Andrew Lan's Twelve-Color Fairy Tale Series: Pink Fairy Tale Books

Chapter 22 A Fir Tree (2)
"Tell a story! Tell a story!" cried the children, and dragged a squat uncle to the fir-tree.So he sat down there, and said to the children, "We'll tell stories by this green fir tree, and it must love to hear it too! But I'll only tell one story. You want to hear Penny the Hen Do you still want to hear the story about Egg Pang Pang? It’s the Egg Pang Pang who rolled downstairs but won people’s respect and married the princess!”

"Penny the Hen!" cried some of the children. "Fatty eggs!" cried some other children.There was a lot of noise from the children in the room, it was very lively!Only the Fir Tree said nothing in silence, thinking: "Can I not take part? Am I not to do with this?"

But it has already participated, and it is also listening carefully.Uncle Fat told the story of Egg Pangpang who rolled downstairs and married the princess.The children clapped their hands and yelled, "Tell one more! Tell another!" They wanted to hear another story about Penny the Hen, but Fat Uncle said only one.The Fir Tree was amazed when he heard the story, for no bird in the wood had ever told such a story. "Fatty Egg rolled downstairs, and even married a princess! Oh, it's like this in this world!" the fir tree thought, thinking it was all true, because the storyteller was so simple and sweet! "Yeah, who knows? Maybe one day I'll roll down the stairs and marry a princess!" So he happily looks forward to being dressed up again the next day, candles, toys, glitter Decorations, fruits, oh so beautiful! "Tomorrow I will still be trembling with excitement! I will enjoy the glorious moment! Tomorrow I will hear the story of the fat egg, and perhaps the story of Penny the little hen!" So the fir tree thought and thought. Ah, no sleep all night.

The next morning the servants came in. "They will dress me up again!" thought the Fir Tree.Instead, they dragged it out of the room and up the stairs to the utility room.They put it in a dark corner where there is no sunlight. "What does that mean?" the Fir Tree wondered. "What do you put me here for? Can you hear anything here?" Leaning against the wall, he wondered.It now has plenty of time to think about these issues, and many days and nights have passed without anyone coming to see it.At last a man came, but he just moved some empty boxes and put them in the corner.Now the fir-tree was completely hidden, and seemed to have been completely forgotten.

"It's winter outside now!" thought the Fir Tree, "and the ground is hard and covered with snow and ice, and they cannot plant me. So they put me here until spring comes! How thoughtful people are! But, It's frighteningly dark and lonely here without a single bunny! How I wish it wasn't! It must be a pleasant place in the woods now, with the snow everywhere, and rabbits hopping past me .Oh yes, it wouldn't matter if it jumped right over me, though I didn't like it much then. But it's terribly lonely here!"

"Squeak! Squeak!" A little mouse sneaked out, and after a while another one also came out.They sniffed the fir tree, and burrowed into the branches. "It's so cold!" said the two little mice. "It's very pleasant here. Don't you think so, old fir tree?"

"I am not old at all," said the Fir Tree, "and there are many trees older than me!"

"Where do you come from?" asked the mouse. "What do you know?" They were very curious. "Tell us about some of the most beautiful places in the world! Are you from there? Have you ever been in the pantry? There are so many cheeses on the shelves and hams hanging from the ceiling! There you can Dancing on tallow candles can make you go in skinny and come out fat!"

"I don't know that," said the Fir Tree, "but I know woods well, and there is sunshine there, and birds that sing." So he told the little mouse all about the time he had been in the woods.The two little mice had never heard of such a thing before, and they listened carefully, and then said enviously, "Wow, you have seen so many things! How happy you were once!"

"Me?" said the Fir Tree, thinking about what he had just said to them. "Oh, yes, it was a very happy time on the whole!" Then he told the story of Christmas Eve and tell them how it was all covered with sweets and candles then.

"Oh," said the little Mouse, "how happy you were, old Fir Tree!"

"I'm not old at all," said the Fir Tree. "I left the woods this winter. It's just that I don't seem to grow as fast as I used to."

"Your story is so nice!" said the little mouse.The next night they brought four other little mice, who all came to hear the Fir Tree tell stories.The fir tree told them many things, and it remembered everything well. "Those were really happy days! Maybe such happy days will come back again! Plump Egg rolled downstairs and married a princess! Maybe I will marry a princess too!" It thought of the woods again Come, that sweet little birch tree in the fir-tree, and in the heart of the fir-tree, this little birch tree was its princess, a real and very beautiful princess!
"Who is Fatty Egg?" asked the little mouse.

Then the Fir Tree told the story of the fat egg, which he remembered very well.After hearing this, the little mouse was so happy that he climbed to the top of the fir tree and somersaulted happily.The next night, more small mice came, and on Sunday, two big mice came.But the big mouse was not interested in the story, so the little mouse was also affected, and his interest was not so high.

"Is that the only story you can tell?" asked the big mouse.

"Only this one!" answered the Fir Tree. "I heard that story on one of my happiest nights. But then I didn't think I was so happy!"

"Such an ugly story! Can't you tell the story of the bacon and tallow candles? The story of the storeroom, can you?"

"I will not!" said the Fir Tree.

"Then we thank you!" said the big mouse, and walked away.

Finally the little mice also walked away.The Fir Tree sighed and said, "It was all right when the happy little mice were around me and listened to my stories. But that's over now too. Well, I still think people took me It's time to move out, now I should cheer up!"

But what happened?Hi, someone came to clean up this cluttered room one morning and they threw the fir tree roughly on the floor.Then it was dragged downstairs by a servant, and finally saw the light again.

"Oh, happy life begins again!" thought the Fir Tree happily.Breathe the fresh air and enjoy the first ray of sunshine in the morning.Oh, it's coming to the yard!Wow, it's so beautiful here, there's so much to see!So the Fir Tree didn't notice what he looked like, or where he was put.The garden in the yard is full of flowers, the roses are delicate and fragrant, and the linden trees are in full bloom, fragrant, so beautiful!The swallows were flying up and down the yard, and kept murmuring: "My love is back, my love is back!" Of course it wasn't the fir tree!

"Now I will start my life well!" said the Fir Tree cheerfully, stretching out its branches vigorously.Oh my God, the branches and leaves are all withered and turning yellow!Only then did it realize that it was lying in a broken corner, where thorns and weeds grew!The golden star still hung above it, shining brightly in the bright sunlight.There were a few children playing happily in the yard, and they had danced around the fir tree at Christmas, and they were so happy!One of the little ones ran over and tore off the golden star.

"Look, there's nothing on that ugly old fir tree!" cried the little one, stamping on it so hard that the branches snapped under his feet.

The fir tree looked at the flowers in the garden, how beautiful and how alive they were!Look at yourself again, hey, I really want to stay in the dark corner of the utility room all the time.He thought of his youthful days in the woods, of the merry Christmas Eve, and of the little mice who had been delighted to hear him tell about fat eggs.

"It's too late! It's too late!" thought the poor Fir Tree. "Why haven't I allowed myself to be happy? But now it's all over, all over!"

A servant came and cut the fir tree into many small pieces, and that was a great bundle of firewood.The fir-tree burned brightly under a great iron pot in the kitchen.It sighed deeply, and each sigh was like the sound of a handjob.The children who were at play came running, and sat by the fire, looking at the burning fir-trees, and shouted, "Bang! bang! bang!" The sigh of the fir tree.It thought again of the woods, with its bright summer days and starry winter nights; of Christmas Eve; of the fat egg story, the only one it ever heard, and the one it knew only story.Then all the fir trees burned.

The children continued to play in the yard.The little fellow hung on his breast the golden star which the Fir-tree had worn on his head on the happiest and happiest night of his life.Now it is all over, and the fir tree is gone, and our story is over.

(End of this chapter)