his wits."

"But I marked the tree with three crosses," he cried, "and I can lead you
straight to it."

They laughed, but to humor him they said he might take them to his
wonderful tree after dinner, when hot soup had given them all courage; so
that afternoon there was a long procession of people trudging through the
Dark Wood with Peter at their head. By the time he arrived at the tree he
was trembling like a leaf with excitement. There, sure enough, stood a
tall pine-tree marked with the three crosses, but it was otherwise in no
way different from its fellows. "Yes, but wait for evening; then you will
see it change," said Peter.

They laughed a little and grumbled a little; but most of them had filled
their lanterns and brought bread and cheese against a hungry time, and
after all, it was not so cold in the forest, for the North Wind with his
blue ballooned cheeks could not blow hard down those long avenues. Peter
was full of excitement, for he was sure that the tree would become
magical as soon as the sun set.

When the last splashes of crimson had faded from the topmost boughs he
began anxiously to watch the tree about which all the villagers had
seated themselves in a circle after first scraping the snow from the dead
leaves. Darker and darker grew the air, and brighter the stars, while far
off in the forest the great cats began to talk to each other, and the
owls hooted and flew. Suddenly Peter gave a cry of joy. "See! See! the
wonderful fruit, the glowing leaves!"

"Nonsense!" said his wife. "O, poor loon, he will never be right again!"