"It is winter now," thought the tree; "the ground is hard and covered
with snow, so that people cannot plant me. I shall be sheltered here, I
dare say, until spring comes. How thoughtful and kind everybody is to
me! Still, I wish this place were not so dark and so dreadfully
lonely, with not even a little hare to look at. How pleasant it was
out in the forest while the snow lay on the ground, when the hare would
run by, yes, and jump over me, too, although I did not like it then. Oh!
it is terribly lonely here."

"Squeak, squeak," said a little mouse, creeping cautiously towards the
tree; then came another, and they both sniffed at the fir tree and crept
in and out between the branches.

"Oh, it is very cold," said the little mouse. "If it were not we should
be very comfortable here, shouldn't we, old fir tree?"

"I am not old," said the fir tree. "There are many who are older than I
am."

"Where do you come from?" asked the mice, who were full of curiosity;
"and what do you know? Have you seen the most beautiful places in the
world, and can you tell us all about them? And have you been in the
storeroom, where cheeses lie on the shelf and hams hang from the
ceiling? One can run about on tallow candles there; one can go in thin
and come out fat."

"I know nothing of that," said the fir tree, "but I know the wood, where
the sun shines and the birds sing." And then the tree told the little
mice all about its youth. They had never heard such an account in their
lives; and after they had listened to it attentively, they said: "What a
number of things you have seen! You must have been very happy."

"Happy!" exclaimed the fir tree; and then, as he reflected on what he
had been telling them, he said, "Ah, yes! after all, those were happy
days." But when he went on and related all about Christmas Eve, and how
he had been dressed up with cakes and lights, the mice said, "How happy
you must have been, you old fir tree."

"I am not old at all," replied the tree; "I only came from the forest
this winter. I am now checked in my growth."

"What splendid stories you can tell," said the little mice. And the next
night four other mice came with them to hear what the tree had to tell.
The more he talked the more he remembered, and then he thought to
himself: "Yes, those were happy days; but they may come again. Humpty
Dumpty fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess. Perhaps I may
marry a princess, too." And the fir tr