The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Match Man, by Luigi Barzini This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: The Little Match Man Author: Luigi Barzini Illustrator: Hattie Longstreet Translator: S. F. Woodruff Release Date: May 7, 2017 [EBook #54678] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE MATCH MAN *** Produced by ellinora, Barbara Magni and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) This book has been transcribed for Project Gutenberg by Distributed Proofreaders, in memory of our friend and colleague Emmy * * * Mentor extraordinaire, and so much more * * * THE LITTLE MATCH MAN “I LIKE THIS FUR” THE LITTLE MATCH MAN BY LUIGI BARZINI Illustrations by HATTIE LONGSTREET THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY—PHILADELPHIA 1917 COPYRIGHT 1917 THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY 1917 The Little Match Man THE LITTLE MATCH MAN Translated from the Italian of Luigi Barzini by S. F. Woodruff CONTENTS I. My Surprise 11 II. The First Adventure 19 III. He Confides in Me 27 IV. About a Stork and a Battle 33 V. The Haji Saves the Warrior 43 VI. The Sad Story of the Transformation 51 VII. The End of Fiam’s Fears 59 VIII. Fiam Goes to the War 67 IX. Postage Stamps 73 X. Fiammiferino Has a Bath 83 XI. A Curious Costume 91 XII. Fiam as a Mountain Climber 97 XIII. A Change of Residence 103 XIV. Fiam Overlooks the Battle 109 XV. Fiam Wears a Fur Coat 115 XVI. Fiam’s Silver Armour 123 XVII. A Singular Encounter 129 XVIII. I Am Entrusted With a Delicate Mission 137 XIX. The Effect of Fiam’s Foresight 143 XX. Fiam Goes Forth 149 XXI. The Zeal of Dr. Tasa 159 [7] ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE “I Like This Fur” Frontispiece The Little Man Moved 16 “Look at Me!” 22 “The Knot is Loose” 24 “You Are Right,” He Said 30 “My Friend the Stork Arrived” 36 “I Must Conquer or Cease to Live” 46 “You Will Be Adored” 48 “They Took Me First Into the Valley” 56 He Read What I Wrote 64 Going Down From Button to Button 70 He Hurried Under My Waistcoat 75 He Walked Over Them 80 Fiam Began to Dance 87 He Leaned Over 87 I Raised Him Up 88 Fiam Falls In 89 He Was Dreadfully Humiliated 95 “It Was a Long Tunnel” 101 I Found Him a Good Place 107 “Bravo, Advance!” 112 “Who is Winning?” 112 He Was Lying There Immovable 119 How Proud He Was 125 He Began to Caper 126 “I Will Tell You an Important Secret” 140 “Don’t Lose Time” 154 I Put Him on the Ground 157 [9] THE LITTLE MATCH MAN My Surprise [11] CHAPTER I MY SURPRISE I am going to tell you something that you must never tell any one. Stupid people wouldn’t believe it, anyway; and there are so many stupid people that I should seem like the greatest fibber in the world. But if you will keep still I will confide in you. Once on a time, I was in Japan in a city called Takoshima. It rained buckets full. I was thoroughly disgusted, and not being able to walk about the streets, decorated with lanterns and weathercocks, and through the gardens full of flowers, I had to stay shut up in a little room sitting on the floor, for in Japan they don’t use chairs. I kept yawning like a dog in front of a fire. Trying to forget how tedious it was I began to poke into all the corners of the room, hoping to discover something with which to amuse myself. After a thorough search, all I found was a box of matches. For lack of anything else to do they might help me to pass the time, as I could place them in all sorts of positions, and make any number of interesting designs. In the box, however, there were only three, and you know with three matches even a genius can’t make anything but a triangle, the simplest of all the figures in geometry. After all, I might try to make a little man. I had learned that game long ago when I wore short trousers and went to school, and always had my pockets stuffed full of marbles, pens, peach stones, buttons, twine and other precious things—sometimes even matches. With patience and a little string I used to tie them together and make arms and legs, and so transform them into a very slim person that seemed to me altogether lovely. I began to work, and in a quarter of an hour the three matches had become the little man that I remembered; and I can assure you, he still looked to me extremely fine. First he was very bold, with arms and legs stretched out in the position of a fierce warrior. Then I changed him into a calm and civilized person, and made him sit down on his box, and then began to hold an old time conversation with him. “Good-morning, little match[1]; how are you?” I suppose that you are surprised that a man of my age could still amuse himself with this game. But you know a man is always a boy when he is all by himself and lonely. If you look over the manuscripts of illustrious scientists and celebrated writers, you will see here and there the same kind of scribbling and the same little drawings that they made in their copy books when they were boys and didn’t want to write their compositions. The little match naturally greeted my advances with dignified silence. When I was young and talked to my toys, I made up their answers too, and so it was possible to hold long and animated discussions. But in these days my imagination is worn out. After a few minutes, my little man looked to me like nothing but a match, and I thought I had better use him in the way I was accustomed to. I put a cigarette in my mouth and holding out my hand I said to him: “Dear little match, I will now strike your head and....” But I got no further. The little man moved, and falling on his knees held out his hands as if in prayer. I was very much surprised, and examined him carefully on every side. I had made a great many little men just like him, but I had never seen any one of them move by himself. I looked to see if there was anywhere a bit of string that I had pulled without meaning to. But no, I found nothing. [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] The little man remained quite still in his new position, until at last I was reassured. I thought the jar of some one passing outside, or a puff of air had thrown him from the box, he was so slim and light. I sat him up again and watched him closely. After a few minutes I saw distinctly that he moved himself. For some time he trembled very slightly, then he held out his arms, and slowly rose to his feet. I could hear a tiny voice, which seemed to come from him, but it was so feeble that compared with it the voice of a cricket would sound like a trombone. The First Adventure [19]