l softly, softly, and covered the
great trees all over with wonderful caps and coats of white. The
Little Fir Tree, close down in the cover of the others, would call up,--

"Oh, please, dear snow, give me a cap, too! I want to play, too!" But
the snow always said,--

"Oh no, no, no; you are too little, you are too little!"

The worst of all was when men came into the wood, with sledges and
teams of horses. They came to cut the big trees down and carry them
away. And when one had been cut down and carried away the others
talked about it, and nodded their heads. And the Little Fir Tree
listened, and heard them say that when you were carried away so, you
might become the mast of a mighty ship, and go far away over the ocean,
and see many wonderful things; or you might be part of a fine house in
a great city, and see much of life. The Little Fir Tree wanted greatly
to see life, but he was always too little; the men passed him by.

But by and by, one cold winter's morning, men came with a sledge and
horses, and after they had cut here and there they came to the circle
of trees round the Little Fir Tree, and looked all about.

"There are none little enough," they said.

Oh! how the Little Fir Tree pricked up his needles!

"Here is one," said one of the men, "it is just little enough." And he
touched the Little Fir Tree.

The Little Fir Tree was happy as a bird, because he knew they were
about to cut him down. And when he was being carried away on the
sledge he lay wondering, SO contentedly, whether he should be the mast
of a ship or part of a fine city house. But when they came to the town
he was taken out and set upright in a tub and placed on the edge of a
sidewalk in a row of other fir trees, all small, but none so little as
he. And then the Little Fir Tree began to see life.

People kept coming to look at the trees and to take them away. But
always when they saw the Little Fir Tree they shook their heads and
said,--

"It is too little, too little."

Until, finally, two children came along, hand in hand, looking
carefully at all the small trees. When they saw the Little Fir Tree
they cried out,--

"We'll take this one; it is just little enough!"

They took him out of his tub and carried him away, between them. And
the happy Little Fir Tree spent all his time wondering what it could be
that he was just little enough for; he knew it could hardly be a mast
or a house, since he was going away with