Is that where you come from ? Have you been in the storeroom , where cheeses lie on the shelves , and hams hang from the ceiling , where one dances on tallow candles , and where one goes in thin and comes out fat ? ' ' I know nothing about that , ' said the tree . ` But I know the wood , where the sun shines , and the birds sing . ' And then it told them all about its young days , and the little mice had never heard anything like that before , and they listened with all their ears , and said : ` Oh , how much you have seen ! How lucky you have been ! ' ` I ? ' said the fir-tree , and then it thought over what it had told them . ` Yes , on the whole those were very happy times . ' But then it went on to tell them about Christmas Eve , when it had been adorned with sweet-meats and tapers . ` Oh ! ' said the little mice , ` how lucky you have been , you old fir-tree ! ' ` I 'm not at all old ' said the tree . ' I only came from the wood this winter . I am only a little backward , perhaps , in my growth . ' ` How beautifully you tell stories ! ' said the little mice . And next evening they came with four others , who wanted to hear the tree 's story , and it told still more , for it remembered everything so clearly and thought : ` Those were happy times ! But they may come again . Humpty dumpty fell downstairs , and yet he married a princess ; perhaps I shall also marry a princess ! '
And then it thought of a pretty little birch-tree that grew out in the wood , and seemed to the XXXXX a real princess , and a very beautiful one too .
cheeses days fir-tree hams shelves story sun sweet-meats tapers tree