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O. Henry
(adapted by Karen Leggett)
Love is, above all, the gift of oneself. —Jean Anouilh
爱是给自己最好的礼物。——让·阿努伊
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. Tha was all. And sixty cents of it in the smallest pieces of money—pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by negotiating with the men at the market who sold vegetables and meat. Negotiating until one’s face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor.② Thre times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents.And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but sit down and cry. So Della cried. Which led to the thought that life is made up of little cries and smiles, with more little cries than smiles.
Della finished her crying and dried her face. She stood by the window and looked out unhappily at a gray cat walking along a gray fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.
Jim earned twenty dollars a week, which does not go far. Expenses had been greater than she had expected. They always are. Many a happy hour she had spent planning to buy something nice for him. Something fine and rare—something close to being worthy of the honor of belonging to Jim.
Ther was a tall glass mirror between the windows of the room. Suddenly Della turned from the window and stood before the glass mirror and looked at herself. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Quickly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, Mister and Missus James Dillingham Young had two possessions which they valued.One was Jim’s gold time piece, the watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. Th other was Della’s hair.
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.③
So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a brown waterfall. It reached below her knees and made itself almost like a covering for her. And then quickly she put it up again.She stood still while a few tears fell on the floor.
She put on her coat and her old brown hat. With a quick motion and brightness still in her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street.
Where she stopped the sign read: “Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.”④ Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath.
“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take your hat of and let us have a look at it.”
Down came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, liftin the hair with an experienced hand.
“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
Th next two hours went by as if they had wings. Della looked in all the stores to choose a gif for Jim.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. It was a chain—simple round rings of silver. It was perfect for Jim’s gold watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be for him. It was like him. Quiet and with great value. She gave the shopkeeper twenty-one dollars and she hurried home with the eighty-seven cents that was left.
When Della arrived home she began to repair what was lef of her hair. Th hair had been ruined by her love and her desire to give a special gift Repairing the damage was a very big job.
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny round curls of hair that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy. She looked at herself in the glass mirror long and carefully.
“If Jim does not kill me before he takes a second look at me,” she said to herself, “he’ll say I look like a song girl. But what could I do—Oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”
At seven o’clock that night the coffe was made and the pan on the back of the stove was hot and ready to cook the meat.
Jim was never late coming home from work. Della held the silver chain in her hand and sat near the door. The she heard his step and she turned white for just a minute. She had a way of saying a little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.”
(To be continued)
(794 words)
① Magi 麦琪，单数为Magus。据《圣经》记载，麦琪是圣婴耶稣出生时从东方前来朝圣送礼的三个贤人，他们分别赠送了三件礼物—黄金、乳香和殁药，分别代表着尊贵、神圣和先知（预示基督受难而死）。
② Negotiating until one’s face burned with the silent knowledge of being poor. 软磨硬泡直到她面红耳赤，勉强维护着心底源于贫困的自尊。
本句为省略句，被省略的句子成分与上一句话相同。
③ 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. 假如富裕的示巴女王也住在他们的公寓里，总有一天德拉会把头发披散下来，露出窗外晾干，使那女王的珠宝黯然失色。
本句使用虚拟语气的倒装形式。
④ Where she stopped the sign read: “Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” 她走到一块招牌前停下来，只见上面写着：“索弗罗妮夫人—专营各式头发”。
goods n.(pl) 商品
1. Which of the following words can best describe Della?
A. Shrewd.B. Cautious.C. Indecisive.D. Devoted.
2. How do you interpret the underlined phrase in Paragraph 4?
A. Something that makes Della feel honored to be Jim’s wife.
B. Something that makes Jim look honorable.
C. Something that shows Della’s deep love for her husband Jim.
D. Something that is very expensive and glamorous.
3. Why did Della cry before she sold her hair?
A. Because she valued her hair so much and couldn’t stand losing it.
B. Because she felt sorry that they can’t affor to show their love for each other.
C. Because she was having second thoughts about buying a gif for Jim.
D. Both A and B.
4. What can you infer about Jim from the story?
A. He doesn’t like Christmas gifts
B. He is a devoted and responsible husband.
C. He thinks Della looks childish without her long hair.
D. He doesn’t earn much money.
5. If you were Della, would you do the same for your spouse? Why or why not?
What will happen after Jim comes back? Write down your own ending and compare it with the original story in the next reading lesson.