Valentine and Marie lived with their poor grandmother. On Christmas Eve, just as these three people sat down for supper, there came a knock. A sweet voice called, “Let me in! I am a little child. I am cold and hungry! Please, good people let me in!”

      Valentine and Marie ran to open the door and said, “Come in, friend. We have not much more than you have, but what we have we will share with you.”

      The children shared their bread with him. Then they said, “Come, lie down in our bed. We will sleep on the bench before the fire tonight.”

      Valentine and Marie lay down on the bench before the fire and then they fell asleep. At midnight, Marie woke up her brother and whispered, “Valentine, listen to the beautiful music at the window.”

      Valentine rubbed his eyes and listened. He heard the most wonderful singing and the sweet notes of a harp. The children crept to the window and looked out. They saw a rosy light in the east and the stranger Child. He was clad in a golden garment, and wore a glistening, golden crown upon his soft hair.

      Sweetly, he spoke to the children, “For the generosity and pity that you showed me tonight, I will leave with you my blessing.” Then the stranger Child took out a bough of a fir tree and planted it in the ground, saying “This bough shall grow into a tree, and every year, it shall bear Christmas fruit for you.”

      And, as Valentine and Marie looked on the wonder, the fir bough grew, and grew, and grew, into a stately Christmas tree, laden with golden apples, silver nuts, and lovely toys. And after that, every year at Christmas wonderful fruits.