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. "Someone 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 morningthere 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.