Still, as it grew, it complained, “Oh, if I were only as tall as the other trees! then I [[42]]should spread out my branches on every side, and my crown would overlook the wide world. The birds would build their nests in my branches, and when the wind blew, I should bow with stately dignity like the others.”
So discontented was the tree that it took no pleasure in the sunshine, or the birds, or in the rosy clouds that floated over it morning and evening.
Sometimes in winter, when the snow lay white and sparkling on the ground, a hare [[43]]would come leaping along and jump right over the little tree’s head; then how mortified it felt!
Two winters passed; and when the third came, the tree had grown so tall that the hare was obliged to run round it.
“Ah, to grow and grow! to become tall and old! That is the only thing in the world worth caring for,” the fir tree sighed.
In the autumn the woodcutters always came and cut down several of the tallest trees, and the young fir, which had now grown to a very good height, shuddered as the noble trees fell to the ground with a crash. After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and bare that they could scarcely be recognized. Then the trees were placed, one upon another, on wagons, and dragged by horses out of the forest. “Where were they going? What was going to become of them?” The young fir tree wondered a great deal about it.
So in the spring, when the swallows and the storks came, it asked them: “Do you [[44]]know where those trees were taken? Did you meet them?”
The swallows knew nothing of them, but the stork, after a little reflection, nodded his head and said: “Yes, I think I know. As I flew from Egypt I met several new ships, and they had fine masts that smelt like fir. These must have been the trees, and I assure you they were most stately and grand; they towered majestically.”
“Oh, how I wish I were tall enough to go on the sea!” said the fir tree. “Tell me, what is this sea, and what does it look like?”