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8 The Gift of the Magi

Warm Up

● Do you give gifts to your family on special days?

● Do you receive gifts from your near and dear ones? On what occasions?

● How do you feel when you receive gifts?

Reading skills

In the story, “Gift of the Magi” by O.Henry, Jim and Della are referred to as the Magi (meaning

wise people) because they showed wisdom and selfless love for each other.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. She had put it aside, one cent and then

another and then another. Della counted it three times. One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
And the next day would be Christmas. There was not a thing she could do, but fall on the bed

and cry. So Della did it.

Della finished her crying and cleaned the marks of it from her face. She stood by the window
and looked out with no interest. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had $ 1.87

with which to buy Jim a gift. She had put aside as much as she could for months, with this
result. Twenty dollars a week is not much. Everything had cost more than she had expected.

It always happened like that.

Only $ 1.87 to buy a gift for Jim! She had many happy hours planning something nice for
him. Something really good enough.

Suddenly, she turned from the window and stood before the looking-glass between the

windows of the room. Her eyes were shining brightly, but her face had lost its colour. Quickly,
she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its complete length.

Della and Jim were proud of two things which they owned. One was Jim’s gold watch. It had

once belonged to his father. And, long ago, it had belonged to his father’s father. The other
was Della’s hair. So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a falling stream of
brown water. It reached below her knee. It almost made itself into a dress for her. And then

she put her hair up on head again, nervously and quickly. Once she stopped for a moment

85 Arrow - English Plus-8