! my
husband's come!" But it was not the Fir Tree that they meant.

"Now I shall live!" said the Tree, rejoicingly, and spread its
branches far out; but, alas! they were all withered and yellow; and it
lay in the corner among nettles and weeds. The tinsel star was still
upon it, and shone in the bright sunshine.

In the courtyard a couple of the merry children were playing who had
danced round the tree at Christmas time, and had rejoiced over it. One
of the youngest ran up and tore off the golden star.

"Look what is sticking to the ugly old fir tree!" said the child, and
he trod upon the branches till they cracked again under his boots.

And the Tree looked at all the blooming flowers and the splendor of
the garden, and then looked at itself, and wished it had remained in
the dark corner of the garret; it thought of its fresh youth 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 kettle,
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.

THE DARNING-NEEDLE

BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

There was once a Darning-needle, who thought herself so fine, she
imagined she was an embroidering-needle.

"Take care, and mind you hold me tight!" she said to the Fingers that
took her out. "Don't let me fall! If I fall on the ground I shall
certainly never be found again, for I am so fine!"

"That's as it may be," said the Fingers; and they grasped her round
the body.

"See, I'm coming with a train!" said the Darning-needle, and she drew
a long thread afte