
pressurizing
l 	cheeks burned : felt 
embarrassed
l 	imputation : 
associative action to 
some person
l 	parsimony : 
unwillingness to spend 
money
l 	instigates : provokes
l 	mendicancy squad: 
police who arrest 
beggars and the 
homeless
l 	coax : urge
l 	appertaining : 
concerning
l 	unassuming : simple 
and humble
180
Page 2


 The Gift of the Magi
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 one’s cheeks 
burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that 
such close 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, 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 $8 per week. It 
did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had 
that word on the look out for the mendicancy squad.
In the 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 
there unto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James 
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 
during a former period of prosperity when its possessor 
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income 
was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously 
of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But 
whenever Mr. James DillinghamYoung came home and 
reached his flat above he was called ‘‘Jim” and greatly 
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already 
introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
u			 Why do you think 
Della counted the 
money three times?
 O Henry (1862 - 1910) William Sydney Porter, better 
known by his pen name, O Henry, was an American short 
story writer. He was famous for his art, and his stories 
which had surprise endings. ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is 
a story of an impoverished young couple, who have no 
money, yet wish to buy each other Christmas gifts.
u		What signs indicate  
      that Della was very 
      poor ?
l 	bulldozing : 
pressurizing
l 	cheeks burned : felt 
embarrassed
l 	imputation : 
associative action to 
some person
l 	parsimony : 
unwillingness to spend 
money
l 	instigates : provokes
l 	mendicancy squad: 
police who arrest 
beggars and the 
homeless
l 	coax : urge
l 	appertaining : 
concerning
l 	unassuming : simple 
and humble
180
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 $1.87 with which to buy Jim 
a present. She had been saving every penny she could 
for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week 
doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she 
had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a 
present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had 
spent planning for something nice for him. Something 
fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit 
near to being worthy of the honour 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 $8 flat. 
A very thin and very agile person may, by observing 
his reflection 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 colour within twenty seconds. 
Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its 
full length.
Now, there were two possessions of James 
Dillingham Young in which they both took a mighty 
pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his 
father’s and his grandfather’s.The other was Della’s 
hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across 
the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out 
the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her 
Majesty’s 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 see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s 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 
while 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 
l 	depreciate : 
gradually diminish 
 in value
l 	cascade :a small 
waterfall
l 	garment : clothing 
l 	accurate : correct/
precise
l 	agile : quick and 
light-footed
l 	basement : the floor 
of a building which 
is partly or entirely 
below ground level
u What was the cause  
     of Della’s disturbed  
     mind?
u What were the   
      couple’s prized   
      possessions?
181
Page 3


 The Gift of the Magi
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 one’s cheeks 
burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that 
such close 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, 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 $8 per week. It 
did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had 
that word on the look out for the mendicancy squad.
In the 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 
there unto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James 
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 
during a former period of prosperity when its possessor 
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income 
was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously 
of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But 
whenever Mr. James DillinghamYoung came home and 
reached his flat above he was called ‘‘Jim” and greatly 
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already 
introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
u			 Why do you think 
Della counted the 
money three times?
 O Henry (1862 - 1910) William Sydney Porter, better 
known by his pen name, O Henry, was an American short 
story writer. He was famous for his art, and his stories 
which had surprise endings. ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is 
a story of an impoverished young couple, who have no 
money, yet wish to buy each other Christmas gifts.
u		What signs indicate  
      that Della was very 
      poor ?
l 	bulldozing : 
pressurizing
l 	cheeks burned : felt 
embarrassed
l 	imputation : 
associative action to 
some person
l 	parsimony : 
unwillingness to spend 
money
l 	instigates : provokes
l 	mendicancy squad: 
police who arrest 
beggars and the 
homeless
l 	coax : urge
l 	appertaining : 
concerning
l 	unassuming : simple 
and humble
180
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 $1.87 with which to buy Jim 
a present. She had been saving every penny she could 
for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week 
doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she 
had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a 
present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had 
spent planning for something nice for him. Something 
fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit 
near to being worthy of the honour 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 $8 flat. 
A very thin and very agile person may, by observing 
his reflection 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 colour within twenty seconds. 
Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its 
full length.
Now, there were two possessions of James 
Dillingham Young in which they both took a mighty 
pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his 
father’s and his grandfather’s.The other was Della’s 
hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across 
the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out 
the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her 
Majesty’s 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 see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s 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 
while 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 
l 	depreciate : 
gradually diminish 
 in value
l 	cascade :a small 
waterfall
l 	garment : clothing 
l 	accurate : correct/
precise
l 	agile : quick and 
light-footed
l 	basement : the floor 
of a building which 
is partly or entirely 
below ground level
u What was the cause  
     of Della’s disturbed  
     mind?
u What were the   
      couple’s prized   
      possessions?
181
l 	mammoth : huge
sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and 
down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme. Sofronie. 
Hair Goods 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 
let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass 
with a practiced 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 Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for 
Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any 
of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside 
out. It was a platinum fobchain 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 Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the 
description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they 
took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 
87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be 
properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand 
as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the 
sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in 
place of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave 
way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her 
curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work 
repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love 
which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a 
mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with 
tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully 
like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in 
the mirror-long, carefully, and critically.
l 	cents : a monetary 
unit in various 
countries equal to one 
hundredth of a dollar, 
Euro or other decimal 
currency unit 
l 	tremendous : very 
big
l 	prudence : quality of 
being wise
l 	gave way : 
submitted, yielded
l 	platinum : a precious 
silvery-white metal
u		 	 What made Della 
look at her reflection 
critically ?
l 	fluttered : danced/
hovered
182
Page 4


 The Gift of the Magi
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 one’s cheeks 
burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that 
such close 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, 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 $8 per week. It 
did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had 
that word on the look out for the mendicancy squad.
In the 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 
there unto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James 
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 
during a former period of prosperity when its possessor 
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income 
was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously 
of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But 
whenever Mr. James DillinghamYoung came home and 
reached his flat above he was called ‘‘Jim” and greatly 
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already 
introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
u			 Why do you think 
Della counted the 
money three times?
 O Henry (1862 - 1910) William Sydney Porter, better 
known by his pen name, O Henry, was an American short 
story writer. He was famous for his art, and his stories 
which had surprise endings. ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is 
a story of an impoverished young couple, who have no 
money, yet wish to buy each other Christmas gifts.
u		What signs indicate  
      that Della was very 
      poor ?
l 	bulldozing : 
pressurizing
l 	cheeks burned : felt 
embarrassed
l 	imputation : 
associative action to 
some person
l 	parsimony : 
unwillingness to spend 
money
l 	instigates : provokes
l 	mendicancy squad: 
police who arrest 
beggars and the 
homeless
l 	coax : urge
l 	appertaining : 
concerning
l 	unassuming : simple 
and humble
180
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 $1.87 with which to buy Jim 
a present. She had been saving every penny she could 
for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week 
doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she 
had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a 
present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had 
spent planning for something nice for him. Something 
fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit 
near to being worthy of the honour 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 $8 flat. 
A very thin and very agile person may, by observing 
his reflection 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 colour within twenty seconds. 
Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its 
full length.
Now, there were two possessions of James 
Dillingham Young in which they both took a mighty 
pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his 
father’s and his grandfather’s.The other was Della’s 
hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across 
the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out 
the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her 
Majesty’s 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 see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s 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 
while 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 
l 	depreciate : 
gradually diminish 
 in value
l 	cascade :a small 
waterfall
l 	garment : clothing 
l 	accurate : correct/
precise
l 	agile : quick and 
light-footed
l 	basement : the floor 
of a building which 
is partly or entirely 
below ground level
u What was the cause  
     of Della’s disturbed  
     mind?
u What were the   
      couple’s prized   
      possessions?
181
l 	mammoth : huge
sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and 
down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme. Sofronie. 
Hair Goods 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 
let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass 
with a practiced 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 Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for 
Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any 
of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside 
out. It was a platinum fobchain 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 Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the 
description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they 
took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 
87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be 
properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand 
as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the 
sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in 
place of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave 
way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her 
curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work 
repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love 
which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a 
mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with 
tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully 
like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in 
the mirror-long, carefully, and critically.
l 	cents : a monetary 
unit in various 
countries equal to one 
hundredth of a dollar, 
Euro or other decimal 
currency unit 
l 	tremendous : very 
big
l 	prudence : quality of 
being wise
l 	gave way : 
submitted, yielded
l 	platinum : a precious 
silvery-white metal
u		 	 What made Della 
look at her reflection 
critically ?
l 	fluttered : danced/
hovered
182
“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before 
he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a 
Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! 
what could I do with a dollar and eighty seven cents?”
At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-
pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to 
cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in 
her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the 
door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on 
the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned 
white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying 
little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, 
and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think 
I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. 
He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was 
only twenty-two—and to be burdened with a family! 
He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a 
setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon 
Della, and there was an expression in them that she 
could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, 
nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the 
sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply 
stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on 
his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
“Jim,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I 
had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have 
lived through Christmas without giving you a present. 
It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just 
had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry 
Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know 
what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for 
you.”
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, 
as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even 
after the hardest mental labour.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you 
like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, 
ain’t I?”
l whispered : spoke
very softly
l disapproval :
disagreement
l patent : obvious
u What good habits
did Della have ?
u Why did Jim stare at
Della ?
183
Page 5


 The Gift of the Magi
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 one’s cheeks 
burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that 
such close 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, 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 $8 per week. It 
did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had 
that word on the look out for the mendicancy squad.
In the 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 
there unto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James 
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze 
during a former period of prosperity when its possessor 
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income 
was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously 
of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But 
whenever Mr. James DillinghamYoung came home and 
reached his flat above he was called ‘‘Jim” and greatly 
hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already 
introduced to you as Della which is all very good.
u			 Why do you think 
Della counted the 
money three times?
 O Henry (1862 - 1910) William Sydney Porter, better 
known by his pen name, O Henry, was an American short 
story writer. He was famous for his art, and his stories 
which had surprise endings. ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is 
a story of an impoverished young couple, who have no 
money, yet wish to buy each other Christmas gifts.
u		What signs indicate  
      that Della was very 
      poor ?
l 	bulldozing : 
pressurizing
l 	cheeks burned : felt 
embarrassed
l 	imputation : 
associative action to 
some person
l 	parsimony : 
unwillingness to spend 
money
l 	instigates : provokes
l 	mendicancy squad: 
police who arrest 
beggars and the 
homeless
l 	coax : urge
l 	appertaining : 
concerning
l 	unassuming : simple 
and humble
180
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 $1.87 with which to buy Jim 
a present. She had been saving every penny she could 
for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week 
doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she 
had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a 
present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had 
spent planning for something nice for him. Something 
fine and rare and sterling - something just a little bit 
near to being worthy of the honour 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 $8 flat. 
A very thin and very agile person may, by observing 
his reflection 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 colour within twenty seconds. 
Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its 
full length.
Now, there were two possessions of James 
Dillingham Young in which they both took a mighty 
pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his 
father’s and his grandfather’s.The other was Della’s 
hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across 
the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out 
the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her 
Majesty’s 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 see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s 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 
while 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 
l 	depreciate : 
gradually diminish 
 in value
l 	cascade :a small 
waterfall
l 	garment : clothing 
l 	accurate : correct/
precise
l 	agile : quick and 
light-footed
l 	basement : the floor 
of a building which 
is partly or entirely 
below ground level
u What was the cause  
     of Della’s disturbed  
     mind?
u What were the   
      couple’s prized   
      possessions?
181
l 	mammoth : huge
sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and 
down the stairs to the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme. Sofronie. 
Hair Goods 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 
let’s have a sight at the looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass 
with a practiced 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 Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for 
Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any 
of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside 
out. It was a platinum fobchain 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 Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the 
description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they 
took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 
87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be 
properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand 
as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the 
sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in 
place of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave 
way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her 
curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work 
repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love 
which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a 
mammoth task.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with 
tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully 
like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in 
the mirror-long, carefully, and critically.
l 	cents : a monetary 
unit in various 
countries equal to one 
hundredth of a dollar, 
Euro or other decimal 
currency unit 
l 	tremendous : very 
big
l 	prudence : quality of 
being wise
l 	gave way : 
submitted, yielded
l 	platinum : a precious 
silvery-white metal
u		 	 What made Della 
look at her reflection 
critically ?
l 	fluttered : danced/
hovered
182
“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before 
he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a 
Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! 
what could I do with a dollar and eighty seven cents?”
At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying-
pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to 
cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in 
her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the 
door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on 
the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned 
white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying 
little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, 
and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think 
I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. 
He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was 
only twenty-two—and to be burdened with a family! 
He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a 
setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon 
Della, and there was an expression in them that she 
could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, 
nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the 
sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply 
stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on 
his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
“Jim,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I 
had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have 
lived through Christmas without giving you a present. 
It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just 
had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry 
Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know 
what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for 
you.”
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, 
as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even 
after the hardest mental labour.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you 
like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, 
ain’t I?”
l whispered : spoke
very softly
l disapproval :
disagreement
l patent : obvious
u What good habits
did Della have ?
u Why did Jim stare at
Della ?
183
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air 
almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I 
tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. 
Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs 
of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden 
serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my 
love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. 
For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny 
some inconsequential object in the other direction. 
Eight dollars a week or a million a year—what is the 
difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you 
the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but 
that was not among them. This dark assertion will be 
illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and 
threw it upon the table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about 
me. I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a 
haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me 
like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package 
you may see why you had me going a while at first.”
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and 
paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, 
alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and 
wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all 
the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, 
side and back, that Della had worshipped long in 
a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise 
shell, with jeweled rims—just the shade to wear in the 
beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, 
she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned 
over them without the least hope of possession. And 
now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have 
adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length 
she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile 
and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat 
and cried, “Oh, oh!”
l trance : half-
conscious state
l inconsequential :
unimportant
l coveted : sought after
l idiocy : foolishness
l curiously : eagerly
u What gift had Jim
brought for Della ?
u Why did the beautiful
present flash ?
u Why are Jim and
Della referred to as
the magi ?
184