through the windows in the town below. We know where they are gone. Oh, you cannot think what honor is done to them! We looked through the windows and saw them planted in a warm room, and decked out with such beautiful things: gilded 5 apples, sweets, playthings, and hundreds of bright candles!"

"And then?" asked the Fir Tree, shaking in every branch; "and then? what happened then ?"

"Oh, we saw no more! That was beautiful, beautiful beyond anything we have ever seen," chirped the sparrows. 10 "Is such a glorious' lot to be mine?" cried the Fir Tree in its great joy. "This is far better than sailing over the sea. How I long for the time! Oh, I wish that Christmas was come! I am now tall and have many branches, like those trees that were taken away last year. Oh, I wish that I was in the warm room, 15 honored and adorned!"

"Enjoy our love!" said the air and the sunshine. "Enjoy your youth and your freedom!"

But be glad he would not. He grew taller every day. In winter and summer he stood there clothed in dark green leaves. 20 The people that saw him said, "That is a beautiful tree!" And next Christmas he was the first that was felled. The axe cut through the wood and pith, and the tree fell to the earth with a deep groan.

CHAPTER TWO

CHRISTMAS EVE

The Tree first came to himself when, in the courtyard to 25 which he had been taken with the other trees, he heard a man say: "This is a beautiful one, the very thing we want!"

Then came two finely dressed servants and took the Fir Tree into a large and beautiful drawing-room. Pictures hung on the walls, and on the mantelpiece stood large vases with lions on the 30 lids. There were rocking-chairs, silken sofas, tables covered with picture books and toys. The Fir Tree was placed in a large tub filled with sand. But no one could know it was a tub, for

it was hung with green cloth and stood on a rich, bright carpet, Oh, how the tree shook! What was to happen next?

Some young ladies, helped by servants, began to deck him. On some branches they hung little nets, cut out of pretty paper, 5 every net filled with sugar plums. From others gilded apples and walnuts were hung, looking just as if they had grown there. And hundreds of little wax tapers, red, blue, and white, were placed here and there among the branches.

Dolls that looked almost like men and women-the Tree 10 had never seen such things before-seemed dancing to and fro among the leaves, and high up, on the top of the tree, was tied a large star of gold tinsel. This was indeed beautiful, beautiful beyond anything the Tree had ever seen.

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"This evening," they said, "it will be lighted up."

"I wish it was evening," thought the Tree. "I wish that the lights were kindled, for then-what will happen then? Will the trees comes out of the forest to see me? Will the sparrows fly here and look in through the windows? Shall I stand here decked both winter and summer?"

All at once, the doors were flung open, and a troop of children rushed in as if they had a mind to jump over him. The older people came after more quietly.

The little ones stood silent, but only for a moment. Then they shouted with joy till the room rang again. They danced 25 round the Tree, and one present after another was torn down.

"What are they doing?" thought the Tree. "What will happen now?" The candles burnt down to the branches, and as each burnt down it was put out. The children were given leave to strip the Tree. They threw themselves on him till all 30 his branches creaked. If he had not been tied with the gold star to the roof he would have been overturned.

The children danced about with their beautiful playthings. No one but the old nurse thought of the Tree any more. She came and peeped among the branches, but it was only to see if 35 by chance a fig or an apple had been left among them.

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"A story! a story!" cried the children, pulling a little, fat man toward the Tree. "It is pleasant to sit under the shade of green branches," said he, sitting down. "Besides, the Tree may want to hear my story."

The little, fat man told the story of Humpty Dumpty who fell downstairs, and yet came to the throne and won the Princess. The Fir Tree in the meantime stood quite silent and thinking to himself. The birds in the forest had never told him any story like this.

"Who knows but I, too, may fall downstairs and win a Princess?" And he thought with joy of being next day decked out with candles and playthings, gold and fruit. And the Tree thought about this all night.

CHAPTER THREE

WINTER IN A GARRET

In the morning the maids came in. "Now begins my state 15 anew!" thought the Tree. But they dragged him out of the room, up the stairs, and into a garret, and there pushed him into a dark corner where not a ray of light could enter.

"What can be the meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? What shall I hear in this place?" And 20 he leant against the wall, and thought, and thought.

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"It is now winter," thought the Tree. "The ground is hard and covered with snow. They cannot plant me now, so I am to stay here in shelter till the spring. Men are so thoughtful! I only wish it were not so dark and so lonely!"

"Squeak! squeak!" cried a little mouse, just then coming forward. Another came after it. They snuffed about the Fir Tree, and then slipped in and out among the branches.

"It is very cold," said a little mouse, "or it would be quite nice up here. Don't you think so, you old Fir Tree ?”

"I am not old," said the Fir Tree; "there are many who are much older than I."

"How came you here?" asked the mice; "and what do you

know?" They seemed to wish to know all about everything, and they asked the Fir Tree a great many things. "Tell us about the most beautiful place on earth! Have you ever been there? Have you been into the storeroom, where cheeses lie on the 5 shelves, and hams hang from the roof; where one can dance over tallow candles; where one goes in thin and comes out fat?"

"I know nothing about that," said the Tree, "but I know the forest, where the sun shines and where the birds sing." And then he spoke of his youth and its joys. They listened very 10 closely, and said: "Well, to be sure, how much you have seen! How happy you have been !"

"Happy!" said the Fir Tree in surprise, and he thought a moment over all that he had been saying. "Yes, on the whole those were joyful times." He then told them about the Christ15 mas Eve when he had been dressed up with cakes and candles. "Oh,” cried the little mouse, "how happy you have been, you old Fir Tree !"

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'I am not old at all!" said the Fir. "It was only this winter that I left the forest. I am just at the best time of life."

"How well you can talk!" said the little mouse; and the next night they came again, and brought with them four other little mice, who wanted also to hear the Tree's history. And the more the Tree spoke of his youth in the forest, the more clearly he remembered it.

"Yes," said he, "those were happy times! But they may come back, they may come back! Humpty Dumpty fell downstairs, and yet for all that he won the Princess. Perhaps I, too, may win a Princess."

CHAPTER FOUR

THE FIR TREE REMEMBERS HAPPY DAYS

The mice never came again. The Tree sighed. "It was nice 30 when those busy little mice sat round me, listening to

my words.

Now that, too, is past. However, I shall have joy in remembering it, when I am taken from this place."

h

But when would that be? One morning people came and cleared out the lumber room. The trunks were taken away. The Tree, too, was dragged out of the corner. They threw him on the floor; but one of the servants picked him up and 5 carried him downstairs. Once more he beheld the light of day.

"Now life begins again!" thought the Tree. He felt the fresh air and the warm sunbeams—he was out in the yard. All happened so quickly that the Tree quite forgot to look at himself, there was so much to look at all around. The yard joined 10 a garden. Everything was so fresh and blooming. The roses were so bright and sweet-smelling. The lime trees were in full blossom, and the swallows flew backwards and forwards, twittering.

"I shall live! I shall live!" He was filled with joy and hope. 15 He tried to spread out his branches; but, alas! they were all dried and yellow. He was thrown down on a heap of weeds and nettles.

The star of gold tinsel that had been left on his crown now looked bright in the sunshine. Some children were playing in 20 the yard; they were the same children who had danced round the Tree. One of the youngest of them saw the gold star, and ran to tear it off.

"Look at this, still tied to the ugly old Christmas Tree!" cried he, trampling upon the branches until they broke under 1 25 his feet.

The Tree looked on the flowers of the garden, now blooming in all the freshness of their beauty. He looked upon himself, and he wished with all his heart that he had been left to wither in the dark corner of the lumber room. He called to mind his 30 happy forest life and the merry Christmas Eve.

poor Tree. "If I had but been Past, all past!"

the Tree into small pieces. She

"Past, all past!" said the happy, as I might have been! The servant came and cut then heaped them up, and set fire to them. The Tree groaned 35 deeply. The children all ran up to the place and jumped about