The Animals’ Christmas Tree




  The
  Animals’ Christmas Tree

  By
  The Rev. John P. Peters

  [Illustration]

  New York
  E. P. Dutton & Company
  681 Fifth Avenue




  COPYRIGHT, 1916
  BY
  E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY


  The Knickerbocker Press, New York




PUBLISHER’S NOTE


Originally published in the columns of _The Churchman_, this little
fable has been so often asked for, and since the outbreak of the War
has proved to embody such an obvious and important truth, that it has
been thought best to give it a wider publicity by re-issuing in its
present form.

Acknowledgment is hereby made of the courteous permission given by the
Editor of _The Churchman_.




The Animals’ Christmas Tree




The Animals’ Christmas Tree

[Illustration]


Once upon a time the animals decided to have a Christmas tree, and this
was how it came about. The swifts and the swallows in the chimneys in
the country houses, awakened from their sleep by joy and laughter,
had stolen down and peeped in upon scenes of happiness, the centre
of which was always an evergreen tree covered with wonderful fruit,
bright balls of many colors, and sparkling threads of gold and silver,
lying like beautiful frost-work among the green fir needles. A sweet,
fairy-like figure of a Christ-Child or an angel rested high among the
branches, and underneath the tree were dolls and sleds and skates and
drums and toys of every sort, and furs and gloves and tippets, ribbons
and handkerchiefs, and all the things that boys and girls need and
like; and all about this tree were gathered always little children with
faces oh! so full of wonderment and expectation, changing to radiant,
sparkling merriment as toys and candies were taken off the tree or from
underneath its boughs and distributed among them.

The swifts and the swallows told their feathered friends all about it,
and they told others, both birds and animals, until at last it began
to be rumored through all the animal world that on one day in the year
the children of men were made wonderfully happy by means of some sort
of a festival which they held about a fir-tree from the forest. Now,
of course the tame animals and the house animals, the dogs and the
cats and the mice, knew something more about this festival. But then,
they did not exchange visits with the wild animals, because they felt
themselves above them. They were always trying to be like men and
women, you know, putting on airs and pretending to know everything; but
after all they were animals and could not help making friendships now
and then with the wild creatures, especially when the men and women
were not there. And when they were asked about the Christmas tree, they
told still more wonderful stories than the swifts and the swallows
from the chimneys had told, for some of them had taken part in these
festivals, and some had even received presents from the tree, just like
the children. They said that the tree was called a Christmas tree,
because that strange fruit and that wonderful frosting came on it only
in the Christmas time, and that the Christmas time was the time when
men and women and little children, too, were always kind and good and
loving and gave things to one another; and they said, moreover, that
on the Christmas tree grew the things which everyone wanted and which
would make them happy, and that it was so, because in the Christmas
time everyone was trying to make everyone else happy and to think of
what other people would like. This they said was what they had seen
and heard told about Christmas trees. They did not quite understand
why it was so but they knew that the Christmas tree, when rightly
made, brought the Christmas spirit, and they had heard men say that
the Christmas spirit was the great thing, and that that was what made
everyone happy.

Well, the long and the short of it was that the animals talked of it in
their dens and on their roosts, in the fields and in the forests, wild
beasts and tame alike--the cows and horses in their stalls, the sheep
in their fold, the doves in their cotes, and the poultry in the poultry
yard, until all agreed that a Christmas tree would be a grand thing for
wild and tame alike. Like the men they, too, would have a tree of their
very own. But how to do it?

Then the lion called a meeting of all the creatures, wild and tame,
for you know the lion is king of beasts and when he calls they all
must come. You know, too, that before and during and after these animal
congresses, there is a royal peace. The lamb can come to the meeting
and sit down by the wolf, and the wolf dare not touch him; the dove
may perch on the bough between the hawk and the owl and neither will
harm him, when the great king of beasts has summoned them all together
to take counsel. But you know all about the rules of the animals, for
you have read them in books, and you have seen the pictures: how the
lion sits on his throne with a crown on one side of his head, and
all the other creatures gather about--the elephant, and giraffe, the
hippopotamus, the buffalo, wolves and tigers and leopards, foxes and
deer, goats and sheep, monkeys and orang-outangs, parrots and robins
and turkeys and swans and storks and eagles and frogs and lizards and
alligators, and all the rest besides.

Then, when the lion had called the meeting to order, the swifts and
the swallows told what they had seen, and a fat little pug-dog, with
a ribbon and a silver bell about his neck, wheezed out a story of a
Christmas tree that he had seen, and how a silver bell had grown
on that tree for him and a whole box of the best sweets he had ever
dreamed of while he lay comfortably snoozing on his cushion before the
fire. And a Persian cat, with her hair turned the wrong way, mewed out
her story of a Christmas tree that she had attended, and how there was
a white mouse made of cream cheese for her creeping about beneath the
branches.

Then the monkeys chattered and the elephants trumpeted, the horses
neighed, the hyenas laughed, and each in its own way argued for a
Christmas tree and told what they would do to help to make it. The
elephant would go into the forest and choose the tree and pull it up.
The buffaloes would drag it in. The giraffe would fix the ornaments on
the higher limbs, because its neck was long. The monkeys would scramble
up where the giraffe could not reach. The squirrels could run out on
the slender twigs and help the monkeys. The birds would fly about and
get the golden threads and put them on the tree with their beaks. The
fire-flies would hide themselves among the branches and sparkle like
diamonds, and the glow-worms promised to help the fire-flies by playing
candles, if someone would lift them up and put them on the branches.
The parrots and paroquets and other birds of gay plumage would give
feathers to hang among the branches, and the humming-birds promised to
flutter in and out among the twigs, and the sheep to give white wool to
lie like snow among the boughs.

Then the parrots screeched and the peacocks screamed with delight,
and you and I never could have told whether anybody voted aye or nay;
but the lion knew and the owl, for he was clerk, set it down in the
minutes, as the lion bade him, that all the birds and beasts would do
their part. So each planned what he could do. Even the little beetle,
who makes great balls of earth, thought that if he could only once see
one of those gay balls that grow on the children’s Christmas tree, he
might make some for the animals’ tree; different birds and beasts told
of the oranges and apples and holly-berries and who knows what they
could get and hang upon the tree. You see the animals came from many
places, and then, too, they could send the carrier pigeons to go and
bring fruit and berries, and who knows what besides, from oh, so far
away, because the carrier pigeons can fly through the air no one knows
how fast or how far.

Well, I cannot tell you everything that each one was going to do, but
if you will go and get your Noah’s ark and take the animals out one by
one, then you surely will think it out for yourself, for you have all
the animals there.

And so they arranged how they would ornament the tree, and the next
thing was to decide what presents should be hung on the tree or put
beneath its boughs, for each one must have his present. Well, after
much discussion in roars, and bellows, crows and croaks, lows and
screams and bleats, and baas and grunts, and all the other sounds
of bird and beast language, it was voted that each might choose the
present he wished hung on the tree. The clerkly owl should call their
names one by one, and each might declare his choice. So they began. The
parrots and the macaws thought that they would like oranges and bananas
and such things, which would look so pretty on the tree, too; and so
they were arranged for. The robins and the cedar birds chose cherries;
the partridges, partridge berries; the squirrels, red and gray and
black, nuts and apples and pears. The monkeys said the popcorn strings
would do for them, and the cats and dogs, remembering the Christmas
gifts which the pug-dog and Persian cat had told about, asked for tiny
mice made of cream cheese or chocolate. By and by it came the pig’s
turn to tell his choice. “Grunt, grunt!” said the pig, “I want a nice
pail of swill hung on the very lowest bough of all.”

“Ugh!” said the black leopard, so sleek and so clean.

“Faugh!” said the gazelle, with his dainty sense of smell.

“Neigh!” said the horse, so daintily groomed.

“What!” roared the lion, “what’s that you want?”

“A pail of swill,” grunted the pig. “Each one has chosen what he wants,
and I have a right to choose what I want.”

“But,” roared the lion, “each one has chosen something beautiful to
make the tree a joy to all.”

“Grunt, grunt,” said the pig. “The parrots and the macaws are going
to have oranges and bananas, and the robins and the cedar birds red
cherries, the partridges their berries, the squirrels nuts and apples
and pears, the dog and the cat their cream and chocolate mice. They all
have what they want to eat. Grunt, grunt,” said he; “I will have what I
want to eat, too, and what I want is a pail of swill.”

Now, you see, it had been voted, as I told you, that each should choose
what he wanted hung on the tree for him, and so the lion could not help
himself. If the pig chose swill, swill he must have, and angrily he had
to roar: “If the pig wants swill, a pail of swill he must have, hung
on the lowest bough of the tree!”

Then the wolf’s wicked eyes gleamed, for his turn was next, and he
said: “If the pig has swill because he wants swill to eat, I must have
what I want to eat, and I want a tender lamb, six months old.” And at
that all the lambs and the sheep bleated and baaed.

“Ha, ha!” barked the fox; “then I want a turkey!” And the turkeys
gobbled in fear.

“And I,” said the tiger, “want a yearling calf.” And the cows and the
calves lowed in horror.

“And I,” said the owl, the clerk, “I want a plump dove.”

“And I,” said the hawk, “will take a rabbit.”

“And I,” said the leopard, “want a deer or a gazelle.”

Then all was fear and uproar. The hares and the rabbits scuttled into
the grass; the gazelles and the deer bounded away; the sheep and cattle
crowded close together; the small birds rose in the air in flocks; and
the Christmas tree was like to have come to grief and ended, not in
Christmas joy, but in fear and hatred and terror.

Then a little timid lamb stepped out and bleated: “Ah! king lion, it
would be very sad if all the animals should lose their Christmas tree,
for the very thought of that tree has brought us closer together, and
here we were, wild and tame, fierce and timid, met together as friends;
and oh! king lion, rather than there should not be a tree, they may
take me and hang me on it. Let them not take the turkeys and gazelles
and the calves and the rabbits, and all the rest that they have chosen.
Let the tigers and leopards, and wolves and foxes and eagles, and hawks
and owls and all their kind be content that their Christmas present
shall be a lamb; and so we may come together again and have our happy
Christmas tree, and each have what he wishes.”

“But,” said the lion, “what will you have? If you give yourself, then
you will have no Christmas present.”

“Yes,” said the lamb, “I, too, shall have what I want, for I shall have
brought them all together again, and made each one happy.”

Then a dove fluttered down from a tree and landed on the ground beside
the lamb, and very timidly and softly she cooed: “Take me, too, king
lion, as the present for the owls and the hawks, and the weasels and
the minks, because for them a lamb is too big. I am the best present
for them. Take me, king lion!”

Then the lion roared: “See what the lamb and the dove have done! My
food, oh, tigers and leopards and wolves and eagles and all your kind,
is like your food; but I would rather eat nothing from our Christmas
tree than take this lamb or this dove for my present.”

Then all the beasts kept still, because the lion roared so loud and
angrily, and the birds that were flying away settled on the branches
of the trees, and the gazelles stopped their running and turned their
heads to listen, and the rabbits peeped out through the grass and brush
where they had hid. Then the lion turned to the pig, and roared:

“See this lamb and this dove! Are you not ashamed for what you have
done? You have spoiled all our happiness. Will you take back your
choice, you pig, or do you wish to ruin our Christmas tree?”

“Grunt, grunt,” said the pig, “it is my right. I want something good.
I don’t care for your lambs and your doves. I want my swill!”

Then the lion roared again: “Have all chosen?” and all answered, “Yes.”

“Then,” said the lion, “it is my choice.”

And all said: “It is.”

“I love fat and tender pigs. I choose a pig for my Christmas gift,”
roared the lion.

Did you ever hear a pig squeal? Oh, how that pig squealed then! And
he got up on his fat little legs and tried to run away, but all the
animals gathered around in a ring and the hyenas laughed, and the
jackals cried, and the dogs and the wolves and the foxes headed him
off, and hunted the poor pig back again. Then, when the pig found that
he could not run away, he lay down on his back with his feet in the air
and squealed with all his might: “Oh, I don’t want the swill; oh, I
don’t want the swill! I take it all back! I don’t want anything!”

But at first no one heard him, because all were talking at once in
their own way--barking and growling and roaring and chattering; but by
and by the lion saw that the pig was squealing something, so he roared
for silence, and then they all heard the pig squeal out that he did
not want any swill. And the lion roared aloud: “You have heard. Has the
owl recorded that the pig will have no swill?”

“Yes,” said the owl.

“Then,” said the lion, “record that the lion wants no pig.”

Then the tiger growled: “And I want no calf,” and one by one the
leopard and the eagle, the wolf and the fox, the hawk and the owl, and
all their kind, took back their votes.

And so it came about that the animals did have a Christmas tree after
all; but instead of hanging lambs and doves upon the tree, they agreed
that they could hang little images of lambs and doves, and other birds
and animals, too, perhaps. And by and by the custom spread until the
humans came to hang the same little images on their trees, too, and
when you see a little figure of a lamb or a dove on the Christmas tree,
you may know that it is all because the lamb and the dove, by their
unselfishness, saved the animals from strife; for neither thought
what he wanted from the tree, but each was ready to give himself for
the others, so that they might not fight and kill one another at the
Christmas time.

Was it not cruel of the wolves and tigers and leopards and foxes to
wish to eat the doves and sheep and rabbits and hares? But after all,
the worst one of the lot, I think, was the pig; for the pig began the
trouble, because he only thought of what Mr. Pig wanted for himself.

And do you know, I think that after all that is the trouble everywhere.
We can get along all right if the pig will only keep away, for when
the pig comes and begins to think what he can get for himself, without
thinking of the pleasure and the comfort of anyone else, why, then the
fun is all spoiled, and pretty soon all sorts of bad tempers and bad
passions are let loose.




TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE:


  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.