賣火柴的小女孩The little match seller（四）
She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas-tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant's. Thousands of tapers 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 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.
(to be continued...)
她又擦着了一根火柴，現在她發現自己正坐在非常美麗的聖誕樹下面，比透過那富商家的玻璃門看到的那株還要大、還要美。這株樹的綠枝上點燃着許許多多的蠟燭，顏色瑰麗的圖畫，就象櫥窗裏掛着的那些一樣漂亮，彷彿在向她眨眼。小姑娘把兩隻手伸過去，火柴又熄滅了。
然而聖誕樹上的燭光越升越高，直到在她的眼中成了天上的星星。這時，有一顆落下來，在它後面劃出一道長長的火絲。“一定有人要死了。”小姑娘想。因爲她的老祖母——一個已故去的唯一疼愛她的人，曾經告訴過她，一旦天上落下一顆星，就有一個靈魂回到上帝那裏去了。
