in the wood, of
the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little Mice which had listened so
pleasantly to the story of Klumpey-Dumpey.

"Past! past!" said the old Tree. "Had I but rejoiced when I could have
done so! Past! past!"

And the servant came and chopped the Tree into little pieces; a whole
bundle lay there; it blazed brightly under the great brewing copper, and
it sighed deeply, and each sigh was like a little shot; and the children
who were at play there ran up and seated themselves at the fire, looked
into it, and cried "Puff! puff!" But at each explosion, which was a deep
sigh, the Tree thought of a summer day in the woods, or of a winter
night there, when the stars beamed; he thought of Christmas Eve and of
Klumpey-Dumpey, the only story he had ever heard or knew how to tell;
and then the Tree was burned.

The boys played in the garden, and the youngest had on his breast a
golden star, which the Tree had worn on its happiest evening. Now that
was past, and the Tree's life was past, and the story is past too: past!
past!--and that's the way with all stories.

196

The tale that follows was one of the author's
earliest stories, published in 1835. It is
clearly based upon an old folk tale, one
variant of which is "The Blue Light" from the
Grimm collection (No. 174). "It was a lucky
stroke," says Brandes, "that made Andersen the
poet of children. After long fumbling, after
unsuccessful efforts, which must necessarily
throw a false and ironic light on the
self-consciousness of a poet whose pride based
its justification mainly on the expectancy of a
future which he felt slumbering within his
soul, after wandering about for long years,
Andersen . . . one evening found himself in front
of a little insignificant yet mysterious door,
the door of the nursery story. He touched it,
it yielded, and he saw, burning in the
obscurity within, the little 'Tinder-Box' that
became his Aladdin's lamp. He struck fire with
it, and the spirits of the lamp--the dogs with
eyes as large as tea-cups, as mill-wheels, as
the round tower in Copenhagen--stood before him
and brought him the three giant chests,
containing all the copper, silver, and gold
treasure stories of the nursery story. The
first story had sprung into ex