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 [Illustration: THE LITTLE MATCH MAN—My Surprise] 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.