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 lookout 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 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 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 Dillingham Young 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 .
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 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 $ 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 color within twenty seconds .
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 .
“ 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 a 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 , darling , ” 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 labor .
“ 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 ? ”
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 .
He enfolded his Della .
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 jewelled 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 ! ”
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present .
She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm .
The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit .
“ Isn’t it a dandy , Jim ?
I hunted all over town to find it .
You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now .
Give me your watch .
I want to see how it looks on it . ”
Instead of obeying ,
Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled .
“ Dell , ” said he , “ let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’ em a while .
They’re too nice to use just at present .
I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs .
And now suppose you put the chops on . ”
The magi , as you know , were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger .
They invented the art of giving Christmas presents .
Being wise , their gifts were no doubt wise ones , possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication .
And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most
unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house .
But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give
gifts these two were the wisest .
Of all who give and receive gifts , such as they are wisest .
Everywhere they are wisest .
They are the magi .
