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 darkness, a poor
little girl with bare head and naked feet, roamed thru 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, for they
had belonged to her Mother and the poor little girl had lost them in
running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling
at a terrible rate.
One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized the other and ran away with it saying 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 anyone given her even a penny.
Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, looking like the
picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her 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 could not keep off the cold. And she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches.
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. 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 as though she was sitting by a large iron stove. 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 it's 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 she had seen thru the rich merchant's glass door. 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 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 in Heaven 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 on the last evening of the year; and the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little child. The child still sat, 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.
