"Haven't you had enough krippen for one day? I think we'd better wait especially as the choice will be better a little later on," her aunt told her.
The Christmas trees were arriving, and as the party proceeded homeward they saw them being set up in their little stands, in every square and open space.
"They do everything here in such a nice pleasant way," said Nan, as she and her aunt walked through the forest of trees standing erect all along the Maximilianplatz. "At home now, they throw the trees in a pile or crowd them together in any old place. Here each tree looks as if it were really growing, and that this were an avenue of them growing just for Christmas. You can so easily see exactly how they look and can pick out what you like without any trouble. How good and Christmassy it smells, and what quantities of trees there are, then there are more coming. Can they sell so many, I wonder? The whole city seems to be full of them."
"When you consider that nearly every family in Munich will probably have a tree, you can imagine the number will be somewhat lessened by Christmas Eve." And true enough, as it proved, there was scarcely a tree left, at least on the Maximilianplatz, by the day before Christmas. More than one of the number went to the Pension Bauer, and one was purchased for the family of Frau Pfeffer.
Before this, however, there was the expedition to Sonnenstrasse to see the collection of Christmas-tree ornaments, krippen and such things which the country folk had brought for sale, and which were set out in small booths all along the street. Jean's fancy fell upon a tiny krippe which she and Jack bore away in triumph.
The days were very short and sunless, so that nightfall came very early, but in spite of that the streets were full of people who filled the big shops, or loitered along the streets, stopping leisurely before the windows to look in, and because it seemed the general custom for every one to go out as soon as it got dark, the Corner family followed suit.
"I suppose they do it to save candles," said Miss Helen. "There is German thrift for you."
"I think it is great fun," said Nan. "Why shouldn't they come out and look at the pretty things? The shop-windows are very attractive especially now, and some of the things are very cheap. I saw a fascinating silver chain on Sonnenstrasse, and it was ever so much cheaper than in other shops in more fashionable parts of the city. It is much handsomer, too. Jo and I gloated over that window."
"That was the one from which we had such difficulty in dragging you, wasn't it?"
"Yes, we saw so many pretty cheap things there, and we wanted to buy them every one. I'd love to give Jo that chain."