The Little Girl Selling Matches

The Little Girl Selling Matches

One Christmas night, it is very cold.

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

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

"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 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.

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

However she dare not go home, because she didn't sell one match, so she gets no money. If she goes back, her father will beat her. What's more, her house is also cold.

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. She seems to be sitting near a stove. The flame is so nice and warm. When she wants to stretch out her feet to warm them, the flame goes out... also the stove disappears and she sits there with a matchstick.

She strikes another. The wall lit up by the flame become transparent. She sees a table cloth covering the table in a room, where there are nice bowls, plates and a yummy roasted goose. Look! The goose has a knife and fork in its back. The goose is walking to her. Just then, the flame goes out and the thick wall is back in front of her.

The little girl strikes the third match. In the light, she seems to reach a Christmas tree, which is so big and nice. The tree with a lot 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.

"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 is good to me. I know, you will disappear if the match goes out.

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 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 some burnt matches, sitting beside the wall, but she is dead.