The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry)
Sleepy Time Classics
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Hello, hello Today we'll be doing a reading of The Gift of the Magi, which was published by O. Henry In the December of 1905 The Gift of the Magi One dollar and eighty-seven cents That was all She had put it aside One cent and then another And then another In a careful buying of meat and other food Della counted it three times One dollar and eighty-seven cents And the next day would be Christmas There was nothing to do but fall on the bed and cry So Della did it While the lady of the home is slowly growing quieter We can look at the home Furnished rooms at a cost of eight dollars a week There's little more to say about it In the hall below There was a letterbox too small to hold a letter There was an electric bell But it could not make a sound Also, there was a name beside the door Mr. James Dillingham Young When the name was placed there Mr. James Dillingham Young was paid thirty dollars a week Now, when he was being paid only twenty dollars a week the name seemed too long and important It should perhaps have been Mr. James D. Young But when Mr. James Dillingham Young entered the furnished rooms His name became very short indeed Mrs. James Dillingham Young put her arms warmly about him And called him Jim You have already met her. She is Della Della finished her crying and cleaned the marks of it from her face She stood by the window and looked out with no interest Tomorrow would be Christmas Day And she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents With which to buy Jim a gift She had put aside as much as she could for months with this result Twenty dollars a week is not much Everything had cost more than she had expected It always happened like that Only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy a gift for Jim Her Jim She had had many hours planning something nice for him Something nearly good enough Something almost worth the honor of belonging to Jim There was a looking-glass between the windows of the room Perhaps you have seen the kind of looking-glass That is placed in an eight-dollar furnished room It was very narrow A person could only see a little of himself at a time However, if he was very thin and moved very quickly He might be able to get a good view of himself Della, being quite thin, had mastered this art Suddenly, she turned from the window and stood before the glass Her eyes were shining brightly, but her face had lost its color Quickly, she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its complete length The James Dillingham Youngs were very proud of two things which they owned One thing was Jim's gold watch It had once belonged to his father And long ago it had belonged to his father's father The other thing was Della's hair If a queen had lived in the rooms near theirs Della would have washed and dried her hair where the queen could see it Della knew her hair was more beautiful than any queen's jewels and gifts If a king had lived in the same house with all his riches Jim would have looked at his watch every time they met Jim knew that no king had anything so valuable So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her Shining like a falling stream of brown water It had reached below her knee It almost made itself into a dress for her And then she put it up on her head again, nervously and quickly Once she stopped for a moment and stood still While a tear or two ran down her face She put on her old brown coat She put on her old brown hat With the bright light still in her eyes She moved quickly out the door and down the street Where she stopped, the sign said Mrs. Sofroni, hair articles of all kinds Up to the second floor, Della ran and stopped to get her breath Mrs. Sofroni, large, too white, cold-eyed, looked at her Will you buy my hair? asked Della I buy hair, said Mrs. Sofroni Take your hat off and let me take a look at it And down fell the brown waterfall Twenty dollars, said Mrs. Sofroni, lifting the hair to feel its weight Give it to me quick, said Della Oh, and the next two hours seemed to fly She was going from one shop to another to find a gift for Jim 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 shops And she had looked in every shop in the city It was a gold chain, very simple made Its value was in its rich and pure material Because it was so plain and simple, you knew that it was very valuable All good things are like this It was good enough for THE watch As soon as she saw it, she knew that Jim must have it It was like him, quietness and value Jim and the chain both had quietness and value She paid $21 for it, and she hurried home with the chain and 87 cents With that chain on his watch, Jim could look at his watch And learn the time anywhere he might Though the watch was so fine, it had never had a fine chain He sometimes took it out and looked at it Only when no one could see him do it When Della arrived home, her mind quieted a little She began to think more reasonably She started to try to cover the sad marks of what she had done Love and large-hearted giving, when added together, can leave deep marks It is never easy to cover these marks, dear friends, never easy Within 40 minutes, her head looked a little better With her short hair, she looked wonderfully like a schoolboy She stood at the looking glass for a long time If Chip doesn't kill me, she said to herself Before he looks at me a second time He'll say I look like a girl who sings and dances for money But what could I do Oh, what could I do with a dollar and 87 cents At seven, Jim's dinner was ready for him Jim was never late Della held the watch chain in her hand and sat near the door where he always entered Then she heard a step in the hall and her face lost color for a moment She often said little prayers quietly about simple everyday things And now she said, please God, make him think I'm still pretty The door opened and Jim stepped in He looked very thin and he was not smiling Poor fellow, he was only 22 and with a family to take care of He needed a new coat He had nothing to cover his cold hands Jim stopped inside the door He was as quiet as a hunting dog when it is near a bird His eyes looked strangely at Della And there was an expression in them that she could not understand It filled her with fear It was not anger, nor surprise, nor anything she had been ready for He simply looked at her with that strange expression on his face Della went to him Jim, dear, she cried, don't look at me like that I had my hair cut off and sold it I couldn't live through Christmas without giving you a gift My hair will grow again You don't care, will you My hair grows very fast It's Christmas, Jim. Let's be happy You don't know what a nice, what a beautiful nice gift I got for you You've cut off your hair Asked Jim slowly He seemed to labor to understand what had happened He seemed not to feel sure he knew Cut it off and sold it, said Della Don't you like me now I'm me, Jim. I'm the same without my hair Jim looked around the room You say your hair is gone He said You don't have to look for it, said Della It's sold, I tell you. Sold and gone too It's the night before Christmas, boy Be good to me, because I sold it for you Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted, she said But no one could ever count my love for you Shall we eat dinner, Jim Jim put his arms around his Della For ten seconds, let us look in another direction Eight dollars a week or a million dollars a year How different are they Someone may give you an answer, but it will be wrong The Magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them My meaning will be explained soon From inside the coat, Jim took something tied in a paper He threw it upon the table I want you to understand me, Della, he said Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less But if you'll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in White fingers pulled off the paper, and then a cry of joy And then a change to tears For t
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"The Gift of the Magi (O. Henry) Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.lyrics.com/lyric-lf/11796781/Sleepy+Time+Classics/The+Gift+of+the+Magi+%28O.+Henry%29>.
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