One day, when the little snowflakes had fluttered down and made all the
world white, and the wind was whistling a merry tune, the little pine
tree heard some strange noises. The tall pine trees nodded their heads,
for they knew who were coming. They were the woodmen. They had a sled
with them, drawn by horses. The sight was strange to the pine tree, for
it had never before seen woodmen, nor a sled, nor horses. But the old
pine trees knew what it all meant, for they had seen the woodmen many
times. They wondered which tree the woodmen would choose. Now, the
little pine tree had grown, and it was not a wee tree any longer, but
was a straight, strong, beautiful tree. The woodmen walked about with
something very bright and shining in their hands. When they came to this
pine tree they looked at it, shook it and sounded the ax against its
trunk.

How queer the pine tree felt! It wondered what they were going to do
with it. Suddenly a sharp sound rang out in the air, and another, and
still another one. And the pine tree felt itself swaying and swaying,
and down it went, lower and lower, until its branches touched the soft
white snow on the ground. The woodmen lifted the pine tree very
carefully, placed it on the sled and drove the horses away. Pine Tree
was happy now, for he was going to see something of the great, wonderful
world.

The woodmen drove the horses out of the forest into the beautiful white
world. On and on they went until at last they came to a little village
by the sea. They drove through the village and into a great shipyard,
where saws were buzzing, hammers were pounding, and busy men were
hurrying about. Pine Tree had never seen anything like this before. He
was lifted from the sled and his beautiful branches were taken from the
trunk. Then he lay with, many other logs for a long time, until one day