“Where do you come from? and what do you know?” asked the mice,
who were full of curiosity. “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, and go in thin and come out fat.”
“I know nothing of that place,” 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 upon 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 relate,” 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,
“Those were happy days, but they may come again. Humpty Dumpty fell
down stairs, and yet he married the princess; perhaps I may marry a
princess too.” And the fir-tree thought of the pretty little birch-tree that
grew in the forest, which was to him a real beautiful princess.
“Who is Humpty Dumpty?” asked the little mice. And then the tree
related the whole story; he could remember every single word, and the little
mice was so delighted with it, that they were ready to jump to the top of the
tree. The next night a great many more mice made their appearance, and on
Sunday two rats came with them; but they said, it was not a pretty story at
all, and the little mice were very sorry, for it made them also think less of it.
“Do you know only one story?” asked the rats.
