Type The Gift of the Magi from its first line, one part at a time.
WPMType each word and press space after it. No timer. The run ends with the text.Onedollarandeighty-sevencents.Thatwasall.Andsixtycentsofitwasinpennies.Penniessavedoneandtwoatatimebybulldozingthegrocerandthevegetablemanandthebutcheruntilone'scheeksburnedwiththesilentimputationofparsimonythatsuchclosedealingimplied.ThreetimesDellacountedit.Onedollarandeighty-sevencents.AndthenextdaywouldbeChristmas.Therewasclearlynothingtodobutflopdownontheshabbylittlecouchandhowl.SoDelladidit.Whichinstigatesthemoralreflectionthatlifeismadeupofsobs,sniffles,andsmiles,withsnifflespredominating.Whilethemistressofthehomeisgraduallysubsidingfromthefirststagetothesecond,takealookatthehome.Afurnishedflatat$8perweek.Itdidnotexactlybeggardescription,butitcertainlyhadthatwordonthelookoutforthemendicancysquad.Inthevestibulebelowwasaletter-boxintowhichnoletterwouldgo,andanelectricbuttonfromwhichnomortalfingercouldcoaxaring.Alsoappertainingthereuntowasacardbearingthename"Mr.JamesDillinghamYoung."The"Dillingham"hadbeenflungtothebreezeduringaformerperiodofprosperitywhenitspossessorwasbeingpaid$30perweek.Now,whentheincomewasshrunkto$20,thelettersof"Dillingham"lookedblurred,asthoughtheywerethinkingseriouslyofcontractingtoamodestandunassumingD.ButwheneverMr.JamesDillinghamYoungcamehomeandreachedhisflatabovehewascalled"Jim"andgreatlyhuggedbyMrs.JamesDillinghamYoung,alreadyintroducedtoyouasDella.Whichisallverygood.
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No timer: the run ends with the text, or when you press Finish. Words per minute is correct characters divided by five; accuracy is correct keystrokes out of all keystrokes.
Typing practice stories, whole: five short stories of 893 to 2,194 words, cut into 30 parts that end where a paragraph ends. No timer runs unless you pick one, and each part ends with your words per minute and accuracy.
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Type a story from start to finish
Type the part on screen; the run ends with the part. Under More options, choose the next one in the Passage menu. Every part is named with its story and number, as in The Open Window (2 of 5). 1 min, 3 min and 5 min add a clock.
The five typing practice short stories
The Gift of the Magi and After Twenty Years by O. Henry end on a surprise. The Open Window and The Lumber Room by Saki are comic and keep their British spellings. My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock is a comic sketch of a nervous man in a bank. All five come from books of 1906 to 1914.
A dash is typed as two hyphens, with no space before or after.
Questions and answers
Which is the shortest short story for typing practice here?
My Financial Career: 893 words in three parts. The Open Window is 1,208 words in five parts and After Twenty Years 1,261 in five. The Gift of the Magi has 2,064 words in eight parts and The Lumber Room 2,194 in nine.
Are these stories for typing practice free to use in class?
Yes. All five are in the public domain in the United States, from books of 1906, 1910 and 1914. There is no account, and what a student types is not sent anywhere.
Can I stop and come back to a typing practice story?
Yes. The page opens again on the part you last chose in the Passage menu, in the same browser. It does not move on by itself: when a part ends, choose the next one under More options before you leave.
Why are some words spelled the British way?
Each story keeps the spellings of the edition it was taken from. Saki's two were printed in London, so they have favourable and speciality. The O. Henry printing has grey and to-morrow, and Leacock writes cheque.
All 30 parts
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry: a Christmas story 8
The Gift of the Magi (1 of 8)A Christmas story with a twist: Della has one dollar and eighty-seven cents for her husband's present. Dollar signs and digits follow soon: $8, $30 and $20.
The Gift of the Magi (2 of 8)Della dries her eyes and looks out at a grey cat on a grey fence. Type grey and pier-glass as this edition prints them, and $1.87 with its point.
The Gift of the Magi (3 of 8)The two treasures of the house: Jim's gold watch and Della's hair. Capitals on the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon and Mme. Sofronie.
The Gift of the Magi (4 of 8)Two hours of shopping end at a platinum fob chain. The price is in words, Twenty-one dollars, and the change in digits, 87 cents.
The Gift of the Magi (5 of 8)Della waits by the door with the chain in her hand. The hour is in digits, 7 o'clock, and Jim is never late.
The Gift of the Magi (6 of 8)Della explains in a rush, with dashes where her sentences break and an apostrophe in almost every line.
The Gift of the Magi (7 of 8)Jim's package holds the set of combs Della had long admired in a Broadway window. Tortoise shell is two words here, and jewelled has a double L.
The Gift of the Magi (8 of 8)Jim's answer, then the paragraph on the magi that gives the story its name. In the body of the story the word has no capital.
Show all 30 parts (22 more)
The Open Window by Saki: a comic story with a sting 5
The Open Window (1 of 5)A comic story with a sting in its last line: a nervous visitor is left to wait with a girl of fifteen. The spellings are British, from a London edition: endeavoured, towards.
The Open Window (2 of 5)The girl learns that he knows nobody here and points to the open French window. Rectory has a small r; October has a capital.
The Open Window (3 of 5)Her tale of the three who walked out through the window, in long sentences with few stops. A dash is typed as two hyphens.
The Open Window (4 of 5)Mrs. Sappleton talks of shooting and Framton of his ailments, until she cries that they are here at last. Mrs. keeps its period both times.
The Open Window (5 of 5)The ending, and the girl's second tale. Hyphens in hall-door, gravel-drive and good-bye, and speciality in its British spelling.
After Twenty Years by O. Henry: a surprise ending 5
After Twenty Years (1 of 5)A story with a surprise at the end: a policeman on his beat finds a man waiting in a dark doorway. Digits early, in 10 o'clock, and a dash set as two hyphens.
After Twenty Years (2 of 5)The man tells of the appointment he made twenty years ago with his best friend. Capitals on New York, the West and Jimmy.
After Twenty Years (3 of 5)The two talk on until the policeman goes off down his beat. An apostrophe in nearly every line the man speaks: I'll, he'll, it's.
After Twenty Years (4 of 5)A fine, cold drizzle, and a tall man in a long overcoat hurries across the street. He calls the waiting man by name: Bob.
After Twenty Years (5 of 5)Arm in arm to the lights of a drug store, where each man sees the other's face. The story ends on a short note signed in capitals.
My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock: a comic sketch 3
My Financial Career (1 of 3)A comic sketch: a nervous man walks into a bank to open an account, and the manager takes him for a detective. Short sentences, with semicolons from the first line.
My Financial Career (2 of 3)He has fifty-six dollars to deposit, and says so. Nearly every paragraph is one short line of speech, so the quotation marks come thick. The detective agency's name takes a capital and an apostrophe.
My Financial Career (3 of 3)He means to draw six dollars and writes the wrong sum. Type cheque as this edition spells it. The last sentence says where he keeps his money now.
The Lumber Room by Saki: a boy outwits his aunt 9
The Lumber Room (1 of 9)A comic story of a boy who gets the better of his aunt. It starts with a frog in his bread-and-milk, and the hyphens in bread-and-milk come around again and again.
The Lumber Room (2 of 9)The other children are driven off to the sands and Nicholas stays at home in disgrace. More hyphens: boy-cousin and girl-cousin.
The Lumber Room (3 of 9)Nicholas reports on Bobby's tight boots, and the aunt forbids him the gooseberry garden. Quotation marks open and close most sentences.
The Lumber Room (4 of 9)While the aunt keeps watch on the garden, Nicholas fetches the key of the lumber-room. British spelling in unauthorised.
The Lumber Room (5 of 9)The longest part of this story: a tapestry of a huntsman, a stag and four wolves, in long sentences joined by semicolons.
The Lumber Room (6 of 9)More treasures: candlesticks in the shape of snakes, a teapot like a china duck and a book of birds. Then the aunt is heard from the garden.
The Lumber Room (7 of 9)The aunt has slipped into the rain-water tank and calls for the little ladder. Her last sentence breaks off on a dash, typed as two hyphens.
The Lumber Room (8 of 9)Nicholas argues with the voice from the tank and tests it with a question about strawberry jam.
The Lumber Room (9 of 9)Tea in a fearsome silence, and the end. Its one dash is typed as two hyphens with no spaces around it.
How this list was compiled: Five complete short stories chosen for this page, each first printed in a book before 1931. The Gift of the Magi and After Twenty Years by O. Henry, from The Four Million (first published by McClure, Phillips & Co., New York, 1906; the text is that of the A. L. Burt Company printing, New York, dated 1906, pages 16 to 25 and 214 to 220, as transcribed from a scan at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Four_Million/The_Gift_of_the_Magi and https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Four_Million/After_Twenty_Years). The Open Window and The Lumber Room by Saki (H. H. Munro), from Beasts and Super-Beasts (London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1914), in a transcription of that edition which agrees word for word with https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-Beasts/The_Open_Window and https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-Beasts/The_Lumber_Room. My Financial Career by Stephen Leacock, from Literary Lapses (first published 1910; the text is that of the John Lane Company printing, London and New York, 1919, as transcribed from a scan at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Literary_Lapses/My_Financial_Career). Dates were checked on 2026-10-02 against https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Four_Million (April 10, 1906), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_the_Magi (first printed in a newspaper on December 10, 1905), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Twenty_Years, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beasts_and_Super-Beasts (1914) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Leacock (Literary Lapses, 1910). Every story is whole, first word to last. The paragraphs were joined with single spaces and each story was cut at paragraph ends into parts of 172 to 408 words, as even as the paragraphs allow, so every part ends on a full sentence (one ends on a speech that breaks off at a dash). Changes to the text: curly quotation marks and apostrophes were set straight, each dash was set as two hyphens with no spaces around it, and the capitals that dress the first word of the two O. Henry stories were set as an ordinary capital and small letters. The two O. Henry stories were also compared word for word with a second transcription, and six slips of the first were put right from it: in The Gift of the Magi the period after said Della and the spelling of Christmas in Merry Christmas; in After Twenty Years an opening quotation mark before Big Joe, a double quotation mark before Three minutes to ten, of for cf in piece of paper, and to-night with its hyphen in this door to-night (the hyphen the story prints elsewhere). Everything else is as the editions print it: grey, labour, to-morrow and worshipped in the O. Henry, cheque in the Leacock, and the British spellings of the Saki. Characters and words were counted, characters divided by five give standard words (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute), every character is on a plain keyboard, no word is longer than 30 characters, and every word a note quotes is in its part. The notes are this page's own. Licence: Public domain in the United States: all five stories were published in books of 1906, 1910 and 1914, before 1931 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain_in_the_United_States). The cuts, the part names, the notes and the counts are own work.