IT was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on a pair of slippers¹ when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, that they had belonged to her mother, and the poor little creature had lost them in running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized upon the other and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle, when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron² she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had any one given here even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she looked the picture of misery³. The snowflakes fell on her long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.

天气非常非常冷，夜幕已降临，雪下得很大。这是旧年最后的一夜——除夕之夜。在寒冷和黑暗中，一个可怜的小女孩，光头赤脚仍在大街上徘徊。当她离家出门的时候，脚上的确穿着一双拖鞋的，但是那是一双相当大的拖鞋——的确太大了，那是她妈*。这可怜的小家伙在匆忙横穿马路的时候，两辆马车飞快地闯过来，吓得她把拖鞋跑丢了。一只怎么也找不到了，另一只被一个小男孩抢跑了，并说等将来他有了孩子要为他做摇篮。这小女孩只好光着脚在街上行走，一双脚步冻得又红又青。她那破旧的围裙兜着许多火柴，手里还拿着一小捆。可整整一天谁也没有向她买过一根——谁也没有给她一个铜板。她又饿又冷，哆哆嗦嗦地向前走着，一幅非常凄惨的景象。雪花落在她那金黄色的头发上——长长的卷发披散在肩上，看起来十分美丽，可她考虑不到这些。