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The Christmas Present
Della was crying. As she cried, she counted her money. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies which Della saved one at a time. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas. Della finished crying, got up, and began to powder her face. She stood by the window and looked out with little interest at a grey fence in a gray back yard. Tomorrow would be Christmas day, and she had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents with which to buy Jim, her husband, a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she expected. They always are. Only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy a present for Jim. She had spent many happy hours planning for something nice for him, something fine and rare, something worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.