The Gift of the Magi, Part 3: Jim's PackageThe look in Jim’s eyes was not anger, or surprise, or disapproval, or horror. It was not any of the feelings she had prepared herself for. He simply stared at her with that strange look on his face. Della jumped down from the table and went to 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 live 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 slowly, as if he still could not understand this plain fact, even after the hardest thinking. “Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well anyway? I’m still me without my hair, aren’t I?” Jim looked around the room curiously. “You say your hair is gone?” he said, almost like a fool. “You don’t need to look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you. Sold and gone. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, because it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted,” she went on, suddenly serious and sweet, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?” Jim seemed to wake quickly from his dream. He took his Della in his arms. For ten seconds, let us politely look at something else in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year: what is the difference? A mathematician or a clever person would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark sentence will be explained later. Jim took a small package out of his overcoat pocket and threw it on the table. “Don’t make any mistake about me, Dell,” he said. “I don’t think there’s anything like a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you open that package, you may see why I stood there like that at first.” Della’s white fingers quickly tore at the string and the paper. And then there was a scream of joy. And then, oh dear, the joy quickly changed to tears and loud crying, and the man of the house had to use all his power to comfort her.
