with lions on the covers. There, too, were large easy-chairs, silken
sofas, large tables full of picture-books, and full of toys worth a
hundred times a hundred dollars--at least so the children said. And the
Pine Tree was stuck upright in a cask filled with sand: but no one could
see that it was a cask, for green cloth was hung all around it, and it
stood on a gayly colored carpet. Oh, how the Tree quivered! What was to
happen? The servants, as well as the young ladies, dressed it. On one
branch there hung little nets cut out of colored paper; each net was
filled with sugar-plums; gilded apples and walnuts hung as though they
grew tightly there, and more than a hundred little red, blue, and white
tapers were stuck fast into the branches. Dolls that looked for all the
world like men--the Tree had never seen such things before--fluttered
among the leaves, and at the very top a large star of gold tinsel was
fixed. It was really splendid--splendid beyond telling.

"This evening!" said they all; "how it will shine this evening!"

"Oh," thought the Tree, "if it were only evening! If the tapers were but
lighted! And then I wonder what will happen! I wonder if the other trees
from the forest will come to look at me! I wonder if the sparrows will
beat against the window-panes! I wonder if I shall take root here, and
stand dressed so winter and summer!"

Aye, aye, much he knew about the matter! but he had a real back-ache
for sheer longing, and a back-ache with trees is the same thing as a
head-ache with us.

III. CHRISTMAS IN THE HOUSE

The candles were now lighted. What brightness! What splendor! The Tree
trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to a green
branch. It blazed up splendidly.

Now the Tree did not even dare to tremble. That was a fright! He was so
afraid of losing something of all his finery, that he was quite confused
amidst the glare and brightness; and now both folding-doors opened, and
a troop of children rushed in as if they would tip the whole Tree over.
The older folks came quietly behind; the little ones stood quite still,
but only for a moment, then they shouted so that the whole place echoed
their shouts, they danced round the Tree, and one present after another
was pulled off.

"What are they about?" thought the Tree. "What is to happen now?" And
the lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down
they were put out one after the other, and then the children