L2-3-2

She put on her coat and her old brown hat. With a quick motion and brightness still in

her eyes, she danced out the door and down the street.

Where she stopped, the sign read Madame Sathronya.

Hair goods of all kinds.

Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath.

Will you buy my hair, asked Della?

I buy hair, said Madame.

Take your hat off and let us have a look at it.

Down came the beautiful brown waterfall of hair.

Twenty dollars, said Madame, lifting the hair with an experienced hand.

Give it to me quick, said Della.

The next two hours went by as if they had wings.

Della looked in all the stores to choose a gift for Jim.

She found it at last.

It surely had been made for Jim and no one else.

It was a chain, simple, round rings of silver.

It was perfect for Jim's gold watch.

As soon as she saw it, she knew that it must be for him.

It was like him, quiet and with great value.

She gave the shopkeeper twenty -one dollars and she hurried home with the eighty -seven cents that was left.

When Della arrived home, she began to repair what was left of her hair.

The hair had been ruined by her love and her desire to give a special gift.

Repairing the damage was a very big job.

Within forty minutes, her head was covered with tiny round curls of hair

that made her look wonderfully like a schoolboy.

She looked at herself in the glass mirror long and carefully.

If Jim does not kill me before he takes a second look at me, she said to herself,

he'll say I look like a song girl.

But what could I do? What could I do with a dollar and eighty -seven cents?

At seven o 'clock that night, the coffee was made,

and the pan on the back of the stove was hot and ready to cook the meat.