ds to God.

She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the
lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild,
and with such an expression of love.

"Grandmother!" cried the little one. "Oh, take me with you! You go
away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the
delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!" And
she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for
she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And
the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at
noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and
so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in
brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither
cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety--they were with God.

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with
rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall--frozen
to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the
child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. "She
wanted to warm herself," people said. No one had the slightest suspicion
of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the
splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a
new year.

THE DREAM OF LITTLE TUK

Ah! yes, that was little Tuk: in reality his name was not Tuk, but that
was what he called himself before he could speak plain: he meant it for
Charles, and it is all well enough if one does but know it. He had now
to take care of his little sister Augusta, who was much younger than
himself, and he was, besides, to learn his lesson at the same time; but
these two things would not do together at all. There sat the poor little
fellow, with his sister on his lap, and he sang to her all the songs he
knew; and he glanced the while from time to time into the geography-book
that lay open before him. By the next morning he was to have learnt
all the towns in Zealand by heart, and to know about them all that is
possible to be known.

His mother now came home, for she had been out, and took little Augusta
on her arm. Tuk ran quickly to the window, and read so eagerly that he
pretty nearly read his eyes out; for it got darker and darker, but his
mother had no money to buy a candle.

"There goes the old washerwoman over the way," said his mother, as