Summary of "The Gift Of The Magi", by O. Henry

The Next day would be Christmas, but Della only had one dollar and eighty-seven cents despite trying her best to save up for it. Della had badly wanted to buy a gift for Jim for Christmas, but could not do so with the amount of money she had. Jim took a pride in to posscessions of his, that is had father's gold watch that had been handed down by his granfather and the other, Della's long hair. To buy a gift for Jim, Della sold her hair for twenty dollars. Della than bought a platanium fob chain to suit Jim's watch. 

On Christmas day, when Jim entered the house and saw Della had cut her hair short, he stared at her with a shocked expression that terrified Della. Della only understood why Jim had reacted that way when Jim gave her the expensive combs that she had longed for. Della than gave Jim the Dandy that was meant for his watch, it was than that Jim broke the news to her that he had sold the watch to buy the combs for her.

In the end, Della bought a Dandy for Jim who had no watch and Jim bought a set of combs for Della who had cut her hair short. Both Gave the other a better gift but caused them to lose even more than what they originally had.

The full story of "The Gift Of The Magi", by O. Henry can be found at this link: 

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_of_the_Magi.html