came to keep the eggs warm.

So the Fir-tree was never alone; and now he asked the birds some of
the many questions he had once asked his mother, "Tell me, dear
birdies," he said, "what does the mother-tree mean? She says if I grow
strong, I shall be taken away to be useful somewhere. How can a Fir-
tree be useful if he is taken away from the forest where he was born?"

So the birds told him how he could be useful: how perhaps men might
take him for the mast of a ship, and fasten to him, strong and firm,
the great white sails that send the ship like a bird over the water;
or that he might be used to hold a bright flag, as it waved in the
wind. Then the mother-bird thought of the happy Christmas time, for
the birds and flowers and trees know all about it; and she told the
Fir of the Christmas greens that were cut in the forest; of the
branches and boughs that were used to make the houses fresh and
bright; and of the Christmas trees, on which gifts were hung for the
children.

Now the Fir-tree had seen some children one day, and he knew about
their bright eyes, and their rosy cheeks, and their dear soft little
hands. The day they came into the woods, they had made a ring and
danced about him, and one little girl had held up her finger, and
asked the others to hush and hear the song he was singing.

So of all the thing's the birds had told him, the sweetest to him was
about the Christmas tree. If only he might be a Christmas tree, and
have the children dance about him again, and feel their presents among
his green branches!