CHRISTMAS DAY
[DECEMBER 25] Good stories for great holidays : arranged for story-telling and
reading aloud and for the children's own reading | ||
4. IV
IN THE ATTIC
“Now all the finery will begin again,” thought the Pine. But they dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the attic; and here in a dark
“'T is now winter out-of-doors!” thought the Tree. “The earth is hard and covered with snow; men cannot plant me now; therefore I have been put up here under cover till spring! How thoughtful that is! How good men are, after all! If it were not so dark here, and so terribly lonely! Not even a hare. Out there it was so pleasant in the woods, when the snow was on the ground, and the hare leaped by; yes—even when he jumped over me; but I did not like it then. It is terribly lonely here!”
“Squeak! squeak!” said a little Mouse at the same moment, peeping out of his hole. And then another little one came. They snuffed about the Pine Tree, and rustled among the branches.
“It is dreadfully cold,” said the little Mouse. “But for that, it would be delightful here, old Pine, would n't it!”
“I am by no means old,” said the Pine Tree. “There are many a good deal older than I am.”
“Where do you come from?” asked the Mice; “and what can you do?” They were so very curious. “Tell us about the most beautiful spot on earth. Have you been there? Were you ever in the larder, where cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances about on tallow candles; where one goes in lean and comes out fat?”
“I don't know that place,” said the Tree. “But I know the wood where the sun shines, and where the little birds sing.”
And then he told his story from his youth up; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they listened and said, “Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have been!”
“I!” said the Pine Tree, and he thought over what he had himself told. “Yes, really those were happy times.” And then he told about Christmas Eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.
“Oh,” said the little Mice, “how lucky you have been, old Pine Tree!”
“I am not at all old,” said he. “I came from the wood this winter; I am in my prime, and am only rather short of my age.”
“What delightful stories you know!” said the
“Who is Klumpy-Dumpy?” asked the little Mice.
So then the Pine Tree told the whole fairy tale, for he could remember every single word of it; and the little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats, even; but they said the stories were not amusing, which vexed the little Mice, because they, too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.
“Do you know only that one story?” asked the Rats.
“Only that one!” answered the Tree. “I heard it on my happiest evening; but I did not then know how happy I was.”
“It is a very stupid story! Don't you know one about bacon and tallow candles? Can't you tell any larder-stories?”
“No,” said the Tree.
“Thank you, then,” said the Rats; and they went home.
At last the little Mice stayed away also; and the Tree sighed: “After all, it was very pleasant when the sleek little Mice sat round me and heard what I told them. Now that too is over. But I will take good care to enjoy myself when I am brought out again.”
But when was that to be? Why, it was one morning when there came a number of people and set to work in the loft. The trunks were moved, the tree was pulled out and thrown down; they knocked him upon the floor, but a man drew him at once toward the stairs, where the daylight shone.
CHRISTMAS DAY
[DECEMBER 25] Good stories for great holidays : arranged for story-telling and
reading aloud and for the children's own reading | ||