In O. Henry's ironic short story, Jim and Della are an extremely poor couple who sell their most prized possessions in order to get each other expensive Christmas gifts, which turn out to be worthless. In order to buy Jim a fob for his valuable pocket watch that has been passed down through his family, Della sells her long, beautiful hair to Madame Sofronie for twenty dollars. Later that night, Della waits patiently for her husband to return home and worries that Jim will think she looks ugly without a full head of hair. When Jim arrives home and enters the door, he stares at his wife with a peculiar expression on his face. Soon after Jim sees his wife's haircut, the reader learns that Jim has bought Della an expensive set of combs. One can imagine that Jim is initially astonished and disheartened when he first discovers that Della has cut her hair, because the combs he bought her would be useless. After learning that Della sacrificed her hair to buy an expensive fob that he will not be able to use, Jim silently sits down for their Christmas dinner with a full heart of joy and appreciation for Della's love and sacrifice.