She rubbed（摩擦） 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（面纱）,

and she could see into the room.

The table was covered（覆盖） with a snowy white table-cloth,

on which stood a splendid（极好的） dinner service, and a steaming roast（烤） goose, stuffed（填充） with apples and dried plums.

And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled（蹒跚） across the floor,

with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl.

Then the match went out,

and there remained nothing but the thick, damp（潮湿）, 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（装饰） than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant's（商人）.

Thousands of tapers（细蜡烛） 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 a bright streak（疾驰） 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 dead, 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（温和的） 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（消失） like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large, glorious（辉煌的） Christmas-tree."

And she made haste（匆忙） 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（苍白的） cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall;

she had been frozen（冻） to death on the last evening of the year;

and the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse（尸体）!

The child still sat, in the stiffness（僵硬） of death,

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（光荣） she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year's day.