The Little Match Girl Novel



It was snowing and the wind grew cold as darkness fell over the city. It was New Year's Eve. In the gathering gloom a little girl with bare feet padded through the streets. She had been wearing her mother's slippers when she left home, but they were far too big, and she had lost them while hurrying across a busy road. One of them was nowhere to be found, and a boy ran off with the other. So now her bare feet were mottled blue and red with the bitter cold.


In her old apron the little girl carried bundles of matches which her father had sent her out to sell, but all day long nobody had bought a single match from her. Cold and hungry, she made her weary way through the city. Brilliant lights streamed from the windows of big houses, where blazing fires crackled merrily in the hearth, and the smell of roast goose hung on the air, for it was New Year's Eve.


The little girl crouched down in a corner between two houses. She drew her knees up to her chest, but this seemed to make her even colder. She was afraid to go home, for she had sold nothing the whole day! Not a penny had she earned, and her father would surely be angry with her. But it was just as cold at home, for the wind whistled through the cracks in the walls and floorboards.


How wonderful it would be to light a match! All she had to do was take one out of the bundle, strike it on the wall, and warm her fingers at the flame. She drew out a match and struck it. How it sparkled and gleamed! How the flames leapt and the flames danced! It seemed to the little girl as if she were sitting at an enormous iron stove with brass ornaments on it. She stretched out her frozen feet to warm them-and the flame went out. Gone was the wonderful stove, and there she sat in the snow with the burnt-out match smoking between her fingers.


She struck another. The match flared up, making a new circle of brightness. The light fell on the stone wall, which immediately became as transparent as gauze. She found herself looking into a cosy room, where a table stood spread with a white linen tablecloth and set with silver, while in the middle steamed an enormous roast goose. The goose leapt out of the dish towards her-and the match went out. She saw nothing but the cold, grey wall before her.



Once again she struck a match, and found herself sitting at the foot of a magnificent Christmas tree. Thousands of tiny candles twinkled on the tips of the green branches, and brilliant paper streamers and tinsel hung down to the floor. The little girl stretched both hands towards it-and the match went out. The candles seemed to climb higher and higher, until she saw that they were the cold, bright stars above her. One of them fell across the wintry sky, drawing a long fiery tail behind it. Someone must be dying, she thought, for her old grandmother, who had always been so kind to her, had said,

"Whenever you see a falling star, you know that a soul is on its way to God!' She struck match. It threw a warm circle of light all round her, and within the bright circle stood her grandmother, smiling gently down on her. 'Oh, Grandmother,' cried the poor girl, 'take me with you please! I know I shall never see you again once the match burns out. You will vanish, just as the warm stove, the roast goose, and the beautiful Christmas tree did!' Quickly she struck the remaining matches, one after the other, for she did not want her Grandmother to disappear.

      Never had her grandmother looked so kind. She gathered the little girl into her arms and swept her up to heaven. How bright everything was! Here she felt neither cold, nor hunger, nor fear-for they were with God. Early next day the people found the little match-girl huddled against the wall, the spent matches scattered about her. She was dead, but there was a smile of happiness on her lips.

'Poor soul, she was trying to warm herself,' the people said; but no one guessed what beautiful things the match-girl had seen by the light of her matches, nor how happy she was with her grandmother that beautiful New Year's morning.


⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️