英文故事_The Gift of the Magi(附理解练习).docVIP

The Gift of the Magi O.Henry It was Christmas, and Della and Jim wanted to give each other special gifts. They had no extra money, but they each could sacrifice something dear. Once 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 bargaining with the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eight – seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. There was clearly nothing 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 rather looked as if it were “begging.” In the doorway 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.” But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mr. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good. Della finished her cry and attended to her cheek with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at the 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 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