关于生死的短篇小说
❶ 罗生门讲的是什么
《罗生门》讲述了藤暮时分，罗生门下，一个家奴正在等侯着雨停，当他茫然不知所措，仿若于生死未决时，偶遇以拔死人头发为生的一老妪，走投无路的家奴邪恶大发，决心弃苦从恶，剥下老妪的衣服逃离了罗生门。
在一个战争年代，一个被主人赶出来的仆人，思想上正在做强盗和被饿死之间挣扎。这时正巧走到一个到处都堆满死尸的地方，也就是叫做罗生门的地方，他壮起胆子，想进去找到一些财物。结果他竟然发现有一个衣衫褴褛的老妇人正在从一个年轻女子的死尸头上拔头发。
他冲上去说你这个没人性的，竟然对死尸也不放过。老太婆解释说她只是想用这些头发做个头套谋生罢了。他说“曾经这个妇人，用蛇肉晒干当做鱼干来卖，吃了鱼干的人们觉得很好吃，妇人得以维持生计。我并不觉得这妇人做错了，她跟我一样都是为了生存啊！”
于是，仆人大悟了，既然是为了生存，还有什么不可以的？于是，他就抢了老太婆的衣服逃走了，并且从那以后再也没人见过他。
(1)关于生死的短篇小说扩展阅读：
《罗生门》是日本作家芥川龙之介1915年创作的短篇小说，情节取材于日本古典故事集《今昔物语》。
作品虽以旧题材创作的历史小说，却被赋予了一定的寓意，描写了社会最底层顽强挣扎着继续生存的民众，而并非单纯意义上的历史小说。
作品影响：
《罗生门》以柳川隆之介的笔名，发表于大正4年（1915）的《帝国文学》上，之后芥川龙之介将其创作的短篇小说集也取名为《罗生门》。在其后的作品中芥川再也设有用过柳川窿之介这一笔名，而且在其第一部短篇小说集《罗生门》中除了《罗生门》外，所有以柳川隆之介发表的作品都没有收录。从这一点上，读者就可以看出小说《罗生门》在芥川文学中的重要位置。
参考链接：网络-罗生门
❷ 莫言的主要作品有哪些
莫言，生于1956年，山东高密人，主要作品有长篇小说集《红高粱家族》、《丰乳肥臀》、《天堂蒜苔之歌》，中短篇小说集《透明的萝卜》、《爆炸》等。中篇小说《红高粱》是莫言的代表作品，发表于《人民文学》1986年第3期，获1985～1986年全国优秀中篇小说奖。后据此改编的同名电影于1988年在西柏林国际电影节上获金熊奖。
❸ 张爱玲小说简介 张爱玲小说介绍
1、《倾城之恋》是张爱玲最脍炙人口的短篇小说之一。是一篇探讨爱情、婚姻和人性在战乱及其前后，怎样生存和挣扎的作品。
故事发生在香港，上海来的白家小姐白流苏，经历了一次失败的婚姻，身无分文，在亲戚间备受冷嘲热讽，看尽世态炎凉。偶然认识了多金潇洒的单身汉范柳原，便拿自己当做赌注，远赴香港，博取范柳原的爱情，要争取一个合法的婚姻地位。两个情场高手斗法的场地在浅水湾饭店，原本白流苏似是服输了，但在范柳原即将离开香港时，日军开始轰炸浅水湾，范柳原折回保护白流苏。狂轰滥炸，生死交关，牵绊了范柳原，流苏欣喜中不无悲哀，够了，如此患难，足以做十年夫妻。
2、《茉莉香片》是现代作家张爱玲创作的短篇小说，发表于1943年7月《杂志》第11卷第4期，收入1944年8月上海杂志社《传奇》，现收录于小说集《倾城之恋》。
该小说讲述了一个普通青年学生聂传庆寻找自己内心真正父亲的故事。小说借由一个畸形的下一代受害者形象进行自剖，影射了20世纪40年代上海“阴郁少年”的境遇。
3、《红玫瑰与白玫瑰》是现代作家张爱玲创作的中篇小说，首次发表于1944年， 中国大陆地区版本收录于同名小说集。
该小说讲述了主人公佟振保与两个女人的情感纠葛。作为情妇的“红玫瑰”娇蕊，以及妻子“白玫瑰”烟鹂，她们都在振保身上倾注了大量感情，在恋情中卑微妥协，而振保爱自己更胜他人，最终还是负了她们，三人为爱身陷囹圄，不得善终。小说生动地呈现了新旧交替时期人们的生活情感和婚姻状态，对这两位女性的行为和心理变化大量着墨，通过跌宕曲折的故事情节，再现了女性在男权意识统治的社会下生活的困境，揭示了悲剧产生的根源。
❹ 推荐一些小说吧
你可以去专门的论坛找 神罚论坛 TXT之梦 派派小说论坛 都是只要注册个帐号就可以免费下载小说 里面的分类也很明确 ，每1部都有内容介绍和试阅 很容易找到想要的
❺ 莫言蛙的内容梗概
《蛙》这部小说的叙事缘起是日本作家杉谷义人到“我”（蝌蚪）的故乡与当地文学爱好者畅谈文学。在结识了“我”的姑姑之后，杉谷义人鼓励当地文学爱好者以姑姑为素材写出感人的作品。受杉谷义人启发，“我”决定向法国作家萨特看齐，以姑姑的一生为素材创作一部话剧。“我”遵照杉谷义人的嘱咐，先以书信的方式把姑姑的故事写给杉谷义人。
当时，随着国家市场经济搞活，“我”的小学同学陈鼻成了村里有名的万元户；他的老婆，小侏儒王胆怀了第二胎。王胆一直躲藏着，直到临产的时候，乘着一张竹筏想逃到外地去生下腹中的胎儿。在经过一番惊心动魄的追逐后，姑姑的计划生育队在河上追上了逃跑的王胆。王胆羊水破裂，姑姑在竹筏上给她接生了一个女婴，但王胆却不幸死去。
王仁美不幸死后，姑姑做媒，我娶了姑姑的助手小狮子，但没再生育。岁月匆匆，时光荏苒。经过二十多年的计划生育，国家终于控制住了人口暴增的局面。“我”和小狮子也退休回到了故乡。这时的故乡正在发生天翻地覆的、走向城市化的巨变，高密东北乡胶河两岸正在进行着前所未有的大开发：花园、大小超市、盲人按摩院、美容院、商场、农贸市场、中美合资妇婴医院等等大城市有的东西，在这里也都涌现出来。“我”的小学同学袁腮开办了牛蛙养殖场；王胆的哥哥王肝成了泥塑艺人秦河的助手；姑姑也嫁给了另一老实巴交的泥塑艺人郝大手。王肝送给我一套《高密东北乡奇人系列》DVD。通过这张DVD，“我”了解了姑姑之所以嫁给郝大手的原因。在姑姑被宣布退休的那天晚上，姑姑喝醉了，她摇摇晃晃地往回走，结果走到了一片洼地。在月光下，蛤蟆、青蛙呱呱地叫着。姑姑想逃离那些蛙叫声，但蛙声追逐着她；她一边嚎叫一边奔跑，最后遇上了郝大手。
退休之后，姑姑对生命，尤其是对婴儿和胎儿生命的观念也在发生变化。晚年的姑姑对生命生发出了中国传统母亲式的大悲悯，并且表现出一个乡村医生对神秘生命的沉重思考。她把想象中的那些她引流过的婴儿形象描述给丈夫——一个民间泥塑艺人，通过丈夫的手，捏成泥人，祈愿用这种方式来弥补她对那些没能来到人世的婴儿的歉疚。但与此同时，姑姑也用她那双善于接生的手参与着各种各样的接生。
在发生了巨变的故乡，“我”在一家名为“堂吉诃德”的餐馆遇到了落魄潦倒的陈鼻。当年英俊的陈鼻，此时头顶光秃，衣着古怪，装扮成了塞万提斯笔下的愁容骑士堂吉诃德，拿着话剧演员的腔调，在餐馆里招徕客人；但是因为有酒瘾和烟瘾，还带着一条寸步不离的癞皮狗，所以并不讨人喜欢。陈鼻的两个性情高洁的女儿——陈耳和陈眉——曾是高密东北乡最美丽的姐妹花，她们到南方一家毛绒玩具厂打工，结果在一场震惊全国的大火中，陈耳被烧成焦炭，陈眉烧毁了面容。种种变故使陈鼻变得有些疯疯癫癫，甚至想带着他的狗扑倒车轮下面寻死。
随着人们生活条件的变化和商品经济的突飞猛进，一些超生的方式也“与时俱进”，越来越令人惊叹。在高密东北乡，袁腮以牛蛙养殖公司为幌子，组织了一批“代孕女”为那些想要生男孩的人代孕。年逾五旬的小狮子耍花招把“我”的精液注入一个“代孕女”体内，并使其怀孕；而这个“代孕女”就是王胆在竹筏上给陈鼻生下了那个女儿，在南方那家毛绒玩具厂烧毁面容的陈眉。“我”一下子陷入前所未有的矛盾纠结中：五十五岁的“我”，糊里糊涂又要做父亲了；更何况，“我”和陈眉，这简直是乱伦啊；“我”想找出办法让怀孕数月的陈眉做药物引产，但“我”年轻时曾因此断送了妻子王仁美的性命，这是“我”心中最痛的地方，是“我”永难赎还的罪过。在跟一位老同学倾诉了这一切，并听了那位老同学的一番劝解后，“我”在心理上慢慢接受了现实；“我”甚至把陈眉所怀的孩子想象成王仁美曾经怀的那个在手术台上夭折婴儿的投胎转世，并以老来得子的喜悦迎来了儿子的诞生。
在叙述从20世纪50年代到当下这些故事的过程中，作为小有名气剧作家的“我”，也为自己以姑姑一生为素材创作的话剧找到了灵感。当下生活中的许多事件和“我”要创作的剧本中的故事纠缠在一起，使“我”已经分不清剧本中哪些是纪实，哪里些虚构。而且在与杉谷义人的通信交往中，“我”内心中的赎罪心理也日渐加重，“我”甚至把写作当成了一种赎罪的方式。在寄给杉谷义人的剧本中，“我”把前面的叙述延伸到了如梦如幻的话剧舞台上。这是一部具有荒诞色彩的，融合了诙谐、戏谑、调侃、反讽、嬉闹、灵魂独白、戏中戏等文体风格的话剧。在剧本中，生下孩子的陈眉因为孩子被抱走而精神失常，到处寻找自己的孩子，甚至闯进公安派出所去诉冤。“我”一家子给代孕生的孩子“金娃”办满月宴席时，陈眉闯进来抢走“金娃”，跑进一个以民国时期县衙大堂为背景的电视戏剧片拍摄现场。经过“县长”一番颇具讽刺意味的断案后，“金娃”回到了小狮子的怀抱。在话剧的最后一幕，姑姑展开了内心的剖白：她经常回想起那些因计划生育而死去的女人和她接生过的孩子。
❻ 经典短篇小说介绍
文学变革时期，短篇文体往往更易于实现艺术实验和探索的诉求。新时期是中国文学发展的重要转型阶段，在各种文学观念不断更新、文学思潮不断更迭的过程中，短篇小说呈示出诸多艺术创新的显著特征，在很大程度上起到了文学变革的“先导性”作用。以下是我介绍给大家的关于经典短篇小说，希望大家喜欢!
经典短篇小说介绍：
1、《乞力马扎罗的雪》
作者：海明威
豆瓣评分：8.5分
(2965人评价)
内容简介|
本书收录了海明威的十一篇短篇佳作。雪山上的豹子，河边的垂钓人，咖啡厅中的老者……十一个貌似淡薄的故事蕴含了人世间言不尽的沧桑。海明威独特的“冰山”式文风在他的短篇小说中得到了最佳的呈现。
2、《都柏林人》
作者：詹姆斯·乔伊斯
豆瓣评分：8.5分
(2011人评价)
内容简介|
本书15篇故事，以写实和讽刺的表现手法描绘了二十世纪初期都柏林中下阶层的生活，瘫痪和死亡贯穿全书。
3、《变形记》
作者：卡夫卡
豆瓣评分：8.3分
(18693人评价)
内容简介|
卡夫卡描写了人一夜之间变成大甲虫的荒诞故事，嘲讽了人和人之间的冷漠和赤裸裸的金钱关系。
4、《九故事》
作者：J. D. 塞林格
豆瓣评分：8.5分
(5342人评价)
内容简介|
《九故事》是J.D.塞林格的代表作，也是世界公认的当代经典短篇小说集。在他的笔下，儿童与成年人再也无法互相沟通，柔柔的讽喻却是在这一个世界中的生活艺术。
5、《罗生门》
作者：芥川龙之介
豆瓣评分：8.6分
(11270人评价)
内容简介|
本书收录芥川的中短篇小说共十三篇。《罗生门》以风雨不透的布局将人推向生死抉择的极限，从而展示了“恶”的无可回避，第一次传递出作者对人的理解，对人的无奈与绝望。
6、《大教堂》
作者：雷蒙德·卡佛
豆瓣评分：8.5分
(7742人评价)
内容简介|
卡佛短篇小说集《大教堂》获得普利策奖提名，是公认的巅峰之作。它的作品致力于描摹美国平民的生活，表现小人物日常生活的变质，表现普通人被生活打得遍体鳞伤后的孤独与沉默。
7、《小径分岔的花园》
作者：博尔赫斯
豆瓣评分：9.1分
(3157人评价)
内容简介|
侦探小说形式下的小说艺术革新之作。本书叙述了中国博士余准在第一次世界大战中替德国人充当间谍的故事。“小说—花园—迷宫”的脉络第一次出现在博尔赫斯的作品中。
值得你深夜躲在被窝里啃的10篇短篇小说介绍：
1、 阿城《棋王》
这应该是我喜爱的第一篇短篇小说。这篇小说也一度被称之为寻根文学的代表作品。在近几年流行的“冯唐金线”里，这篇小说也被纳入了金线之内。初看小说的动机多半源自我自己本身对象棋的爱好。后来发现，其实小说中真正讲棋的内容并不多，反倒是讲述了“”时代，被隐藏的“特殊人才”的命运与挣扎。后来我看了小说改编的电影，虽然总体并不如意，但几个重要桥段却十分精彩。但更精彩的还是小说，人物描写的神形兼备，情节的扣人心弦，至今回味无穷。
2、 史铁生《命若琴弦》
史铁生大部分的作品里，都隐藏着对自身命运的愤怒与无奈。尽管它被文学的厚重包裹的很好，但是仍然可见他对生活的诘问。这篇小说，他以盲艺人的角度却剖析一个五光十色的世界，然后强调“希望”的重要性，又同时证明着希望本身的虚妄。在这样人物自身制造矛盾的缝隙里，窥探人性骨子里的坚韧与辛酸。这像是一则人类通用的寓言，也是光明与黑暗相互撕扯的写真。史铁生从未假惺惺的歌颂人生的阳面，或者单纯斥责生活的阴面，在他的笔下，人生就是枚转动的硬币，忽明忽暗，永不停息。
3、 郁达夫《春风沉醉的晚上》
很难想象，一个作家能把颓废压抑的情绪，冰冷残酷的环境写得如此浪漫和唯美。郁达夫总是把冷色调的环境和低潮期的人物境遇写得细腻入微，意蕴悠长。这篇小说情节看起来极其薄弱，但感情丰富，人物内心的雕刻鬼斧神工，借助着深夜的春风，将一个落魄文人的辛酸与浪漫写得扑朔迷离。其中折射着当时社会的颓唐，人性的善良和对关爱的渴望。小说看起来是似乎是消极的，又似乎是积极的，似乎是乐观的，又似乎是悲观的。似乎是表达着命运的不可逆转性，又似乎在透露某种生活的希望。像是一扇破败的窗户里，亮起的幽幽灯火。
4、 余华《世事如烟》
余华的文笔利索而有力，宛如刻刀。他早期的“先锋文学”作品风格独树一帜，风靡一时。其中这篇小说就极具代表性。这篇小说是篇逻辑相当混乱的小说，真至于说，它根本就没有逻辑。全篇以各种怪力乱神的情节和描写拼凑而成，甚至是人物都只是用数字作为代号。看起来没有主题，没有情感张力，没有思想寄托，甚至没有人物形象。那么本来它应该极其枯燥而无味，但相反的是它散发这一种诡异、荒诞、讳莫如深的文学气质，让人喘不过气来。在这样的文字里，读者的想象力和个人见解也获得无限的发挥空间。
5、 斯蒂芬·茨威格《一个陌生女人的来信》
这篇小说很早听说，读过后不得不惊叹。茨威格竟然能将一封以女人口吻的信件写得如此牵动人心。小说的情节虽然细碎而缜密，但是基本没有跌宕与大开大合的反转，是极其难推动的。但是茨威格的文字魅力在于，能借助人物内心的描写将整个时间的跨度交代地清晰透彻，其中的悲欢离合不疾不徐的缓缓道来，仿佛书中人就与读者隔桌而坐。这篇小说是茨威格的代表作品，徐静蕾甚至改编成了同名电影。小说中透露着对爱情的敬畏与怜惜，亦掺杂着对人情似纸的怨怼与悲悯。
6、 天下霸唱《北大荒狼灾记》
很多人只知道天下霸唱的《鬼吹灯》，但很少人知道他其余的作品。在我看来，天下霸唱虽然是网络作家出身，但是天赋异禀，讲故事的能力在很多专业作家的之上。他擅长怪力乱神、虚实结合的故事架构，承袭了古典小说对人物描写的方式，生动活泼，精彩纷呈。虽然论文学的造诣，他并不算上乘，但是由于用文字讲故事的天赋极高，所以其作品有着不可取代的地位。这篇小说仅仅是讲了一个狼灾的故事，但起承转合流畅无阻，情节的一波三折，人物的个性鲜明，以及细节的弦外之音，极具民俗文学的瑰丽色彩。
7、卡尔维诺《弄错的车站》
老狼所唱的《弄错的车站》便是根据卡尔维诺这篇小说创作而来的。这是篇几乎无“指向性”的小说，内容简单异常，只讲了一个人出门，然后坐错了一趟车，然后看见了意外的景象。但是如此单薄的脉络里，卡尔维诺将其填充地迷离与诗意，通过环境的烘托，人物的心理活动，铺叙了一种生活随处存在的偶尔性与不确定性。在这样的偶尔和不确定中，人物获得的意外风景与身心体会，往往打破了生活的沉闷，平添了别样的姿彩。这篇小说下笔淡，似乎没有刻意强调某种寓意，但是整体弥漫的诗意又轻而易举的让人浮想联翩。
8、 吴忠全《秋草黄》
吴忠全属于少有的具有写作天赋的青年作家。但他的作品良莠不齐，长篇小说写得几乎都不好，反倒是部分短篇有一部分写得老练异常，颇有大家之风。这篇小说收录在《再没什么比生命更寂寥》里，这也是我认为他最好的一本书。书里定义为散文，但实际上更接近小说。情节并不复杂，讲述了一个男人因为思念前女友，回到老家与之相见，寻找失落的记忆。但是物是人非，前女友已经有了新的归宿。他与前女友约会、吃饭、散步，但是都与旧时落差之大，一切都回不去了。全篇对话极少，但渲染与白描极其到位，无声胜有声。
9、 曾楚桥《余生》
邂逅这篇小说是在火车站的小报摊上，火车行至午夜十分看到了这篇小说，惊艳不已。小说让人极容易想起王家卫。因为小说的对白和构图极具王家卫电影的风格。小说只有一男一女两个人物，他们的相遇、经历、结局，都有着一种强烈的宿命色彩，像是一种概念性的存在，落笔一直悬在空中，导致情节显得空荡，不切实际。但这种写法的魅力就在于将真实的生活虚化，在人物的内心世界无限放大，通过简短、机锋似的对白，勾勒了情到痴狂处的执念、疯狂与荒凉。作者的写作语感极好，最后收尾的对话让人不禁动容，久久难以释怀。
10、听潮天外《聋子听哑巴说瞎子看见了》
虽然这小说的作者现在还名不见经传，但是并不妨碍我对这篇小说的喜爱。小说中少年有三位老朋友，一个聋子，一个哑巴，一个瞎子，通过与这三个老朋友的际遇，勾勒了一幅浮生若梦的情感画卷，透露着一种对人生、岁月静然窥探的灵气。小说的语言诗化，长短句交错，人物的存在不为写实，更像是作为符号存在。全篇氤氲着一种人与人之间缘分的游离感。人物的飘零、苦闷、善良，与这个世界的格格不入导致了出世与入世的冲突，在冲突的最后，岁月无声又包囊了一切，人物随着时间的推移也获得了自我的救赎与内心的通达。
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❼ 世界著名短篇小说
THE GIFT OF THE
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 graally subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 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 ring 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 introced 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 lly 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 doesn'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 pier-glass 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 87 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 doesn'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, and there 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, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again--you won'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 don'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. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without my hair, ain't I?"
Jim looked about the room curiously.
"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.
"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"
And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The ll precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over 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."
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.
"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."
The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of plication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.