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 You always know that particular tree for the Christmas tree the moment you set eyes On it. Perhaps you have been looking for an hour.

Some of the trees which you inspect are too tall and some too short. Some are crooked while others do not branch enough.

There is always a special look to the Christmas tree, that no other tree has. It is preferably a spruce or hemlock. A pine is too sticky and it sheds its needles badly, so Mother has decreed against it, because it litters up the house.

The Christmas tree must be just tall enough to stand erect in the living-room, and it must be conical in shape, large at the bottom, and with a fine point at the top. It must have a great many small limbs to hang presents on.

I used to wonder, as I chopped the Christmas tree down, if it knew it was going to be the Christmas tree as it grew. If so, did that fact discourage it, or was it joy enough just to be a Christmas tree?

I often wondered if the trees ever got to