"Some one is just dead!" said the little girl; for her old
grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no
more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends 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 RED SHOES.

There was once a little girl who was very pretty and delicate, but in
summer she was forced to run about with bare feet, she was so poor,
and in winter wear very large wooden shoes, which made her little
insteps quite red, and that looked so dangerous!

In the middle of the village lived old Dame Shoemaker; she sate and
sewed together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of
old red strips of cloth; they were very clumsy, but it was a kind
thought. They were meant for the little girl. The little girl was
called Karen.

On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes,
and wore them for the first time. They were certainly not intended for
mourning, but she had no others, and with stockingless feet she
followed the poor straw coffin in them.

Suddenly a large old carriage drove up and a large old lady sate in
it: she looke