THE SNOW 
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and that it was easy enough to find things for those 
boys of his. 
“I will give one a tennis racket,” he said, “and 
the other a football.” 
Then he told me as a very great secret that he 
intended to give his son Percy and Little Joseph 
the best presents of all, although what they were 
he was careful not to mention. The third secret 
Mr. Hayden told me was that he was having the 
Christmas tree made. 
“Yes,” he said, “it is to be an artificial tree; one 
that can fold up and be put away so as to be ready 
for all other Christmases to come. I do not ap- 
prove,” he continued, “of cutting down our splen- 
did evergreens for Christmas trees. They are be- 
coming scarcer every year. It is a barbarous cus- 
tom to chop down a beautiful tree that it may give 
a few hours’ pleasure. My son Percy does not 
approve of this custom, either. He would be 
shocked if I should have a real evergreen tree at 
Nestly Heights on Christmas eve, and I should no 
longer be able to preach to people about the preser- 
vation of our evergreens. Yes,” he said again, “I 
am having my tree made. There is too much fun 
in preaching to have to give it up.” 
Mr. Hayden was certainly in excellent spirits. I 
promised to keep all his secrets and to help him as 
much as I could to bring about his Christmas sur- 
prises. 
“Not a word of this to Little Joseph,” he said 
