[00:06.48]READING
[00:07.26]A SACRIFICE FOR LOVE (1)
[00:08.86]One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
[00:11.86]That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
[00:14.81]Pennies saved one or two at a time by bargaining at the grocery,
[00:18.29]at the bakery and the butcher’s until one’s cheeks burnt.
[00:20.85]Three times Della counted it.
[00:22.80]One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
[00:24.76]And the next day would be Christmas. Della wept.
[00:27.27]They lived in a furnished flat at $8 per week.
[00:30.01]The place was shabby.
[00:31.32]In the hall below was a mailbox into which to letter would go.
[00:34.64]There was an electric bell that did not word,
[00:36.99]with a card next to it bearing the name “Mr James Dillingham Young”.
[00:40.23]Della finished crying and attended to her cheek with the powder rag.
[00:40.66]She stood by the window and looked out at a grey cat walking along a grey fence in grey backyard.
[00:45.36]Tomorrow would be Chirstmas Day ,
[00:47.32]and she had only ＄1.87 with which to buy Jim a present .
[00:50.74]She had been saving every penny she could for months, with his result.
[00:54.19]Twenty dollars a week does not go far.
[00:54.19]Expenses had been greater that she had calculated.
[00:56.88]They always are. Only ＄1.87 to buy a present for Jim.
[01:00.70]Her Jim. Many happy hours had she spent, planning for something nice for him.
[01:04.61]Something fine and rare-something worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
[01:05.80]There were tow possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took great pride.
[01:10.06]One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s.
[01:13.61]The other was Della’s hair.
[01:15.02]Suddenly Della walked to the mirror.
[01:16.88]Her eyes were shining, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds.
[01:20.30]She pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
[01:23.10]So now Della’s long, beautiful hair fell about her shoulders like a cascade of brown waters.
[01:27.28]It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her.
[01:27.85]And then she quickly did it up again.
[01:29.55]She hesitated for a minute and stood still while a tear or two fell on the worn red carpet.
[01:33.60]She put on her old brown jacket and her old brown hat,
[01:36.24]and ran out of the door and down the stairs to the street.
[01:38.93]She looked at several barbershops, and finally stopped at a sign that read: “Madame Sofronie.
[01:43.03]Hair Goods of All Kinds.”
[01:44.78]Della ran up on flight of stairs.
[01:46.58]“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
[01:48.62]“I buy hair,” said Madame.
[01:50.24]“Take off your hat and let’s have a look at it.”
[01:52.41]Down flowed the brown cascade.
[01:54.21]“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
[01:57.58]“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
[01:59.51]The next two hours she was searching the stores for Jim’s present.
[02:02.18]She found it at last. It was really something that had been made for Jim and no one else.
[02:06.62]There was no other like it in any of the stores,
[02:08.97]and she had turned all of them inside out.
[02:10.72]It was a gold watch chain.
[02:12.52]It was worthy of the Watch.
[02:14.40]As soon as she saw it, she knew that it must be Jim’s.
[02:17.25]It was just right for him.
[02:18.66]Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents.
[02:22.92]With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company.
[02:27.07]When Della reached home she quickly sat down to do her hair.
[02:30.02]Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny curls that made her look like a little schoolgirl
[02:34.25]She looked at herself in the mirror for a ling time.
[02:36.27]“It Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself,
[02:38.57]“before he takes a second look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island choir girl.
[02:42.14]But what could I do-Oh! What could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”
[02:46.25]INTEGRATING SKILLS
[02:46.25]Reading
[02:47.24]A SACRIFICE FOR LOVE (2)
[02:49.56]At seven o’clock the coffee was made and the pan was on the back of the stove,
[02:53.04]hot and ready to cook dinner.
[02:54.50]Jim was never late.
[02:55.88]Della doubled the watch chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door.
[02:59.59]When she heard his steps on the stairs away down on the first flight,
[03:02.62]she turned pale for just a moment.
[03:04.17]She had a habit for saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday thins,
[03:07.80]and now she whispered: “Please God,make him think I am still pretty.”
[03:11.35]The door opened. Jim stepped in and closed it.
[03:14.35]He looked thin and very serious.
[03:15.82]Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two-and to be burdened with a family!
[03:19.39]He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
[03:21.82]Jim stopped inside the door.
[03:23.42]His eyes were fixed upon Della,
[03:25.04]and there was an expression in them that she could not read.
[03:27.31]It terrified her.
[03:28.25]It was not anger, nor surprise, nor a look showing that he did not approve,
[03:32.04]nor horror, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for.
[03:35.33]He simply stared at her with that strange expression on his face.
[03:38.41]Della got up and walked towards him.
[03:40.06]“Jim honey,” She cried, “don’t look at me that way.
[03:42.54]I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present.
[03:46.90]It’ll grow again-you won’t mind, will you?
[03:49.20]I just had to do it.
[03:50.40]MY hair grows very fast.
[03:49.40]Say “Merry Christmas!”
[03:50.55]Jim and let’s be happy.
[03:51.73]You don’t know what a nice-what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”
[03:54.89]“You’ve cut off your hair?”asked Jim.
[03:57.81]“Cut it off and sold it”, said Della.
[03:59.56]Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow?
[04:01.31]I’m me without my hair, aren’t I?” Jim looked about the room.
[04:04.42]“You say your hair is gone?” he asked.
[04:07.77]“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It sold, I tell you-sold and gone.
[04:11.32]It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to, for you.
[04:14.85]Shall I put dinner on, Jim?”
[04:16.02]Jim seemed to awake.
[04:17.51]He hugged his Della.
[04:18.66]He drew a small package from him overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
[04:22.16]“Don’t make any mistake about me, Della,” he said.
[04:24.77]“I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shampoo that make me love my girl any less.
[04:29.29]Would you stop loving me if I’d had a shave?
[04:31.51]No. But if you open that package, you may see why I was upset at first.”
[04:35.38]Della tore at the string and paper.
[04:37.44]She gave a scream of joy, and then broke out in tears and cries.
[04:40.81]For there lay the combs-the set of combs that Della had been looking at so many times in a Broadway window.
[04:45.80]Beautiful combs, pure tortoiseshell,
[04:47.92]with jewels on the edges-just the right shade to wear in her beautiful hair.
[04:51.26]They were expensive combs, she knew, and she had dreamed that she could have them.
[04:54.89]And now, they were hers, but her hair had gone.
[04:57.19]However, she hugged them to her breast,
[04:59.04]and at length she was able to look up smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
[05:03.01]Just then Della jumped up and cried, “Oh, oh!” Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present.
[05:08.55]She held it out to him upon her open palm.
[05:10.62]The dull precious metal seemed to flash, as if reflecting her bright spirit.
[05:14.06]“Isn’t it grand, Jim?
[05:15.32]I hunted all over town to find it.
[05:17.20]Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it”.
[05:19.71]Instead of obeying, Jim threw himself down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
[05:24.64]“Della,” said he, “Let put our Christmas presents away and keep’em a while.
[05:28.25]They’re too nice to use just at present
[05:30.26]I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.
[05:32.30]So let’s forget about it now and have our dinner, shall we?’ |