ay before
Christmas of some recent year, in an atmosphere of poverty, but a
poverty made radiant by unselfish love. The plot of one main
incident--Della's sacrifice of her hair in order to get a Christmas
present for her husband--takes place in the short space of a few hours,
and works out to a half-humorous, half-pathetic climax, when Della and
Jim display their Christmas gifts for each other. This story has a
conclusion of one paragraph in length where the author reflects upon
what makes a real Christmas giver.

This is the skeleton of the story, but when you think it over, you will
realize that the real charm and interest for you lay in something that
the genius and style of the writer infused into this framework of the
story.

Suggestions. In the composition work that you do during the
weeks that you are reading the short stories in this volume would it
not be interesting to you to try to write stories with little plots
that lead up to some high point of interest, stories of a single main
incident or a closely related series of events covering a short space
of time?

You will find that the stories in this collection are of different
types with settings that take you in imagination all over our own
country and into foreign lands. Try writing a story with a surprise
ending like "The Gift of the Magi," a character story with the theme of
unselfish love, and its setting in a big city. Again, "John G," the
story of adventure with an animal for the hero, might suggest to you an
adventuresome incident in your own experience. If you have a vivid
imagination, it might be interesting to write a fanciful story like
"Feathertop." All of you have heard of true and thrilling incidents of
the recent Great War. Try to weave one into a good war story as did
Daudet or Mrs. Andrews. Almost every young person loves nature or the
open country. After you have read Mr. Garland's, "The Camping Trip,"
see how well you can tell a story of your own experience in the
out-of-doors. Or, best of all, see if you can equal the great Conan
Doyle in a detective story.

With the help of the biographical sketches and study notes, see if you
can classify, as types, the stories that have not been classified in
the preceding paragraph.

SHORT STORIES

O. HENRY

The Gift of the Magi[11-1]

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 bulldozing the
g