THE LITTLE MATCH-SELLER

by Hans Christian Andersen

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 IT was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening

of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold

and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked

feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair

of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use.

They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged

to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in

running across the street to avoid two carriages that were

rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she

could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away

with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had

children of his own. So the little girl went on with her

little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the

cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had

a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of

her the whole day, nor had any one given here even a penny.

Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little

child, she looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell

on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders,

but she regarded them not.

 Lights were shining from every window, and there was a

savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year's eve- yes,

she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses, one of

which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled

herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but

she could not keep off the cold; and she dared not go home,

for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a

penny of money. Her father would certainly beat her; besides,

it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the

roof to cover them, through which the wind howled, although

the largest holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her

little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a

burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from

the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her

fingers. She drew one out-"scratch!" how it sputtered as it

burnt! It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as

she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It

seemed to the little girl that she was sitting by a large iron

stove, with polished brass feet and a brass ornament. How the

fire burned! and seemed so beautifully warm that the child

stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame

of the match went out, the stove vanished, and she had only

the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.

 She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a

flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as

transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The

table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth, on which

stood a splendid dinner service, and a steaming roast goose,

stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more

wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled

across the floor, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the

little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained

nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.

 She lighted another match, and then she found herself

sitting under a beautiful Christmas-tree. It was larger and

more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen

through the glass door at the rich merchant's. Thousands of

tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored

pictures, like those she had seen in the show-windows, looked

down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand

towards them, and the match went out.

 The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they

looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star

fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. "Some one is

dying," thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the

only one who had ever loved her, and who was now dead, had

told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.

 She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone

round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear

and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance.

"Grandmother," cried the little one, "O take me with you; I

know you will go away when the match burns out; you will

vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large,

glorious Christmas-tree." And she made haste to light the

whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her

grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that

was brighter than the noon-day, and her grandmother had never

appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in

her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far

above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor

pain, for they were with God.

 In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with

pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall; she

had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year; and

the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The

child still sat, in the stiffness of death, holding the

matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt. "She tried

to warm herself," said some. No one imagined what beautiful

things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with

her grandmother, on New-year's day.

 THE END

 [Translated from Danish]

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