The Fir Tree III

                            

                                               Imagen cortesía de 4to40 (4to40.com) Todos los derechos reservados.

                                                              Hans Christian Andersen

 He knew very much about the matter-but he was so impatient that for sheer longing he got a pain in his back, and this with trees is the same thing as a headache with us.

The candles were now lighted-what brightness! What splendor! The Tree trembled so in every bough that one of the tapers set fire to the foliage. It blazed up famously.

'Help! Help! cried the young ladies, and they quickly put out the fire.

Now the Tree did not even dare tremble. What a state lie was in! He was so uneasy lest he should lose something of his splendor, that he was quite bewildered amidst the glare and brightness; when suddenly both folding-doors opened and a troop of children rushed in as if they would upset the Tree. The older persons followed quietly; the little ones stood quite still. But it was only for a moment; then they shouted that the whole place re-echoed with their rejoicing; they danced round the Tree, and one present after the other was pulled off.

'What are they about?' thought the Tree. 'What is to happen now!' And the lights burned down to the very branches, and as they burned down they were put out one after the other, and then the children had permission to plunder the Tree. So they fell upon it with such violence and all its branches cracked; if had not been fixed firmly in the ground, it would certainly have tumbled down.

The children danced about with their beautiful playthings; no one looked at the Tree except the old nurse, who peeped between the branches; but it was only to see if there was a fig or an apple left that had been forgotten.

'A story! A story!' cried the children, drawing a little fat man towards the Tree. He seated himself under it and said.

'Now we are in the shade, and the Tree can listen too. But I shall tell only one story. Now which will you have; that about Ivedy-Avedy, or about Humpy-Dumpy, who tumbled downstairs, and yet after all came to the throne and married the princess?

'Ivedy-Avedy,' cried some; 'Humpy-Dumpy,' cried the others. There was such a bawling and screaming-the Fir Tree alone was silent, and he thought to himself. 'Am I not to bawl with the rest? Am I to do nothing whatever?' for he was one of the company, and had done what he had to do.

And the man told about Humpy-Dumpy that tumbled down, who notwithstanding came to the throne, and at last married the princess. And the children clapped their hands, and cried. 'Oh, go on! Do go on!' They wanted to hear about Ivedy-Avedy too, but the little man only told them about Humpy-Dumpy. The Fir Tree stood quite still and absorbed in thought; the birds in the wood had never related the like of this. 'Humpy-Dumpy fell downstairs, and yet he married the princess! Yes, yes! That's the way of the world!' thought the Fir Tree, and believed it all, because the man who told the story was so good -looking.

'Well, well! who knows, perhaps I may fall downstairs, too, and get a princess as wife! And he looked forward with joy to the morrow, when he hoped to be decked out again with lights, plauthings, 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 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 splendorwill 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 reverse. 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 reallyterribly lonely here!'

'Squeak! Squeak!'said a little Mouse, at the same moment, peeping out of his hole. And then another little one came. They snuffled 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 coniderably 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 ut again fat and portly?'

'I know no such place, ' said the Tree. 'But I know the wood, where the sun shines and where the little birds sing.' And then he told all about his youth; and the little Mice had never heard the like before; and they listened and said.

'Well, to be sure! How much you have seen! How happy you must have been!'

'I!' said the Fir Tree, thinking over what he had himself related. 'Yes, in realitiy those were happy times.' And then he told about Christmas eve, when he was decked out with cakes and candles.

¿Oh' said the little Mice, 'how fortunate you have been, old Fir Tree!'

'I am by no means old.' said he. 'I came from the wood this winter; I am in my prime, and am only rather short for my age.'

'What delightful stories you know,' said the Mice; and the next night they came with four other little Mice, who were to hear what Tree recounted; and the moore he related, the more he remembered himself; and it appeared as if those times had really been happy times. 'But they may still come-they may still come! Humpy-Dumpy fell downstaris, and yet he got a princess!' and he thought at the moment of a nice litlle Birch Tree growing out in the woods to the Fir, that would be a real charming princess.

'Who is Humpy-Dumpy?' asked the Mice. So then the Fir Tree told the whole fairy tale, for he could remembervery single word of it; and the little Mice jumped for joy up to the very top of the Tree. Next night two more Mice came, and on Sunday two Rats even; but they said the stories were not interesting, which vexed the little Mice; and they, too, now began to think them not so very amusing either.

¿Do you know only one story?' asked the Rats.

'Only that one,' answered the Tree. 'I heard it on my happiest evening; but I did not then know how happy I was.'

'It is a very stupid story! Don't you kniw one about bacon and tallow candles? Can't you tell any larder stories?'

'No,' said the Tree.

'Then good-bye,' said the Rats; and they went home.

Apoya con tu donativo vía Paypal