"The Little Match Girl" (La pequeña de los
fósforos) es una historia del poeta y autor danés Hans Christian Andersen. La
historia, sobre los sueños de una niña, fue publicada por primera vez en 1845.
Ha sido adaptada a varios medios, incluyendo un film animado y un musical para television.
Most terribly cold it was; it
snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening—the last
evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a
poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home she had
slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large
slippers, which her mother had until then worn; so large were they; and the
poor little thing lost them as she struggled across the street, because of two
carriages that rolled by extremely fast.
One slipper was nowhere to be found;
the other had been laid hold of by an urchin,
and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he
some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on
with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a
quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand.
Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her
a single farthing.