Question

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. Three times Della counted it.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So
Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and
smiles, with sniffles predominating.

How did she get the money?


What does O. Henry mean by "with sniffles predominating"?

Answer 1

Dells got the money by trying to save some here and there. She negotiated prices when buying food, to try to get it for cheaper, “until one’s cheeks burned with the silent parsimony that such close dealing implied”. Parsimony means being very frugal.

O. Henry wrote, “life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles,” meaning that life is either very bad (sobs), very good (smiles), or somewhere in the middle (sniffles). Della is in a situation where she feels defeated and can’t fix things in time. When O. Henry says, “with sniffles predominating” it means that life is mostly full of disappointment.