she kindled a third match. again shot up the flame; and now she was sitting under a most beautiful christmas tree ,far larger, and far more prettily decked out, than the one she had seen last christmas eve through the glass doors of the rich merchant's house. hundreds of wax-tapers lighted up the green branches, and tiny painted figures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down from the tree upon her. the child stretched out her hands towards them in delight, and in that moment the lights of the match warm quenched; still, however, the christmas candles burned higher and higher， she beheld them beaming like stars in heaven; one of them fell, the lights streaming behind it like a long, fiery tail.
not long after an old chinese woman came back to china from her visit to her daughter in the states, she went to a city bank to deposit the us dollars her daughter gave her. at the bank counter, the clerk checked each note carefully to see if the money was real. it made the old lady out of patience.
at last she could not hold any more, uttering. "trust me, sir, and trust the money. they are real us dollars. they are directly from america."
a lady went to a hat shop to buy a hat. as she was very fussy, it took her a long time to pick on one. already at the end of his patience the salesman was afraid that she might change her mind again so he tried to flatter her: "an excellent choice, madam. you look at least ten years younger with this hat on!" to his dismay, the lady took off her hat at once and said: "i don't want a hat that makes me look ten years older as soon as i take it off. show me some more hats!"