Short Stories of Various Types | Page 6

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 for 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 then 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 dull 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 hand
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 duplication. 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. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest.
Everywhere they are the wisest. They are the magi.

BOOTH TARKINGTON
A Reward of Merit
I
Penrod and Sam made a gloomy discovery one morning in
mid-October. All the week had seen amiable breezes and fair skies until
Saturday, when, about breakfast-time, the dome of heaven filled solidly
with gray vapor and began to drip. The boys' discovery was that there is
no justice about the weather.
They sat in the carriage-house of the Schofields' empty stable; the
doors upon the alley were open, and Sam and Penrod stared torpidly at
the thin but implacable drizzle which was the more irritating because
there was barely enough of it to interfere with a number of things they
had planned to do.
"Yes; this is nice!" Sam said, in a tone of plaintive sarcasm. "This is a
perty way to do!" (He was alluding to the personal spitefulness of the
elements.) "I'd like to know what's the sense of it--ole sun pourin' down
every day in the week when nobody needs it, then cloud up and rain all
Saturday! My father said it's goin' to be a three days' rain."
"Well, nobody with any sense cares if it rains Sunday and Monday,"
said Penrod. "I wouldn't care if it rained every Sunday as long as I lived;
but I just like to know what's the reason it had to go and rain to-day.
Got all the days o' the week to choose from and goes and picks on
Saturday. That's a fine biz'nuss!"
"Well, in vacation----" Sam began, but at a sound from a source
invisible to him he paused. "What's that?" he said, somewhat startled.
It was a curious sound, loud and hollow and unhuman, yet it seemed to
be a cough. Both boys rose, and Penrod asked uneasily, "Where'd that
noise come from?"
"It's in the alley," said Sam.

Perhaps if the day had been bright, both of them would have stepped
immediately to the alley doors to investigate; but their actual procedure
was to move a little distance in the opposite direction. The strange
cough sounded again.
"Say!" Penrod quavered. "What is that?"
Then both boys uttered smothered exclamations and jumped, for the
long,