The Steadfast Tin Soldier

There were once twenty-five tin soldiers, all brothers, made from the same old tin spoon.Each one wore a blue coat and a red hat and carried a gun on his shoulder.The last soldier had only one leg, because the tin ran out before he was finished.

Yet he stood just as straight and firm as all the rest.On the table stood a little castle of paper, with a tiny paper dancer at its door.She balanced on one leg, with the other lifted high behind her.

"She has only one leg, like me," thought the tin soldier, and he loved her at once.In the night the wind blew the window open, and the little soldier fell out into the street below.Two boys found him, folded a boat from newspaper, and set him sailing along the gutter.

The water swept him into a dark drain, where a great fish swallowed him whole.Inside the fish it was narrow and black, but the soldier lay quiet and did not give up hope.Later the fish was caught, sold at the market, and carried into a kitchen — the very same house he had come from.

The cook cut the fish open, and there lay the little tin soldier again.He was set back on the table, beside the same paper castle and the same little dancer.Then a small boy, for no reason at all, picked him up and dropped him into the warm stove.

The soldier felt himself growing soft, but he stood up straight and kept his eyes on the dancer.In the morning the maid found a small tin heart among the ashes, with a bright star from the dancer's dress beside it, and she kept the two together.