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THE FIR-TREE.
and each net was filled with sweetmeats ; gilt apples
and walnuts hung down from others, as it they had
grown there; and above a hundred tapers—white, blue,
and red—were fastened to the branches. Beneath the
green leaves were placed dolls, that looked, for all the
world, like living creatures. The tree had never seen
any such before; and on the topmost summit was
fastened a star, all over spangles, that was right royally
splendid to behold.
“This evening it will shine most gloriously !” they
all said.
“Oh!” thought the tree, “if it were hut evening !
If the tapers could but be lighted! And then what is
to be done next? If wonder whether the trees from
our forest will come and admire me? And whether
the sparrows will peep in through the window-panes ?
And whether I have taken root here, and shall re-
main decked out in this fashion through both winter
and summer?”
These reflections were all very well, only the tree's
longings were so intense, that his bark ached again
through impatience ; and darkache is just as bad for a
tree as headache is with us.
At length the tapers were lit; and a grand sight it
was, to be sure. The tree trembled so in all hus
branches, that one of the tapers set fire to the leaves
and regularly singed them.
“Help! help!” shrieked the young ladies, as they
hastily extinguished the flame.
So the tree endeavoured not to tremble again,
frightened as he was—for he was most anxious not
to lose any of his ornaments—and though bewildered
by so brilliant a scene. And now the folding-doors
were thrown open, and in rushed a whole troop of
children, as though they would overturn the tree,
while their elders followed in a more leisurely manner.
The little ones stood dumb-struck for a moment, and
then directly after set up such shouts of joy, that the
room rang with the sound. They danced round the
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