1. Reading Lesson

A Christmas Tree

I have been looking on this evening at a merry company of children assembled round that pretty German toy, a Christmas Tree.

The tree was planted in the middle of a great round table, and towered high above their heads. It was brilliantly lighted by a multitude of little tapers; and everywhere it sparkled and glittered with bright objects. There were rosy-cheeked dolls, hiding behind the green leaves; there were real watches dangling from innumerable twigs; there were French-polished tables, chairs, bedsteads, eight-day clocks, and various other articles of domestic furniture, wonderfully made ir| tin, perched among the boughs, as if in preparation for some fairy housekeeping; there were jolly, broad-faced little men, much more agreeable in appearance than many real men - and no wonder, for their heads took off, and showed them to be full of sugar-plums; there were fiddles and drums; there were books, work-boxes, paint-boxes, sweetmeat boxes, all kinds of boxes; there were trinkets for the elder girls, and baskets, and pin cushions; there were guns, swords, and banners; there were needle-cases, pen-wipers, humming tops, and teetotums; in short, as a pretty child before me delightedly whispered to another pretty child, "There was everything, and more."

Being now at home again, and alone, my thoughts are drawn back to my own childhood. Straight, in the middle of the room, cramped in the freedom of its growth by no encircling wall, or soon-reached ceiling, a shadowy tree arises; and looking up into the dreamy brightness of its top - for I observe in this tree the singular property that it appears to grow downward towards the earth - I look into my youngest Christmas recollections !

All toys, at first I find. Up yonder, among the green holly and red berries, is the Tumbler with his hands in his pockets, who wouldn't lie down, but whenever he was put upon the floor, persisted in rolling his fat body about, until he rolled himself still, and brought those lobster eyes of his to bear upon me. Then I affected to laugh very much but in my heart of hearts was very doubtful of him.

Upon the next branches of the tree, lower down, hard by the green roller and miniature gardening tools, how thick the books begin to hang. Thin books, in themselves, at first, but many of them, and with deliciously smooth covers of bright red or green. What fat, black letters to begin with!

Now the very tree itself changes, and becomes a beanstalk - the marvellous beanstalk up which Jack climbed to the Giant's house! And Jack - how noble, with his sword of sharpness and his shoes of swiftness !

Good for Christmas time is the ruddy color of the cloak in which little Red Riding Hood comes to me one Christmas eve to give me information of the cruelty and treachery of that wolf who ate her grandmother and then ate her, after making that ferocious joke about his teeth.

On the lower and maturer branches of the tree Christmas associations cluster thick. School books shut up; the Rule of Three is long disposed of; cricket bats, stumps, and balls left higher up with the smell of trodden grass and the softened noise of shouts in the evening air: the tree is still fresh, still gay.

And if I no more come home at Christmas time there will be boys and girls, thank Heaven, while the world lasts. Yonder they dance and play upon the branches of my tree, God bless them, and my heart dances and plays, too!

- Charles Dickens.

2. Study

Why is the Christmas tree called a German toy? Was the first tree that is described in a German home? You can tell by finding out where the author lived.

Explain what the little girl meant by what she said of the tree.

, What Christmas tree is the one that is described next? What sort of things were on the upper branches of the tree? Which one is remembered best? What sorts of things were on the middle branches? What do you think some of the books were? What were on the lowest branches? The writer uses one hard word to tell.

What has become of the child when the story-reaches the time told in the last paragraph?

3. Word Studies

What other words mean the same as these?

multitude affected.

innumerable miniature.

recollections ruddy color.

See if your words will give the correct meaning in the story.

4. Composition

Choose one of these topics to talk about, or one to write about, as your teacher directs:

1. The tree which the author saw. 2 The tree-picture which the author's memories called up.

3. The Tumbler.

4. A Christmas tree that I remember.

5. The Christmas gift that gave me most pleasure.

5. Memory Work

Find and learn a Christmas verse or poem to recite to your class.