THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER

THE STEADFAST TIN SOLDIER



BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

This is the love story of a toy soldier and a toy ballerina.
On his birthday, a boy received a box of tin soldiers.
All them had a gun and their uniforms were red and blue.
They all looked the same, except for one.
One of them a was missing one leg, but he could still stay
with one leg. The boy had a lot of toys. He kept all his
toys together in his playroom.
At night all the toys went into their box.
The toys talked to each at night. During these talks the
the tin soldier always looked at the beautiful ballerina.
She was so beautiful that the tin soldier fell in love with
her.
One morning the little boy got up, took the tin soldier
away and put him in front of the window.
‘You stay here and don’t let enemies in my room!’ he
said to the soldier. It was a very windy morning, and
suddenly the window blew open and the tin soldier fell
on his head. The boy and the maid run downstairs
immediately to look for him. The tin soldier was lying
very near them, but they still couln’t see him. The
soldier wanted to cry: ‘ Look, I am here!’ but he
couldn’t.
Soon it began to rain. Two boys saw the tin soldier
And picked him up. ‘How sad’ said one of them, this
Tin soldier has only one leg, but I’d love to take him
home.’ ‘Let’s make a paper boat for him, so he can
sail up and down the gutter!’ Said the other boy.
So the two boys made a little boat for the tin soldier
out of a newspaper, and put him in the paper boat.
The rain continued for a long time. Soon the streets
looked like narrow rivers.
The tin soldier went fast up and down in the
boat. There were very big waves in the tunnel.
The boat went so quick, that the tin soldier was
very scared and hold his gun tightly.
Suddenly there came along a big rat.
‘Show me your passport! Have you got a passport?’
he asked. The Tin soldier didn’t say anything and the
boat sped on. The rat followed him. He was very
angry: Stop him!He hasn’t paid ,stop him!he shouted.
Suddenly the soldier fell from the boat and a big fish
swallowed him. It was very dark inside, even darker
than a tunnel, but the steadfast tin soldier held his gun
tightly.
After a time he was in broad daylight again! Someone
had caught the fish and taken it to the market,and now
it was in a kitchen.The cook cut the fish open and then
they put the steadfast tin soldier on the table. Now he
realized that he was in the same house again. He saw
the same children, the same toys and the beautiful
ballerina was there too! She was still standing on one
leg. At that moment, one of the boys grabbed the
tin soldier and threw him in the fire.
Poor tin soldier was burning .
Suddenly a door opened and the wind blew the
ballerina into the fire too! The ballerina and the tin
soldier were both as black as coal.