Читать книгу Short Stories for High Schools - Various - Страница 7

Table of Contents

A STORY OF THE FOREST

BY

Henry Van Dyke

This story is placed first because it is of the type that first delighted man. It is the story of high adventure, of a struggle with the forces of nature, barbarous men, and heathen gods. The hero is “a hunter of demons, a subduer of the wilderness, a woodman of the faith.” He seeks hardships and conquers them. The setting is the illimitable forest in the remote past. The forest, like the sea, makes an irresistible appeal to the imagination. Either may be the scene of the marvellous and the thrilling. Quite unlike the earliest tales, this story is enriched with description and exposition; nevertheless, it has their simplicity and dignity. It reminds us of certain of the great Biblical narratives, such as the contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal and the victory of Daniel over the jealous presidents and princes of Darius. In “The First Christmas Tree,” as in many others of these stories, a third person is the narrator. But the hero may tell his own adventures. “I did this. I did that. Thus I felt at the conclusion.” Instances are Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” and Stevenson’s “Kidnapped.” But whether in the first or third person, the story holds us by the magic of adventure.

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE[3]