was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, was walking through the streets.

2. In an old apron she carried some papers of matches, and had one paper in her hand. No one had bought anything of her the whole day; no one had given her a penny. As she crept along, the snow-flakes fell on her long, curly, fair hair, but she did not mind them.

3. Lights were shining from every window, and from every house there was a nice smell of roast goose, for it was New-Year's eve. In a corner, between two houses, she sank down, and drew her little feet under her. But she could not keep off the cold, and she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches, and could not take home even a penny.

4. As her little hands were almost frozen with the cold, she thought that perhaps a burning match might warm her fingers. She drew one out, and it gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it.

5. It seemed to the little girl as if she were sitting by a large iron stove. How the fire burned! It felt so nice that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them. But the flame went out, the stove flew away out of her dream, and she had only the halfburnt match in her hand.

6. She rubbed another match on the wall, and it burst into a flame. Then she thought that she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table-cloth. Many grand silver dishes were on the table.

7. In one was a roast goose stuffed with apples and dried plums. But the strangest thing of all was that she thought the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in its breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there was nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.

8. She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas-tree. Hundreds and hundreds of wax-lights were burning upon the green branches, and on them were hung many

beautiful toys. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out.

9. 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 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.

10. 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 and loving. “Grandmother," cried the little one, "O, take me with you! I know you will

go away when

the match burns out; you will go away like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the beautiful Christmas-tree."

11. Then she lighted the whole paper of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. The matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noonday,

and her grandmother had never looked 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 is neither cold nor hunger.

12. In the morning lay the lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. She had been frozen to death on the last evening of the old year; and the New-Year's sun rose and shone upon a little corpse! The dead child sat, holding the matches in her hand. "She tried to warm herself," said some. But no one knew what lovely things she had seen, nor into what glory she had gone with her grandmother, on New-Year's day.

1. JOHN LARKIN was a little boy who was fond of seeing things grow. He had a pretty little garden, where he could see the tiny plants come up from the seeds which he had planted.

2. By the side of the garden, with a fence between, was a yard for the hens and chickens. He saw the hens go to their nests and lay their eggs. Each hen laid one egg almost every day; and soon after the egg was laid, the hen came off the nest, sometimes quietly, but nearly always cackling.

3. By the time the hen had laid a dozen or more eggs, she began to sit, for then she had a very strong feeling that she must sit upon them. them. And there she sat, all day and all night.

4. Once only in the day she would leave the nest, quickly snatch a little food, sip