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.
麥琪的禮物
一美元又加八十七美分，這就是她所有的錢，其中六十美分還是硬幣。她買東西時，通過和雜貨店老闆、賣菜的和賣肉的面紅耳赤地討價還價，不惜被人揹地裏罵小氣，一次省下一兩個硬幣。她數了三回，還是原來那個數，然而明天就是聖誕節了—需要花錢的日子！
毫無疑問。她除了撲倒在小沙發上，嚎啕大哭以外，啥事都幹不了。德拉就是這麼幹的，讓人不由得深思生活的本質：生活是由嗚咽，抽泣和微笑構成的，而抽泣的時候卻佔了大多數。