ife!"
And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when he hoped to be decked
out again with lights, playthings, fruits, and tinsel.

"I won't tremble to-morrow!" thought the Fir Tree. "I will enjoy to
the full all my splendor! To-morrow I shall hear again the story of
Humpy-Dumpy, and perhaps that of Ivedy-Avedy too." And the whole night
the Tree stood still and in deep thought.

In the morning the servant and the housemaid came in.

"Now then the splendor will begin again," thought the Fir. But they
dragged him out of the room, and up the stairs into the loft: and here,
in a dark corner, where no daylight could enter, they left him. "What's
the meaning of this?" thought the Tree. "What am I to do here? What
shall I hear now, I wonder?" And he leaned against the wall lost in
reverie. Time enough had he too for his reflections; for days and nights
passed on, and nobody came up; and when at last somebody did come, it
was only to put some great trunks in a corner, out of the way. There
stood the Tree quite hidden; it seemed as if he had been entirely
forgotten.

"'Tis now winter out-of-doors!" thought the Tree. "The earth is hard and
covered with snow; men cannot plant me now, and therefore I have been
put up here under shelter till the spring-time comes! How thoughtful
that is! How kind man is, after all! If it only were not so dark here,
and so terribly lonely! Not even a hare! And out in the woods it was
so pleasant, 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
really 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
Fir Tree, and rustled among the branches.

"It is dreadfully cold," said the Mouse. "But for that, it would be
delightful here, old Fir, wouldn't it?"

"I am by no means old," said the Fir Tree. "There's many a one
considerably older than I am."

"Where do you come from," asked the Mice; "and what can you do?" They
were so extremely curious. "Tell us about the most beautiful spot on the
earth. Have you never been there? Were you never in the larder, where
cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above; where one dances
about on tallow candles: that place where one enters lean, and comes out
again fat and portly?"

"I know no such place," said the Tree. "But I know the wood, where the
sun shines a