And how about the tree? The tree is composed of oak and cedar limbs.
The solicitous friend of the family who expended no small amount
of patience and ingenuity in its construction declares that a more
finished and perfect piece of work never left his hands. It would
be impossible to count the presents that dangle from its branches.
According to the computation of a small boy present, they are
more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore. There are
sweetmeats nestling in shells of frilled paper, mandarins which are
the wee babes of the oranges, chestnuts draped in mantillas of silver
paper, tiny boxes containing bonbons of homoeopathic proportions,
figures of every variety, on foot and on horseback,--in a word,
everything that God ever created with a view to its being perfected
later on by the confectioner or sold by Scropp, has been put here by
hands which are as liberal as they are skilful. This tree of life is
illumined by such an abundance of little wax tapers that according
to the testimony of a four-year-old guest there were more lights
there than the stars in heaven. The delight of this youthful swarm
is not comparable to any human sentiment. It is the ineffable joy
of the celestial choirs in presence of the Supreme Good and Supreme
Beauty. They are almost reasonable in their overflowing satisfaction;
and they stand half perplexed in a seraphic ecstasy, with their
whole soul in their eyes, anticipating all that they are going to
eat, floating like angels of heaven in the pure ether of sweet and
delicious things, in the perfume of flowers and cinnamon, in the
increate essence of youthful greediness and play.