One dollar and eighty seven cents . That was all . And sixty cents of it was in pennies . Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one 's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied . Three times Della counted it . One dollar and eighty seven cents . And the next day would be Christmas . There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl . So Della did it . Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs , sniffles , and smiles , with sniffles predominating . While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second , take a look at the home . A furnished flat at eight dollars per week . It did not exactly beggar description , but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad . In the vestibule below was a letter box into which no letter would go , and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring . Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name " Mr. James Dillingham Young . The Dillingham had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $ 30 per week . Now , when the income was shrunk to $ 20 , though , they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D . But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called " Jim " and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young , already introduced to you as Della . Which is all very good . Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag . She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray 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 n't 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 a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him . Something fine and rare and sterling something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim . There was a pier glass between the windows of the room . Perhaps you have seen a pierglass in an $ 8 flat . A very thin and very agile person may , by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips , obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks . Della , being slender , had mastered the art . Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass . Her eyes were shining brilliantly , but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds . Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length . Now , there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride . One was Jim 's gold watch that had been his father 's and his grandfather 's . The other was Della 's hair . Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft , Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty 's jewels and gifts . Had King Solomon been the janitor , with all his treasures piled up in the basement , Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed , just to see him pluck at his beard from envy . So now Della 's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters . It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her . And then she did it up again nervously and quickly . Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet . On went her old brown jacket ; on went her old brown hat . With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes , she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street . Where she stopped the sign read : " Mne . Sofronie . Hair Goods of All Kinds . " One flight up Della ran , and collected herself , panting . Madame , large , too white , chilly , hardly looked the " Sofronie . " " Will you buy my hair ? " asked Della . " I buy hair , " said Madame . " Take yer hat off and let 's have a sight at the looks of it . Down rippled the brown cascade . " Twenty dollars , " said Madame , lifting the mass with a practised hand . " Give it to me quick , " said Della . Oh , and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings . Forget the hashed metaphor . She was ransacking the stores for Jim 's present . She found it at last . It surely 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 platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design , properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation as all good things should do . It was even worthy of The Watch . As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim 's . It was like him . Quietness and value the description applied to both . Twenty one dollars they took from her for it , and she hurried home with the eighty seven cents . With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company . Grand as the watch was , he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain . When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason . She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love . Which is always a tremendous task , dear friends a mammoth task . Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny , close lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy . She looked at her reflection in the mirror long , carefully , and critically . " If Jim does n't kill me , " she said to herself , " before he takes a second look at me , he 'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl . But what could I do oh what could I do with a dollar and eighty seven cents ? " At 7 o ' clock the coffee was made and the frying pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops . Jim was never late . Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered . Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight , and she turned white for just a moment . She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things , and now she whispered : " Please God , make him think I am still pretty . " The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it . He looked thin and very serious . Poor fellow , he was only twenty two and to be burdened with a family . He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves . Jim stopped inside the door , as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail . His eyes were fixed upon Della , andthere was an expression in them that she could not read , and it terrified her . It was not anger , nor surprise , nor disapproval , nor horror , nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for . He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face . Della wriggled off the table and went for him . " Jim , darling , " she cried , " do n't look at me that way . I had my hair cut off and sold because I could n't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present . It 'll grow out again you wo n'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 do n't know what a nice what a beautiful , nice gift I 've got for you . You 've cut off your hair asked Jim , laboriously , as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor . Cut it off and sold it , " said Della .