The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry
One dollar and eighty-ven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-ven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. katie melua
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates(鼓动、煽动) the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs and smiles, with sobs predominatingtad（支配、统治）.
对话
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 prent. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Only $1.87 to buy a prent 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.
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premiumsSuddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty conds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two posssions 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.
So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling(轻柔的起伏) and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itlf 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.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking（彻底搜索） the stores for Jim's prent.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one el. It was a platinum fob chain（白金表链） simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone. 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（偷偷地，暗中地） on account of the old leather strap that he ud in place of a chain.
She got out her curling irons（卷发钳）.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, clo-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
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 do
什么是soawn 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: "Plea God, make him think I am still pretty."
The door opened and Jim stepped in and clod it. He looked thin and very rious. 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 with his eyes fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surpri, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the ntiments榆耳（情感）electrician that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar（特别的）bahrain 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 becau I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a prent. It'll grow ou
t 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,倒立技巧 laboriously（艰难地、辛苦地）.
