The Steadfast Tin Soldier

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There were once twenty-five tin soldiers, they were all brothers, for they were born of an old tin. The gun held their arms and the face straightened out; red and blue, just as lovely was the uniform. The very first thing they heard in this world when the lid was taken from the box in which they lay was the word: "Tinsoldater!" A little boy shouted and clapped his hands; he had got them because it was his birthday and now put them on the table. One soldier resembled the other, only one was slightly different; He had one leg, for he had been cast at last, and there was not enough tin; however, he was as firm on his one as the others on their two, and it is just him who becomes strange.

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On the table where they were set up stood a lot of other toys; but what fell most in the eye was a beautiful piece of paper. Through the small windows one could look straight into the halls. Outside, little trees stood around a small mirror that would look like a lake; swans of wax then swam and mirrored. It was all beautiful, but the most beautiful was a little virgin who stood in the middle of the open castle door; She was also cut out of paper, but she had a skirt of the clearest lining and a little narrow blue ribbon over her shoulder like a vanished; In the middle of it was a shining smile, just as big as her whole face. The little virgin stretched both arms out because she was a dancer, and then she raised her one leg so high that the tin soldier could not find it and thought she had only one leg like him.

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"It was a wife for me!" He thought; "But she is somewhat distinguished, she lives in a castle, I only have one box and we are twenty-five, it's not a place for her! However, I must see acquaintance! "And then he lay as long as he was behind a bag of sackcloth that stood on the table; There he could look right at the little fine lady who was standing on one leg without getting out of the balance.

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When it was evening, all the other tin soldiers came in their box and the people in the house went to bed. Now the toy began to play both strangers, war and ball; The tin soldiers rattled in the box, because they wanted to join, but they could not get the lid off. The nutcracker struck coal pockets, and the giggle made commerce on the board; It was a spectacle so the canary woke awoke, and began to talk to it and verse. The only one who did not touch the place was the tin soldier and the little dancer; She kept herself standing on the toe tip and both arms outward; He was just
as firm on one leg, his eyes did not come from her for a moment.

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Now it was twelve o'clock, and whispered the lid of the junk box, but there was no tobacco in, no, but a little black troll, it was such a piece of art.

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"Tinsoldat!" Said the troll, "will you keep your eyes on yourself!"

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But the tin soldier left as he did not hear it.

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"Yes, bee tomorrow!" Said the troll.

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When it was tomorrow, and the children came up, the tin soldier was taken to the window, and whether it was the troll or dragonwind, one flew up the window and the soldier went to the head from the third floor. It was a terrible moment, he turned his leg straight, and stood on the cap, with the bayonet down between the cobblestones.

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The maid and the little boy immediately came down to search; but although they had finished stopping him, they could not see him. Had the tin soldier shouted: Here I am! then they would have found him, but he did not think it was appropriate to scream loudly when he was in uniform.

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Now it began to rain, one drop fell closer than the other, it became a proper rinse; when it was over, there were two street strings.

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"See you!" Said one, "there is a tin soldier! He's going to sail! "

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And then they made a boat of a newspaper, put the tin soldier in the midst of it, and now he sailed down the rendezvous; both boys ran by the side and clapped their hands. Keep us safe! What waves were there in that rendest and what stream there was; Yes, that had also been the bill. The paper boat tilted up and down, and between it it turned so wretched, so it sparkled in the tin soldier; but he became steadfast, did not change one mine so straight and held the gun in his arm.

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Just in one, the boat drove under a long rendement board; It was as dark as if he were in his box.

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"How can I come now," he thought, "yes, yes, it's the troll's fault! Ah, though, the little virgin was sitting here in the boat, so you might have to be so dark yet! "

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At the same time there was a large watercress that lived under the rendement board.

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"Do you have a pass?" Asked the rat. "Hiding with the pass!"

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But the tin soldier silent quietly and kept firmer on the gun. The boat went off and the rubbish behind. Hu! where it turns on and shouts at sticks and straw:

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"Stop him! Stop him! He has not paid any fees! He has not shown a passport! "

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But the power became stronger and stronger! The tin soldier could already see the bright day in front of the board, but he also heard a roaring sound that might make a brave man frightened; Imagine, the rendezvous crashed, where the board ended, straight into a big channel, it would be as dangerous for us as to sail down a big waterfall.

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Now he was already so close that he could not stop. The boat went out, the poor soldier remained so stiff he could, no one should tell him that he was blinking with his eyes. The boat turned three four times around, and was filled with water just to the edge, it had to sink; The tin soldier stood in the water to the throat and deeper and deeper the boat sank, more and more the paper was clearing up; Now the water went over the head of the soldier, then he thought of the little beautiful dancer who he would never see again; and that sounds like the tin soldier's ear:

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"Danger, danger, war man!
Death you like! "

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Now the paper went on, and the tin soldier collapsed but became the same mess of a big fish

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No where it was dark in there! There was even worse than under the rendement board, and then it was so narrow; but the tin soldier was steadfast and lay as long as he was with his gun in his arm.

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The fish went around, it made the most desirable movements; Finally, it became quite quiet, passing like a lightning beam through it. The light shone clearly and one shouted loudly: "Tinsoldat!" The fish had been caught, brought to the square, sold and reached the kitchen where the girl cut it up with a big knife. She brought her two fingers to the soldier in the middle of life and brought him into the living room, where they all wanted to see such a strange man who had left the stomach on a fish; but the tin soldier was not proud at all. They put him up on the table and there no where it might be strange
world! The tin soldier was in the same room he had been in before; he saw their very children and the toy stood on the table; the lovely castle with the beautiful little dancer; She was still on one leg and had a lot of breath in her breath, she was also steady; It touched the tin soldier, he had finished crying tin, but it did not fit. He looked at her and she looked at him, but they did not say anything.

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At once he took one of the small rods and threw the soldier straight into the stove, and he gave no reason for that; It was certainly the troll in the can, who was guilty of it.

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The tin soldier was quite illuminated and felt a heath that was awful, but if it was of real fire or of love, he did not know. The caretakers had been cleaned by him, whether it had happened on the journey or it was sad, nobody could say. He looked at the little virgin, she looked at him, and he felt he was melting, yet he stood still with the gun in his arm. Then a door went up, the wind took the dancer and she flew like a sylfide straight into the furnace of the
tin soldier, flared up in his hat and was gone; Then the tin soldier melted to a cliff, and when the girl the next day took out the box, she found him like a little tin heart; of the dance duck, on the other hand, there was only the sequel, and it was burnt with carbon black.

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