"
"Tell me about it," I said, "I have heard about these Christmas
celebrations, but have never seen any."
"Well," said Paula, "sit down here, close to the fire, and I'll tell you
what we did last year. Four of our men went to the mountains and cut down a
beautiful pine tree. They had to go up to their waists in snow, and what a
job it was to bring it all the way down to Villar. But they were all very
strong. My father was one of them. They dragged the tree into the church
because there wouldn't have been room for everybody in the little
school-house. We all helped to decorate it with gold and silver nuts, and
we hung apples and oranges everywhere on its branches. But the beautiful
part were the candles. There were hundreds of them in blue, green, red,
white and yellow. If you could only have seen how beautiful it was, Lisita,
when the candles were lit, especially when they crowned the top of the tree
with a lovely white angel. We sang the wonderful Christmas hymns. Then the
pastor gave us a fine talk about the Saviour. At the close, each of us
children was given an apple, an orange, a little bag of sweets, and a
beautiful little book."
"Oh," said I, "how happy I should be if father would let us go to see it
all.
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