THE GIFT OF THE MAGIby O. HenryJames: On our letter-box is a card bearing my name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."This was written when I was being paid $30 per week. Now, when my income has shrunk to $20, I am thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D..Della: Tomorrow is Christmas Day, and I have only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. I have been saving every penny I could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than I had calculated. Jim: 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.Della: 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.Della (reading the sign): "Mne. (Madame) Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.""Will you buy my hair?"Madame Sofronie: "I buy hair," "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it.""Twenty dollars,"Della: "Give it to me quick,"Della: I have found it at last. It is 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 is even worthy of The Watch.Della: I took my curling irons, lit the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. It took forty minutes and now my head is covered in tiny, close-lying curls that make me look like a truant schoolboy.(henry-b)Della: "If Jim doesn't kill me," "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?"It’s 7 o'clock and the coffee is made and the frying-pan is on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.Della:” I hear Jim on the first flight of steps.” - "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."{Jim comes in to the flat and stares at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face}Della: "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."Jim: "You've cut off your hair?"Della: "Cut it off and sold it, "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"Jim: "You say your hair is gone?"Della: "You needn't look for it,""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," "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"Jim: "Don't make any mistake, Dell," "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."Della: These are the set of combs that I worshipped in the Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims (--just the shade to wear in my beautiful vanished hair.) "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"Della: "Oh, oh!" Here’s your present. "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."Jim: "Dell," "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.