Student Question
How does Buddy's cousin demonstrate the specialness of their cut-down tree in A Christmas Memory?
Quick answer:
Buddy's cousin shows that the tree they have cut down is special by refusing to sell it despite needing the money. On their way home, she turns down an offer of cash because the tree is unique.
To select a Christmas tree for their household, Buddy’s cousin takes him to an "ocean" of holiday trees far in the woods where her own father had taken her as child. Buddy and his cousin choose a fragrant holly that is
twice as tall as me. A brave handsome brute that survives thirty hatchet strokes before it keels with a creaking rending cry.
Buddy’s cousin demonstrates to him that their tree is precious in how she protects and decorates it. For example, as they carry this enormous tree on a trek home, passersby cannot help but admire it. Nonetheless, the cousin reveals little information about the tree and is secretive about its source.
My friend is sly and noncommittal when passers-by praise the treasure perched in our buggy: what a fine tree, and where did it come from? "Yonderways," she murmurs vaguely.
In fact, despite the pair’s need for money,...
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the cousin actually refuses cash for this tree.
Once a car stops, and the rich mill owner's lazy wife leans out and whines: "Giveya two-bits" cash for that ol tree."
Ordinarily my friend is afraid of saying no; but on this occasion she promptly shakes her head: "We wouldn't take a dollar."
The mill owner's wife persists. "A dollar, my foot! Fifty cents. That's my last offer. Goodness, woman, you can get another one."
In answer, my friend gently reflects: "I doubt it. There's never two of anything."
The cousin shows Buddy that the tree they selected is unique and irreplaceable.
At home, only sparse and old objects are available to decorate the tree. To the cousin, they are not worthy enough for the tree. She wants it
to blaze "like a Baptist window," droop with weighty snows of ornament.
Since they are unable to afford store-bought decorations, they set to work creating custom-made ornaments, dedicating days to drawing, coloring, and carving designs out of materials they already have.
I make sketches and my friend cuts them out: lots of cats, fish too (because they're easy to draw), some apples, some watermelons, a few winged angels devised from saved-up sheets of Hershey bar tin foil.
They carefully pin their unique works of art to the tree, and
as a final touch, we sprinkle the branches with shredded cotton (picked in August for this purpose).
Months earlier they even had planned a special way to culminate their homemade yet extraordinary decorations.
Buddy’s cousin emphasizes how special the tree and their handiwork is after gazing at it and exclaiming,
Now honest, Buddy. Doesn't it look good enough to eat!
Her compliment recalls the pair’s main project: gifts of home-baked fruitcakes.