It was a chain - simple round rings of silver. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. Della looked in all the stores to choose a gift for Jim. The next two hours went by as if they had wings. 'Twenty dollars,' said Madame, lifting the hair with an experienced hand. 'Take your hat off and let us have a look at it.'ĭown came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair. Hair Goods of All Kinds.' Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath. Where she stopped the sign read: 'Madame Sofronie. With a quick motion and brightness still in her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street.

She put on her coat and her old brown hat. She stood still while a few tears fell on the floor. It reached below her knees and made itself almost like a covering for her. So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a brown waterfall. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in their building, Della would have let her hair hang out the window to dry just to reduce the value of the queen's jewels. One was Jim's gold time piece, the watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. Now, Mister and Missus James Dillingham Young had two possessions which they valued. Quickly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Suddenly Della turned from the window and stood before the glass mirror and looked at herself. There was a tall glass mirror between the windows of the room. Something fine and rare - something close to being worthy of the honor of belonging to Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning to buy something nice for him. Expenses had been greater than she had expected. Jim earned twenty dollars a week, which does not go far. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift.

She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Which led to the thought that life is made up of little cries and smiles, with more little cries than smiles.ĭella finished her crying and dried her face. There was clearly nothing to do but sit down and cry. Negotiating until one's face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor. Pennies saved one and two at a time by negotiating with the men at the market who sold vegetables and meat. And sixty cents of it in the smallest pieces of money - pennies. SHEP O'NEAL: One dollar and eighty-seven cents. We present a special Christmas story called 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Now, the VOA Special English program AMERICAN STORIES. Or download MP3 (Right-click or option-click and save link)

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry