A SNOWMAN that once lived in a park full of snow had never known warmth in his live. Yet, he was always smiling, as the Sun’s rays that hit him early in the morning were all that he needed to feel warm.

One starry night, however, a beggar appeared in front of him, carrying a lit lamp. As it was dark, the beggar accidentally mistook the snowman for a real human and asked him for mercy. “Spare a penny or two for me”, he told the snowman, and got really curious as to why he wouldn’t reply.

As he moved the lit lamp close the snowman’s face, the snowman rewarded him with an even bigger smile than before. “Silly me…”, the beggar exclaimed, realizing his mistake, and went on his way. The snowman, however, who had never felt the warmth of fire before in his life, got really sad to see him leave, as thanks to his lit lamp his life had changed forever.

He looked everywhere for the beggar. First, he searched for him at the park: between the trees, behind the benches, as well as in the frosty lake. Yet the beggar was nowhere to be found. The snowman then went to the city to search for him, going from house to house and checking the windows. The warmth of the fireplace inside the houses, however, was not enough to reach him through the glass of the windows and give him what he wanted.

Reaching the city square, he felt great disappointment and fatigue. He sat at a bench to get some rest and gaze at the starlit sky above, where a falling star was to be seen in the skies. Our good snowman then made a wish: that just before dawn, a fire to make him feel warm and give him the smile that the beggar had taken from him would be found.

A few alleys down the same road he found an unlocked door. Losing little time, he hastily opened it and went inside to get close to the fireplace and enjoy the warmth.

“A… snowman!”, exclaimed the children of the house the moment they walked into the living room, supposing Santa Claus had brought them their gifts. As soon as the snowman heard them, he gave them a big smile. So scared were they to see him, however, that they ran to the stairs to hide and a few minutes later an old man carrying a broom approached and threw the snowman out of the house. “Nobody wants me”, the poor snowman cried and ran as fast as he could, sparing himself from even more trouble.

He, then, simply roamed through the city streets. So scared did he get, that wherever he met someone, he immediately hid behind walls and columns so as not to provoke attention. Until at some point, close to midnight and with the full moon dominating the starlit sky, he saw a beggar girl that nobody paid attention to. The poor girl had only a pair of matches left in the world, which she offered for sale so as to make her living. Yet, that night nobody was found to buy them. As she felt very cold, she lit one to get warm.