(The Wind frolics among the Trees, bending branches, careering wildly, shaking leaves.) “Little Spruce-tree, you have been kind to the Bird, I will not blow on you!  Dear Pine-tree, you are tall and keep the Bird warm, I will not blow on you!  Little Juniper, you gave the Bird your berries, I will not blow on you!”

     (The following morning.)

The Bird.  “Good-morning, dear Spruce-tree, your branch was warm and safe.—­Why, what has happened to the other Trees?  Look at the big Oak and the lovely Maple and all the rest!  See how bare their branches are; and on the ground their shining leaves lie in red and yellow and brown heaps!  O, how glad I am that your leaves have not fallen; they are bright and green!  And so are Pine-tree’s and Juniper’s.  I will call you my Evergreen Trees, and I will stay with you until the Spring!”

The English fairy tale, The Magpie’s Nest, told by Joseph Jacobs, might be dramatized by first-grade children.  This tale might offer the problem of observing how different birds make their nests and how they vary their calls.  It also might offer the language problem of making suitable rhymes.  An original dramatization of the pourquois tale is given in the Appendix.

Andersen’s Fir Tree would offer a fine opportunity for a first grade at Christmas time.  The fir tree has become vitally interesting through nature study at this time of the year.  The children love to make things to decorate a tree.  They have a short list of stories they can tell by this time.  All this can be utilized in a Christmas tree play.—­For the play use the original story, not a weakened version.—­A pleasant Christmas play could end most happily with the story-telling under the tree.  For the play an actual small fir tree may be in the room placed so that it may be moved easily.  A child standing closely behind it may represent it and speak for it through its branches.  The air and the sun, ordinarily not to be represented, in this case may be, as they come up to the Tree and talk to it.  Much freedom of originality may be displayed through the children’s entering into the character of the Fir Tree and improvising speeches.

The Fir Tree

Time.......Spring.
Place.......Forest.
Characters:  Sun, Air, Hare, Woodmen, Swallow, Stork, Sparrows,
Children, Servants, and Fir Tree.

     Act I, Scene i. 
          A Fir Tree in the forest. 
          Sun and Air talk to it. 
          Children sit under its branches. 
          A Hare comes and jumps over it. 
          Woodcutters come. 
          A Swallow comes and talks to it. 
          A Stork comes and talks to it. 
          Sparrows talk to it.