Page:The fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen (c1899).djvu/283



NCE upon a time, there stood in the depths of a forest a pretty little fir-tree. It was placed very nicely, for it could get as much sunshine and air as it wanted, and it was surrounded by a number of taller companions, both firs and pines. But the little fir-tree did so long to grow taller ! It thought nothing of the warm sun and the fresh air, and cared still less for the peasant children who strolled about and chattered, whenever they came to gather wild strawberries and raspberries. They would often bring a pipkin full of berries, or lay them out on a handful of straw, and then seat themselves near the little fir-tree, saying : "Well, this is a sweet little tree !" But the tree was quite insensible to any such praise.

In the following year it had grown a notch taller, and the year after it was taller still by another notch ; for with fir-trees it is easy to ascertain, by the number of notches, how many years old they are.

"Oh ! how I wish I were as tall as the other trees !" sighed the diminutive fir; "and then I should spread my branches all around, and my top would overlook the wide world. Birds would then build nests in my branches, and when the wind blew I should be able to bow with as much dignity as the rest of my companions." n the m sunshine, or the birds, or the rosy clouds that sailed over its head morning and evening. When it was winter, and the white snow lay in dazzling sheets upon the ground, a hare would frequently jump right over the little tree, and that vexed it so sorely ! But after two more winters, the tree had grown so tall, that by the time it had reached the third, the hare was obliged to run be- side it. "Oh ! could I but grow and grow, and become tall and old ! That is the only thing worth caring for in this world," thought the tree.

In the autumn the wood- cutters always came and felled several of the tallest trees. As this happened regularly every year, the young fir-tree, who was now grown up, shuddered at the fate that perhaps awaited him ; for the fine large trees fell with a loud crashing and creaking to the ground. Their branches were lopped off, and the trunks looked so naked, so lank, and so narrow, that they were scarcely to be re-