ant.

When the tree came to itself again it was packed in a yard with other
trees, and a man was saying, 'This is a splendid one, we shall only want
this.'

Then came two footmen in livery and carried the fir-tree to a large and
beautiful room. There were pictures hanging on the walls, and near the
Dutch stove stood great Chinese vases with lions on their lids; there
were armchairs, silk-covered sofas, big tables laden with picture-books
and toys, worth hundreds of pounds-at least, so the children said. The
fir-tree was placed in a great tub filled with sand, but no one could
see that it was a tub, for it was all hung with greenery and stood on a
gay carpet. How the tree trembled! What was coming now? On its
branches they hung little nets cut out of coloured paper, each full of
sugarplums; gilt apples and nuts hung down as if they were growing, over
a hundred red, blue, and white tapers were fastened among the branches.
Dolls as life-like as human beings--the fir-tree had never seen any
before were suspended among the green, and right up at the top was fixed
a gold tinsel star; it was gorgeous, quite unusually gorgeous!

'To-night,' they all said, 'to-night it will be lighted!'

'Ah!' thought the tree, 'if it were only evening! Then the tapers would
soon be lighted. What will happen then? I wonder whether the trees will
come from the wood to see me, or if the sparrows will fly against the
window panes? Am I to stand here decked out thus through winter and
summer?'

It was not a bad guess, but the fir-tree had real bark-ache from sheer
longing, and bark-ache in trees is just as bad as head-ache in human
beings.

Now the tapers were lighted. What a glitter! What splendour! The tree
quivered in all its branches so much, that one of the candles caught
the green, and singed it. 'Take care!' cried the young ladies, and they
extinguished it.

Now the tree did not even dare to quiver. It was really terrible! It was
so afraid of losing any of its ornaments, and it was quite bewildered by
all the radiance.

And then the folding doors were opened, and a crowd of children rushed
in, as though they wanted to knock down the whole tree, whilst the older
people followed soberly. The children stood quite silent, but only for
a moment, and then they shouted again, and danced round the tree, and
snatched off one present after another.

'What are they doing?' thought the tree. 'What is going to happen?' And
the tapers burnt low