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Tale Summary

One New Year’s Eve, a poor little girl wandered barefoot through the streets in the bitter cold. She was carrying a box of matches to sell, but no one bought any all day, and she dared not go home empty-handed because her father would beat her. She crouched down and lit a match because her hands were almost frozen, and when it lit, she fancied that she was sitting in front of a big stove. The match burnt out just when she imagined that she was stretching her feet out to be warmed. She struck up a new one, and felt that she could see a roast goose on a set table, which waddled across the floor to her until the match went out. She lit another, and found herself under a Christmas tree. When the match burned out she looked at the sky and saw a shooting star, and remembered that her grandmother had told her that when a star falls, a soul is going up to god. The old woman appeared to her with the next match she struck. The girl didn’t want her to disappear and hastily struck a whole bundle of matches to keep her from fading like the oven, the goose, and the christmas tree. She was taken into her grandmother’s arms and together they soared in a halo of light and joy far above the earth to be with god. Her little body was found the next morning, New Year’s Day, frozen to death with a fistful of burnt out matches in her hand. People said she must have tried to warm herself, but no one knew the wonderful visions she had.

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