The Little Girl Selling Matches卖火柴的小女孩

One Christmas night, it is very cold.

In the cold and darkness, a girl is walking bare foote d in the snow and wind.

Her feet are pale and frozen.There are some matches in the pocket of her apron.

"Buy matches.Please buy matches!" The little girl cries in a faint voice which nobody hears as they hurry by.

She doesn't sell any matches and no one gives her a copper coin.

How poor the little girl is! She is cold and hungry and shivers onward with a pale face. Snowflakes fall onto her blond hair.

There are lights at all the windows. The smell of roast goose is in the street.

She bears the hunger and sits down in the corner of a wall, she curls herself up in the apron.

The wind is getting stronger, the snow becomes a storm, she feels colder.

However she dare not return home because she didn't sell one match, so she doesn't have a penny. If she goes back, her father will beat her. What's more, her house is also cold.

Her little hands are almost frozen stiff.

Oh! A matchstick is useful for her.

The little girl takes out a match and strikes it on the wall. The match gives out a flame. When she puts her hand over it, becomes a warm and bright flame. She seems to be sitting near a stove. The flame is so nice and warm. When she wants to stretch ou t her feet to warm them, the flame goes out... also the stove disappears and she sits there with a matchstick.

She strikes another. The part of the wall lit up by the flame become transparent, like a thin veil. She seems to see a table cloth covering the table in a room, where there are exquisite bowls, plates and a fragrantly roasted goose. Look! The goose has a knife and fork in its back. The goose is staggering towards her. Just then, the flame goes out and the thick wall is back in front of her.

The little girl strikes the third match. Following the light, she seems to reach a Christmas tree, which is so big and nice. It is bigger and more beautiful than one she has seen in a rich man's house. The tree with thousands of candles and colorful pictures is blinking at her. She holds out her hands but the match goes out. The candle lights go up and become bright stars. One of them falls down and a red ray of light streaks across the sky.

"Now someone will pass away." the little girl says. She still remembers what her grandma said when she was alive. She said:"A soul will go to the heaven when a star falls down from the sky!"

......

"Grandma!" the little girl says, "Please take me away. In a world, you are the only one who took good care of me. I know, you will disappear if the match goes out, just like the missing warm stove, fragrantly roasted goose and nice Christmas tree."

She wants to stay with grandma and then she strikes the last matches which give off a blazing light. In the light, the grandma looks so loving and kind. She smiles at

her and hugs her and takes her away. They fly higher and higher to the place where there is no cold or hunger.

In the morning of the New Year, the girl with red cheeks smiles, sitting in the corner of the wall, but she is dead.

The sun rises and shines on her little body. She is sitting there with some half-burnt matches. The people stand around her and say: "How she wanted to be warmed!" But no one knows that she has seen such beautiful things. But she is happy in heaven with her grandma in the blessing of the New Year.