the gifts （礼物）
作者：潘彩英
the gifts
mon.：tomorrow will be christmas. but della feels very sad. because she has no money to buy a present for her husband , jim . she has only one dollar and eighty-seven cents . they have only 20 dollars a week, it doesn’t leave much for saving.
in fact, della and jim have two possessions in which they both take very great pride. one is jim’s gold watch, which has been his father’s and his grandfather’s. the other is della’s long beautiful hair.
d: life is so hard for me. though i saved the money for many months , i still have only one dollar and eighty seven cents.
d: i---- i---- i have to have my hair cut and sold it . in that way i can get some money and i can buy a beautiful present for jim.
(at the shop—“madame sofronie. we buy hair goods of all kinds”)
d: will you buy my hair?
m: yes, i buy all kinds of hair. sit down, please. take your hat off and let me have a look. oh, very beautiful. very good! twenty dollars , ok?
d: all right. but please give it to me quickly.
m: here you are. twenty dollars.
d: thank you. bye.
m: bye.
mon.：della spent two hours in the streets. then she stopped at a gold shop and bought a gold watch chain. now ,della is at home.
d: oh, what a beautiful gold watch chain. i think it must match jim’s watch. when he sees it he must be very happy .
(suddenly the door opened and in came jim . )
j: you-----?
d: jim. don’t look at me that way. i had my hair cut off and sold it because i couldn’t have lived through christmas without giving you a present. jim, it will grow quickly. you don’t mind, do you ? i just had to do it. my hair grows very fast, you know. say “merry christmas!” jim, and let’s be happy.
j: you’ve cut off your hair?
d: i’ve cut it off and sold it. it’s sold. i tell you -sold and gone, too. it’s christmas eve , jim. be good to me, for it went for you.
j: well , della. don’t make any mistake about me. i don’t think there’s anything about a hair cut that could make me love you any less. i know, it went for me. look at this package .
d: what ?
j: look at it yourself. you ’ll see.
d:ah! the combs. they were in the shop windows for many months!
j:yes, the beautiful combs, pure tortoiseshell, with jewelry rims--just the color to wear in your beautiful, hair.
d: but , jim. they are expensive combs. i know, my heart had longed for them without the least hope of possession. now they are mine. thank you jim.
j; now, you will see why i was upset at first.
d: jim, you don’t know what a nice –what a beautiful , nice gift i’ve got for you. can you guess?
j: i’m sorry. i won’t guess.
d: look. a gold watch chain. isn’t it lovely ,jim? i hunted all over the town to find it. you’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. give me your watch. i want to see how it looks on it .
j: della, let’s put our christmas gifts away and keep them a while. they’re too nice to use just at present. i sold the watch to get the money. and i bought the combs. now, let’s have our supper.
礼 物
事实上，德拉和吉姆有两件让他们引以为豪的宝贝，一件是吉姆的金表，那是从他祖父和父亲那里留传下来的，还有一件是德拉那一头棕发，又长又美丽。
德拉：生活对我来说很困难，虽然我很多个月以前就开始存钱了，我仍然只有1.87美元。
德拉：我……我……我不得不剪了头发去卖掉，那样我就能得到一些钱去买礼物给吉姆了。
（在店门口，写着“夫人：我们买各种各样的头发”）
德拉：你买我的头发吗？
夫人：是的，我们买各式的头发，把你的帽子脱下来，让我看一下你的头发。哦，很美的头发，很好的发质，20美元，行不行？
德拉：好的，但是请你快点把钱给我。
夫人：给你，20美元。
德拉：谢谢你，再见。
夫人：再见。
旁白：德拉在街上逛了2个小时，然后她在一家金店止步，进去买了一条金表链。现在德拉正在家里。
德拉：哦，多么漂亮的金链子，我想那一定跟吉姆的手表很配，当他看到它的时候，一定会很高兴的。
（突然门打开了，吉姆走了进来）
吉姆：你……？
德拉：吉姆，不要那样看着我，我剪了我的头发并卖了，因为我无法度过一个我不送你圣诞节礼物的圣诞节，吉姆，它会长得很快的，你不会介意的，是不是？我必须这么做，我的头发长得很快的，这你是知道的，说：“圣诞快乐！”，吉姆，让我们高兴起来。
吉姆：你剪了你的头发？
德拉：我剪了头发并卖了，它被卖掉了，我跟你说它被卖掉了，没有了！现在是圣诞节前夜，对我好一点，吉姆，那都是为了你。
吉姆：哦，德拉，别误会我，我想我不会因为你剪了头发而对你的爱就减少了，我知道，那是为了我，看看这个包裹。
德拉：什么？
吉姆：你自己看吧！你会明白的。
德拉：啊，是梳子！它们就是几个月前陈列在橱窗里的那套。
吉姆：是的，那套漂亮的梳子，镶珠宝的，那颜色正好配你的发色。
德拉：但是，吉姆，那些都是很贵的，我知道，我一直渴望但却没有丝毫的奢望拥有它。现在，它们是我的了，谢谢你，吉姆。
吉姆：现在，你知道我为什么一开始就那么悲伤了吧。
德拉：吉姆，我给你买了一件又美丽又好的礼物，你能猜出来吗？
吉姆：对不起，我不想猜。
德拉：看，一条金表链，吉姆，它是不是很可爱？我找遍了整个城才找
的，你从现在起可得一天要看一百次时间了。把你的表给我，我
想看一下表链装在表上的样子。
吉姆：德拉，让我们把圣诞礼物收起来珍藏一段时间，它们太好了，但我
们现在用不着，我把表卖了。得到了钱才买了这梳子。现在让我们
吃晚饭吧！
