Now the tapers were lighted. What a glitter! What splendour!
The tree quivered in all its branches so much, that one of the
candles caught the green, and singed it. 'Take care!' cried the
young ladies, and they extinguished it.

Now the tree did not even dare to quiver. It was really
terrible! It was so afraid of losing any of its ornaments, and
it was quite bewildered by all the radiance.

And then the folding doors were opened, and a crowd of children
rushed in, as though they wanted to knock down the whole tree,
whilst the older people followed soberly. The children stood
quite silent, but only for a moment, and then they shouted again,
and danced round the tree, and snatched off one present after
another.

'What are they doing?' thought the tree. 'What is going to
happen?' And the tapers burnt low on the branches, and were put
out one by one, and then the children were given permission to
plunder the tree. They rushed at it so that all its boughs
creaked; if it had not been fastened by the gold star at the top
to the ceiling, it would have been overthrown.

The children danced about with their splendid toys, and no one
looked at the tree, except the old nurse, who came and peeped
amongst the boughs, just to see if a fig or an apple had been
forgotten.

'A story! a story!' cried the children, and dragged a little