"The Gift of the Magi" from The Four Million
by O. Henry (excerp
1) 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 buldoring the grocer and
the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks bumed with the silent imputation of parsimony that such
close dealing implied. Three times Dells
counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven
cents. And the next day would be Christmas
2) 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, sniffes, and smiles, with sniffles predominating
3) While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A fumished flat at $8 per week. It did not
xactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad
4) 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 ung to the breeze during a former period of
rosperity when its possessor
was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "
Daingham looked blurred, as though
Select the correct answer
Which line from the text best reprefents Della's perspective of her situation at the beginning of the passage?
A. In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could comxa
ring
B. There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl.
C. 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
D
It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad