“Come down, come down, rest in my branches!” But they always said,—­

“Oh, no, no; you are too little!”

When the splendid wind came blowing and singing through the forest, it bent and rocked and swung the tops of the big trees, and murmured to them.  Then the Little Fir Tree looked up, and called,—­

“Oh, please, dear wind, come down and play with me!” But he always said,—­

“Oh, no; you are too little, you are too little!”

In the winter the white snow fell softly, softly, and covered the great trees all over with wonderful caps and coats of white.  The Little Fir Tree, close down in the cover of the others, would call up,—­

“Oh, please, dear snow, give me a cap, too!  I want to play, too!” But the snow always said,—­

“Oh no, no, no; you are too little, you are too little!”

The worst of all was when men came into the wood, with sledges and teams of horses.  They came to cut the big trees down and carry them away.  Whenever one had been cut down and carried away the others talked about it, and nodded their heads, and the Little Fir Tree listened, and heard them say that when you were carried away so, you might become the mast of a mighty ship, and go far away over the ocean, and see many wonderful things; or you might be part of a fine house in a great city, and see much of life.  The Little Fir Tree wanted greatly to see life, but he was always too little; the men passed him by.

But by and by, one cold winter’s morning, men came with a sledge and horses, and after they had cut here and there they came to the circle of trees round the Little Fir Tree, and looked all about.

“There are none little enough,” they said.

Oh! how the Little Fir Tree pricked up his needles!

“Here is one,” said one of the men, “it is just little enough.”  And he touched the Little Fir Tree.

The Little Fir Tree was happy as a bird, because he knew they were about to cut him down.  And when he was being carried away on the sledge he lay wondering, so contentedly, whether he should be the mast of a ship or part of a fine city house.  But when they came to the town he was taken out and set upright in a tub and placed on the edge of a path in a row of other fir trees, all small, but none so little as he.  And then the Little Fir Tree began to see life.

People kept coming to look at the trees and to take them away.  But always when they saw the Little Fir Tree they shook their heads and said,—­

“It is too little, too little.”

Until, finally, two children came along, hand in hand, looking carefully at all the small trees.  When they saw the Little Fir Tree they cried out,—­

“We’ll take this one; it is just little enough!”

They took him out of his tub and carried him away, between them.  And the happy Little Fir Tree spent all his time wondering what it could be that he was just little enough for; he knew it could hardly be a mast or a house, since he was going away with children.