Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and Della had only one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy her husband Jim a gift. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Now, Mister and Missus James Dillingham Young had two possessions which they valued. One was Jim's gold time piece, the watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. 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 Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." Della ran up the steps to the shop, out of breath. "Will you buy my hair?" asked Della. "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 found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. It was a chain--- simple round rings of silver. She gave the shopkeeper twenty-one dollars and she hurried home with the remaining eighty-seven cents. ...... Jim was never late coming home from work. Della held the silver chain in her hand and sat near the door. Then she heard his step and she turned white for just a minute. She had a way of saying a 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. He stopped inside the door, as immovable  as a dog smelling a bird. His eyes were fixed upon Della. There was an expression in them that she could not read, and it frightened her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor fear, nor any of the feelings that she had been prepared for. He simply looked at her with a strange expression on his face. Della went to him. "Jim, my love," she cried, "do not look at me that way. I had my hair cut and sold because I could not have lived through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow out again. I just had to do it. My hair grows very fast. Say 'Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let us be happy. You do not know what a nice-- what a beautiful, nice gift I have for you." "You have cut off your hair?" asked Jim, slowly, as if he had not accepted the information even after his mind worked very hard. "Cut it off and sold it," said Della. " I tell you--sold and gone, too. It is Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it was cut 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 meat on, Jim?" Jim seemed to awaken quickly and put his arms around Della. Then he took a package from his coat and threw it on the table. "Do not make any mistake about me, Dell," he said. "I do not think there is any haircut that could make me like my girl any less. But if you will open that package you may see why you had me frightened at first." There were the beautiful combs, made of shells, with jewels at the edge ----just the color1 to wear in the beautiful hair that was no longer hers. She held the combs to herself, and soon she was able to look up with a smile and say, "My hair grows so fast, Jim!" Then Della happily held the silver chain out to him in her open hands. It seemed so bright. "Dell," said Jim, smiling, "let us put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They are too nice to use just right now. I sold my gold watch to get the money to buy the set of combs for your hair. And now, why not put the meat on." What is most clearly the message of the story?
Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. It is better to give than to receive. True unselfish love is greater than possessions. Make new friends, but keep the old.