FAIRY TALES (text) - 91. THE FIR

THE FIR

Deep in the middle of the forest, in a place full of sunshine and fresh air, a little and delightful Fir was growing. But he was unhappy and he was craving to be as high as the other firs. The children of the village came there and played near the fir and said:

– What a beautiful little fir it is. 

Instead of being enjoyed by the words, he felt so bad because he wanted to bigger. When the winter came, a rabbit ran nearby and overpassed the fir, and the fir always felt terrible because he wanted to be large. One day, some men passed by and began to cut the highest firs and put them in a big engine. The Fir was thinking: ‘‘Great, imagine a little what they’re going to experience now!’’ he asked always where the people took those firs to, till one day some swallows came near him and said that they had put the firs in the craft and they were crossing the sea. The fir didn’t know what the sea was and the swallows explained. Then he thought: ‘‘Oh, if I were as big as them, I would cross the ocean and see wonderful things!’’, while the air and the sky told him:

– Enjoy the time now that you’re young, be happy for the health you have now!

The Christmas was coming and people came again to cut other firs smaller than him. The Fir looked surprised and thought: ‘‘they are younger than me, why don’t they take me with them?!’’ 

Then he asked where did they took the little firs and some birds said to him:

– We know where they had been taken. We saw at the window and they were placed in the middle of a large room that they had decorated. 

– Oh, if it happened to me too, – the Fir thought. – Now I’ve become taller like the ones they took the last year.

– How great it would be for me to stay in a cart or a ship and see new things!

The sun and the wind told him to enjoy his youth, but he didn’t listen to them. And he thought: ‘‘after the decoration something bigger is expecting them, surely it’ll be better and more wonderful! ’’

The Fir grew taller day by day, and all the pedestrians that passed by, said: ‘‘what a wonderful tree!’’

When the Christmas came, our fir was the first tree that was cut. When the axe started hitting him, he felt the pain and fell to the ground. And all the dreams he had were gone, he understood he would not see his friends anymore, the birds, the wind and the sun. People took him to a yard and a man said: ‘‘we’ll take this one, it’s the most beautiful tree.’’ Then two servants in wonderful uniforms came, they took the fir and brought him to a big living room. Then they put him in a large pot full of sand. Some young ladies came to decorate the fir, and filled him with gifts and beautiful candles. And on the top of him, they put a beautiful glowing star. Having finished everything, they said: ‘‘how wonderfully will it glow tonight!’’. And the fir was wondering how beautiful he would be when the light the people had put around him would be on. While thinking about that, his skin was hurting, and it’s the same as the headache for people. The evening came and the lights were on, the candles were lit. The Fir was feeling so beautiful and happy, it was the happiest day of his life. By the joy, he shook his branches and a candle fell down and burnt the branches a little. But the young ladies went immediately to put the fire out. Then he stopped shaking because he was afraid of the fire. Little time passed and the door opened, a bunch of kids entered in the room and ran towards the fir. The kids took all the gifts hung on the fir and if he hadn’t been bound to the pot, he would have fallen down. They took all the decorations and only the star on top of him remained. The children asked a man to tell them a tale and he sat by the fir and began to tell the Humpy-Dumpy tale, who always fell from the stairs, but rose again and at the end he married a princess. The Fir was thinking: ‘‘tomorrow they will decorate me again and I will glow like I did tonight!’’ 

The next day, they took the fir and threw him at the attic, in a dark place where no one could see him. The Fir started thinking about the happy night that passed and how he was decorated, and he thought there would come the day they would decorate him again like that. But day and nights passed and no one remembered about the fir. Then one night three little mice showed up and asked him about the things he knew, and the Fir began to tell them about the beautiful times he had passed into the woods and how the birds came over his head and the kids played around him. Recollecting all those memories, the Fir felt that during that time he had been really happy and he regret the fact he didn’t enjoy his youth. The mice came every night to hear his stories and they were increasing in number night by night. One night two black mice came over, and after they heard the Fir’s story they said: 

– That’s the only story you can tell?

Fir said it was the only story he knew and they told him it wasn’t that interesting. Then the other mice didn’t like his story as much as before, so they stopped coming to have conversations with the tree, so Fir was alone. He passed so many nights lonely and had too much time to think about his past. And when he recalled the moments when the rabbit overpassed him, he missed that. One day, a man took the Fir and threw it in the yard. There were playing some kids, the ones who were coming around him on the Christmas night. One of them approached Fir and he noticed the star that was left on his head. He took the star and went to show it to the other boy. When the Fir saw himself, his leaves were dried and yellow, he had lost the greenness he had before. A few days passed and the man came and chopped the tree into pieces. Then he threw the Fir on fire and burnt him, and the kids came around doing: ‘Paf! Paf!’ when they listened to the sound of the fir cracking while being burnt. Each time he cracked he recalled a memory, from all what he had lived in the middle of the forest with the birds, the rabbit, the wind and the sun. But those memories were gone once and for all because his life was coming to the end already!