在圣诞佳节来临之际，欧·亨利的小说《麦琪的礼物》无疑是一篇值得回味的经典之作。这篇短篇小说通过讲述一对贫苦但深爱彼此的小夫妻如何为对方准备圣诞礼物的故事，展现了人性中最真挚的情感。

以下是《麦琪的礼物》的英文原文节选：

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 grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.

Jim and Della had two possessions which they were respectively proud of. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat above their room, she would have let her hair hang down and trimmed it herself rather than have it done by Della.

接下来是这段文字的中文翻译：

一元八角七分。这就是全部了。其中六角钱还是铜板。这些钱是一分一分从杂货商、菜贩和肉贩那里硬讨来的，每次交易都让吉姆的脸颊因为隐含的吝啬指责而发烫。

吉姆和德拉各自拥有一件引以为豪的东西。一件是吉姆祖传的金表；另一件是德拉那头乌黑亮丽的秀发。要是示巴女王住在他们楼上的公寓里，她也会放下自己的头发，自己修剪，而不是交给德拉打理。

欧·亨利以其独特的叙述风格和出人意料的结局闻名，《麦琪的礼物》正是这样一部作品。它不仅描绘了爱情的伟大，也揭示了生活的艰辛与无奈。