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The Christmas Spirits and the Trees: December

Our ancestors who lived across the Big Water used to decorate their homes with the branches of the Evergreens in winter as a refuge for the spirits of the woods from the bitter weather; and these same spirits have, ever since and every day, been repaying the kindness a thousandfold! Take the Pine family alone, the Christmas Trees and their relations, and look what they have helped give us, not only at Christmas, but throughout the year; our books and magazines and newspapers, and our pianos and the music the pianos play, and the pretty shoes that work the pedals and other kinds of leather things in the tanning of which hemlock bark is used; and the house, with its shingles, partitions, and stairways, and the frames of the windows through which we watch our winter bird friends at their Christmas tables on the window-sill; yes, and helped bring Uncle John from Colorado and the telegram that said he was coming! How could a telegram ride across country without poles? Or a locomotive pull a train on a track without ties? As for the gifts from other trees, where did those Walnuts and Butternuts and Chestnuts come from? And the coasters and the hobby-horse and the doll-house and its furniture? And the phonograph and the radio? And who helped mother get the Christmas dinner but the chopping-bowl and the bread-board and the potato-masher and the rolling-pin?