The Gift of the Magi

The Gift of the Magi

by O. Henry

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This story was originally published on Dec 10, 1905 in The New York Sunday World as “Gifts of the Magi.” It was subsequently published as The Gift of the Magi in O. Henry’s 1906 short story collection The Four Million.

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 left 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 look-out 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, the letters of “Dillingham” looked blurred, as 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 grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. To-morrow 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 honour 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 Bat. 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 colour 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 of 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 cluttered out of the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: “Mme Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One Eight 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 78 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 little silent prayers 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 with out gloves.

Jim stepped 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 it 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 labour.

“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 a 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. I his 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 for 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.

Sumber: http://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/the-gift-of-the-magi

The Gift of the Magi
oleh O. Henry
Cerita ini awalnya diterbitkan pada 10 Desember 1905 di The New York Minggu Dunia sebagai “Hadiah dari orang Majus.” Hal ini kemudian diterbitkan sebagai The Gift of the Magi pada tahun 1906 kumpulan cerita pendek O. Henry Empat Juta.

SATU DOLAR DAN delapan puluh tujuh sen. ITU SEMUA. DAN ENAM SEN dari itu dalam sen. Uang yang disimpan satu dan dua pada satu waktu dengan pentraktoran toko kelontong dan orang sayuran dan daging sampai pipi seseorang dibakar dengan tuduhan diam kekikiran yang dekat seperti Dealing tersirat. Tiga kali Della menghitungnya. Satu dolar dan delapan puluh tujuh sen. Dan hari berikutnya akan Natal.

Ada jelas tidak ada yang tersisa untuk dilakukan, tetapi gagal di atas sofa sedikit lusuh dan melolong. Jadi Della melakukannya. Yang instigates refleksi moral yang hidup terdiri dari isak tangis, pilek, dan tersenyum, dengan pilek mendominasi.

Sementara nyonya rumah secara bertahap mereda dari tahap pertama ke kedua, kita lihat di rumah. Sebuah datar dilengkapi di $ 8 per minggu. Itu keterangan tidak benar-benar pengemis, tapi jelas memiliki kata pada tampilan-out untuk skuad tindakan belas kasih.

Di ruang depan di bawah ini adalah surat-kotak di mana ada surat akan pergi, dan tombol listrik yang ada jari manusia bisa membujuk cincin. Juga appertaining tambahan lagi adalah kartu bertuliskan nama “Pak James Dillingham Young.”

The “Dillingham” telah dilemparkan ke angin selama periode mantan kemakmuran ketika pemiliknya sedang dibayar $ 30 per minggu. Sekarang, ketika pendapatan itu menyusut sampai $ 20, surat-surat “Dillingham” tampak kabur, seolah-olah mereka berpikir serius tertular ke sederhana dan sederhana D. Tapi setiap kali Pak James Dillingham Young datang ke rumah dan mencapai nya datar di atas dia disebut “Jim” dan sangat dipeluk oleh Ibu James Dillingham Young, sudah diperkenalkan kepada Anda sebagai Della. Yang semua sangat baik.

Della selesai menangis dan menghadiri pipinya dengan kain bubuk. Dia berdiri di dekat jendela dan melihat keluar datar pada kucing abu-abu berjalan pagar abu-abu di halaman belakang abu-abu. Besok akan menjadi hari Natal, dan ia hanya $ 1,87 yang dapat digunakan untuk membeli Jim hadiah. Dia telah menabung setiap sen yang dia bisa selama berbulan-bulan, dengan hasil ini. Dua puluh dolar seminggu tidak pergi jauh. Biaya sudah lebih besar daripada yang dihitung. Mereka selalu berada. Hanya $ 1,87 untuk membeli hadiah untuk Jim. Jim nya. Banyak happy hour dia telah menghabiskan berencana untuk sesuatu yang baik untuknya. Sesuatu yang baik dan langka dan sterling – sesuatu yang hanya sedikit dekat untuk menjadi layak kehormatan yang dimiliki oleh Jim.

Ada dermaga-kaca antara jendela ruangan. Mungkin Anda telah melihat dermaga-kaca di $ 8 Bat. Seseorang yang sangat tipis dan sangat lincah mungkin, dengan mengamati bayangannya di urutan cepat strip memanjang, mendapatkan konsepsi yang cukup akurat dari penampilannya. Della, yang ramping, telah menguasai seni.

Tiba-tiba dia berbalik dari jendela dan berdiri di depan kaca. Matanya bersinar cemerlang, tapi wajahnya telah kehilangan warna dalam waktu dua puluh detik. Dengan cepat ia ditarik ke bawah rambutnya dan membiarkannya jatuh ke panjang penuh.

Sekarang, ada dua harta dari James Dillingham Youngs di mana mereka berdua mengambil kebanggaan perkasa. Salah satunya adalah arloji emas Jim yang telah ayahnya dan kakeknya. Yang lainnya adalah rambut Della. Memiliki Ratu Sheba tinggal di flat di airshaft, Della akan membiarkan rambutnya menggantung keluar dari jendela beberapa hari kering hanya terdepresiasi perhiasan dan hadiah Ratu. Seandainya Raja Salomo menjadi petugas kebersihan, dengan semua harta nya menumpuk di ruang bawah tanah, Jim akan mengeluarkan jamnya setiap kali ia melewati, hanya untuk melihat dia memetik janggutnya dari iri.

Jadi sekarang rambut indah Della jatuh tentang dia, beriak dan bersinar seperti riam air coklat. Mencapai bawah lutut dan membuat sendiri hampir pakaian untuknya. Dan kemudian dia melakukannya lagi gugup dan cepat. Setelah dia terhenti selama satu menit dan berdiri masih sementara atau dua air mata memercik di karpet merah usang.

Pada pergi jaket cokelat tuanya; pada pergi topi coklat tua. Dengan pusaran rok dan dengan kilauan cemerlang masih dalam matanya, dia berantakan keluar dari pintu dan menuruni tangga ke jalan.

Dimana dia berhenti tanda baca: “Mme Sofronie Rambut Barang Segala Macam..” Satu Delapan up Della berlari, dan dikumpulkan dirinya, terengah-engah. Madame, besar, terlalu putih, dingin, hampir tidak tampak “Sofronie.”

“Apakah Anda membeli rambut saya?” tanya Della.

“Saya membeli rambut,” kata Madame. “Ambil topi yer off dan mari kita melihat pada kelihatannya.”

Bawah berdesir kaskade coklat.

“Dua puluh dolar,” kata Madame, mengangkat massa dengan tangan terlatih.

“Berikan padaku cepat” kata Della.

Oh, dan dua jam berikutnya tersandung oleh pada sayap kemerahan. Lupakan metafora hash. Dia menggeledah toko untuk hadir Jim.

Dia menemukan itu pada akhirnya. Ini pasti telah dibuat untuk Jim dan tidak ada orang lain. Tidak ada yang lain seperti itu di salah satu toko, dan dia telah berubah semua dari mereka dalam ke luar. Itu rantai fob platinum sederhana dan suci dalam desain, benar menyatakan nilainya dengan substansi sendiri dan bukan oleh ornamen lacur – seperti semua hal yang baik harus dilakukan. Itu bahkan layak The Watch. Begitu dia melihat itu ia tahu bahwa hal itu harus Jim. Itu seperti dia. Ketenangan dan nilai – deskripsi diterapkan baik. Dua puluh satu dolar yang mereka ambil dari dia untuk itu, dan ia bergegas pulang dengan 78 sen. Dengan rantai di arlojinya Jim mungkin benar cemas tentang waktu di setiap perusahaan. Grand seperti menonton itu, ia kadang-kadang melihatnya diam-diam karena tali kulit tua yang ia gunakan di tempat dari rantai.

Ketika sampai di rumah Della keracunan nya memberi jalan sedikit ke kehati-hatian dan alasan. Dia keluar pengeriting rambut dan menyalakan gas dan mulai bekerja memperbaiki kerusakan yang dilakukan oleh kemurahan hati ditambahkan untuk mencintai. Yang selalu merupakan tugas yang luar biasa teman-teman – tugas raksasa.

Dalam empat puluh menit kepalanya ditutupi dengan kecil, dekat-berbaring ikal yang membuatnya terlihat luar biasa seperti anak sekolah membolos. Dia menatap bayangannya di cermin panjang, hati-hati, dan kritis.

“Jika Jim tidak membunuhku,” katanya pada dirinya sendiri, “sebelum ia mengambil kedua melihat saya, dia akan mengatakan saya terlihat seperti paduan suara gadis Coney Island Tapi apa yang bisa saya lakukan -. Oh apa yang bisa saya! lakukan dengan dolar dan delapan puluh tujuh sen? “

Pada 07:00 kopi dibuat dan penggorengan berada di belakang kompor panas dan siap untuk memasak daging.

Jim tidak pernah terlambat. Della dua kali lipat rantai fob di tangannya dan duduk di sudut meja dekat pintu yang dia selalu masuk. Lalu dia mendengar langkahnya di tangga pergi ke bawah pada penerbangan pertama, dan ia berbalik putih untuk sesaat. Dia memiliki kebiasaan mengatakan sedikit doa diam tentang hal-hal sehari-hari yang paling sederhana, dan sekarang dia berbisik: “. Tolong, Tuhan, membuatnya berpikir saya masih cukup”

Pintu terbuka dan Jim melangkah masuk dan menutupnya. Dia tampak kurus dan sangat serius. Sesama miskin, dia hanya dua puluh dua – dan dibebani dengan keluarga! Dia membutuhkan mantel baru dan ia dengan keluar sarung tangan.

Jim melangkah masuk pintu, sebagai bergerak sebagai setter di aroma puyuh. Matanya tertuju pada Della, dan ada ekspresi di dalamnya bahwa dia tidak bisa membaca, dan takut padanya. Itu tidak marah, atau kejutan, atau ketidaksetujuan, atau horor, atau salah satu sentimen bahwa ia telah dipersiapkan untuk. Dia hanya menatapnya lekat-lekat dengan ekspresi aneh di wajahnya.

Della berdiri dari meja dan pergi untuk dia.

“Jim, Sayang,” serunya, “tidak melihat saya seperti itu. Saya memiliki rambut saya dipotong dan menjualnya karena aku tidak bisa hidup melalui Natal tanpa memberikan hadiah. Ini akan tumbuh lagi–Anda tidak akan keberatan, akan Anda? aku hanya harus melakukannya. Rambutku tumbuh sangat cepat. Say ‘Merry Christmas! “Jim, dan mari kita bahagia. Anda tidak tahu apa yang bagus-apa yang indah, hadiah bagus aku punya untuk Anda. “

“Kau memotong rambutmu?” tanya Jim, susah payah, seolah-olah dia belum tiba di fakta paten Namun, bahkan setelah kerja mental yang paling sulit.

“Potong itu dan menjualnya,” kata Della. “Apakah kamu tidak menyukai saya sama saja, bagaimanapun? Aku adalah aku tanpa rambut saya, bukan saya?”

Jim tampak tentang ruang anehnya.

“Anda mengatakan rambut Anda hilang?” katanya, dengan udara hampir dari kebodohan.

“Anda tidak perlu mencarinya,” kata Della. “Ini dijual, saya katakan -… Dijual dan pergi, terlalu Ini malam Natal, anak Jadilah baik padaku, untuk itu pergi untuk Anda Mungkin rambut di kepalaku diberi nomor,” ia melanjutkan dengan rasa manis yang serius tiba-tiba , “namun tak seorang pun bisa menghitung cinta saya untuk Anda. Haruskah aku meletakkan daging pada, Jim?”

Dari trance-nya Jim tampak dengan cepat untuk bangun. Dia merengkuh Della nya. Selama sepuluh detik mari kita menganggap dengan pengawasan bijaksana beberapa objek ngawur ke arah lain. Delapan dolar seminggu atau satu juta tahun – apa bedanya? Seorang ahli matematika atau kecerdasan akan memberikan jawaban yang salah. Majus membawa hadiah berharga, tapi itu tidak di antara mereka. Aku pernyataan gelap akan diterangi nanti.

Jim menarik paket dari saku mantel dan melemparkannya di atas meja.

“Jangan membuat kesalahan, Dell,” katanya, “tentang saya. Saya tidak berpikir ada sesuatu di jalan potong rambut atau bercukur atau sampo yang bisa membuat saya seperti gadis saya kurang. Tapi jika Anda akan membukanya bahwa paket Anda dapat melihat mengapa Anda telah saya akan beberapa saat pada awalnya. “

Jari putih dan lincah mengoyak string dan kertas. Dan kemudian jeritan gembira sukacita; dan kemudian, sayangnya! perubahan feminin cepat menangis histeris dan ratapan, yang memerlukan kerja langsung dari semua kekuatan menghibur dari penguasa yang datar.

Untuk ada berbaring The Combs – set sisir, samping dan belakang, bahwa Della menyembah lama di jendela Broadway. Sisir yang indah, murni kura-shell, dengan rims permata – hanya tempat teduh untuk memakai rambut lenyap indah. Mereka adalah sisir mahal, ia tahu, dan hatinya itu hanya mendambakan dan merindukan atas mereka tanpa harapan paling kepemilikan. Dan sekarang, mereka miliknya, tapi rambutnya yang seharusnya menghiasi perhiasan didambakan itu pergi.

Tapi dia memeluk mereka ke dadanya, dan akhirnya ia mampu melihat dengan mata redup dan senyum dan berkata: “Rambutku tumbuh begitu cepat, Jim!”

Dan kemudian Della melompat seperti kucing hangus sedikit dan menangis, “Oh, oh!”

Jim belum terlihat hadir cantik. Dia memegangnya kepadanya dengan penuh semangat pada telapak tangannya. Logam mulia kusam tampaknya flash dengan refleksi semangat cerah dan bersemangat nya.

“Bukankah itu bagus, Jim? Aku diburu di seluruh kota untuk menemukan itu. Anda harus melihat pada saat itu seratus kali sehari sekarang. Beri aku menonton Anda. Saya ingin melihat bagaimana tampilannya di atasnya. “

Alih-alih mematuhi, Jim jatuh di atas sofa dan meletakkan tangannya di bawah bagian belakang kepalanya dan tersenyum.

“Dell,” katanya, “mari kita Natal kami menyajikan diri dan menjaga mereka sementara waktu. Mereka terlalu baik untuk menggunakan hanya saat ini. Aku menjual jam untuk mendapatkan uang untuk membeli sisir Anda. Dan sekarang kira Anda menempatkan daging di. “

Majus, seperti yang Anda tahu, adalah orang-orang bijak – laki-yang luar biasa bijaksana membawa hadiah kepada Babe di palungan. Mereka menciptakan seni memberikan hadiah Natal. Menjadi bijaksana, hadiah mereka tidak diragukan lagi yang bijaksana, mungkin bantalan hak istimewa pertukaran dalam kasus duplikasi. Dan di sini saya telah pincang berhubungan dengan Anda babad lancar dari dua anak bodoh di sebuah flat yang paling dikorbankan untuk saling harta terbesar rumah mereka. Namun dalam kata terakhir bijak hari ini biarkan dikatakan bahwa semua orang yang memberikan hadiah kedua adalah yang paling bijaksana. Dari semua yang memberi dan menerima hadiah, seperti mereka yang paling bijaksana. Di mana-mana mereka paling bijaksana. Mereka adalah orang-orang majus itu.

Sumber: http://americanliterature.com/author/o-henry/short-story/the-gift-of-the-magi