child softly; for her grandmother,
the only person who had loved her, and who was now dead, had told her
that whenever a star falls a soul mounts up to God.

She struck yet another match against the wall, and again it was light;
and in the brightness there appeared before her the dear old
grandmother, bright and radiant, yet sweet and mild, and happy as she
had never looked on earth.

"Oh, grandmother," cried the child, "take me with you. I know you will
go away when the match burns out. You, too, will vanish, like the warm
stove, the splendid New Year's feast, the beautiful Christmas tree." And
lest her grandmother should disappear, she rubbed the whole bundle of
matches against the wall.

And the matches burned with such a brilliant light that it became
brighter than noonday. Her grandmother had never looked so grand and
beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and both flew together,
joyously and gloriously, mounting higher and higher, far above the
earth; and for them there was neither hunger, nor cold, nor care--they
were with God.

But in the corner, at the dawn of day, sat the poor girl, leaning
against the wall, with red cheeks and smiling mouth--frozen to death on
the last evening of the old year. Stiff and cold she sat, with the
matches, one bundle of which was burned.

"She wanted to warm herself, poor little thing," people said. No one
imagined what sweet visions she had had, or how gloriously she had gone
with her grandmother to enter upon the joys of a new year.

[Illustration]

THE LOVING PAIR

A WHIPPING Top and a Ball lay close together in a drawer among other
playthings. One day the Top said to the Ball, "Since we are living so
much together, why should we not be lovers?"

But the Ball, being made of morocco leather, thought herself a very
high-bred lady, and would hear nothing of such a proposal. On the next
day the little boy to whom the playthings belonged came to the drawer;
he painted the Top red and yellow, and drove a bright brass nail right
through the head of it; it looked very smart indeed as it spun around
after that.

"Look at me," said he to the Ball. "What do you say to me now; why
should we not make a match of it, and become man and wife? We suit each
other so well!--you can jump and I can dance. There would not be a
happier pair in the whole world!"

"Do you think so?" said the Ball. "Perhaps you do not know that my
father and mother were morocco sl