“How I should like to see the angels!” sighed the little tree, “and how I should like to see the stars dancing among the clouds!  It must be very beautiful.”

As the vine and the little tree talked of these things, the cedars watched with increasing interest the wonderful scenes over and beyond the confines of the forest.  Presently they thought they heard music, and they were not mistaken, for soon the whole air was full of the sweetest harmonies ever heard upon earth.

“What beautiful music!” cried the little tree.  “I wonder whence it comes.”

“The angels are singing,” said a cedar; “for none but angels could make such sweet music.”

“But the stars are singing, too,” said another cedar; “yes, and the shepherds on the hills join in the song, and what a strangely glorious song it is!”

The trees listened to the singing, but they did not understand its meaning:  it seemed to be an anthem, and it was of a Child that had been born; but further than this they did not understand.  The strange and glorious song continued all the night; and all that night the angels walked to and fro, and the shepherd-folk talked with the angels, and the stars danced and carolled in high heaven.  And it was nearly morning when the cedars cried out, “They are coming to the forest! the angels are coming to the forest!” And, surely enough, this was true.  The vine and the little tree were very terrified, and they begged their older and stronger neighbors to protect them from harm.  But the cedars were too busy with their own fears to pay any heed to the faint pleadings of the humble vine and the little tree.  The angels came into the forest, singing the same glorious anthem about the Child, and the stars sang in chorus with them, until every part of the woods rang with echoes of that wondrous song.  There was nothing in the appearance of this angel host to inspire fear; they were clad all in white, and there were crowns upon their fair heads, and golden harps in their hands; love, hope, charity, compassion, and joy beamed from their beautiful faces, and their presence seemed to fill the forest with a divine peace.  The angels came through the forest to where the little tree stood, and gathering around it, they touched it with their hands, and kissed its little branches, and sang even more sweetly than before.  And their song was about the Child, the Child, the Child that had been born.  Then the stars came down from the skies and danced and hung upon the branches of the tree, and they, too, sang that song,—­the song of the Child.  And all the other trees and the vines and the ferns and the mosses beheld in wonder; nor could they understand why all these things were being done, and why this exceeding honor should be shown the little tree.

When the morning came the angels left the forest,—­all but one angel, who remained behind and lingered near the little tree.  Then a cedar asked:  “Why do you tarry with us, holy angel?” And the angel answered:  “I stay to guard this little tree, for it is sacred, and no harm shall come to it.”