One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one or two at a time by bargaining at the grocery, at the bakery and the butcher's until one's cheeks burnt. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. Della wept.
They lived in a furnished flat at $8 per week. The place was shabby. In the hall below was a mailbox into which no letter Would go. There was an electric bell that did not work, with a card next to it beating the name "Mr James Dillingham Young".
Della finished crying and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out at a grey cat walking along a grey fence in a grey 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 does not 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 happy hours had she spent, planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare --something worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
There were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took great pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather' s. The other was Delia's hair.
Suddenly Della walked to the mirror. Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. She pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. So now Della's long, beautiful hair fell about her shoulders like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she quickly did it up again. She hesitated for a minute and stood still while a tear or two fell on the worn red carpet.
She put on her old brown jacket and her old brown hat, and ran out of the door and down the stairs to the street. She looked at several barbershops, and finally stopped at a sign that read: "Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." Della ran up one flight of stairs.
"Will you buy my hair?;' asked Della. "I buy hair," said Madame. "Take off your hat and let's have a look at it." Down flowed the brown cascade. "Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand. "Give it to me quick," said Della. The next two hours she was searching the stores for Jim's present.
She found it at last. It was really something that 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 gold watch chain. It was worthy of the Watch. As soon as she saw it, she knew that it must be Jim's. It was just right for him. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company.
When Della reached home she quickly sat down to do her hair. Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny curls that made her look like a little schoolgirl. She looked at herself in the mirror for a long time. "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 choir girl. But what could I do -- Oh! What could I do with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?" |