The Little Match-Seller

The last day of the year was cold and dark, with a snow falling fast. A poor little girl, with bare head and fee, was walking in the streets with bundle of matches in her apron. Her feet were uite red and blue with the cold,a nd no one had bought anything from her the whole day, nor gi!en her e!en penny. She shi!ered with cold ang hunger. There were light shining from e!ery window and there was the smell of delicious food as it was "ew #ear$s %!e. She huddled in a corner between two houses. She dared not return home without ha!ing sold any of the matches, for her father would certainly beat her. At home it would be &ust as cold, for the wind would howl through the holes in their roof. Her hands were almost fro'en with the cold and she suddenly thought, (Ah, a burning match might help)* She drew one from the bundle and struck it against the wall. +t ga!e a warm bright light as she held her other hand o!er it. +t seemed to her that she was sitting by a large iron sto!e wih polished brass and a brass ornament. She stretched out her feet to warm them as well but oh, the flame went out) She struck another match on the wall and its flame seemed to turn the wall transparent. She could see into a room where a table was laid with a steaming roast goose &umped down from the table and waddled towards the girl) Then the match went out. She struck another match and she found herself sitting under the most beautiful ,hirstmas tree she had e!er seen. Thousands of light and decorations filled the green branches. As she stretched out her little hand towards them, the matches went out. The ,hristmas lights rose higher and higher till they appeared like stars up in the sky. Then she saw a falling star and she tought, (Someane is dying.* Her grandmother, the only who had e!er lo!ed her and who was

now dead, had once told her that when a star fell, a soul was going up to -od. The ne.t match that she struck showed her old grandmother standing in the brightness. The little girl cried, (-randma, please take me with you) + know that when the match burns out, you will disappear, like the warm sto!e, the roast goose, the lo!ely ,hirstmass tree.* She uickly lit as many matches as she could. The matches glowed so brightly that it seemed as if it was noon. Her grandmother held the little girl in her arms and they flew upwards towards the sky. %arly ne.t morning, the child was found fro'en to death, leaning against the wall but with a smile on her face. A passerby who saw the bundle of burnt matches in her hand said, (She must ha!e tried to warm herself.* "o one knew of the mar!ellous things she had seen and that she was now with her grandmother on "ew #ear$s /ay.