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Tale Summary

Once upon a time there were 25 tin soldiers, all brothers, made of the same old spoon, who were a birthday gift to a little boy. There was one who had only been made with one leg, but was sturdy all the same. He was set on the table by the children with other toys, including a pretty little cardboard castle with a little lady who was a dancer, posed with one leg so high in the air that it disappeared. When he saw the lady with one leg, the soldier resolved that she was the wife for him, but he thought her too fine to live in the little box he shared with his brothers. He hid behind a snuffbox and watched her, and when night fell all the toys were playing with each other (except for the tin-soldiers who had been put away and could not lift the lid from their box) and at midnight a little black imp came out of the snuffbox and teased the tin-soldier with one leg. The next morning he was placed by a window and fell from it, 3 storeys to the ground, maybe because of the imp. The boy looked for him but could not find him because the soldier did not think it fitting for him to cry for help while in uniform, and so he lay there when it began to rain. Two street boys found him and placed him in a little paper boat and he went down a dark tunnel where a rat asked for his passport, but he bravely sailed on while the creature chased him. Where the tunnel ended there was a little waterfall which he fell down, bold and always thinking of the little dancer, and was swallowed by a fish which was soon caught and brought to a market where it was bought by the family of the little boy. The cook found him and brought him back to the same table where he was before and he saw the dancer still on one leg, as steadfast as he was. The little boys, for no reason unless it was the imp who made them, threw him into the stove and he suffered there from heat and from love. A door opened and a draught caught the little dancer and she flew into the stove with him and died with him. The next morning, the maid found the soldier melted down into the shape of a heart, while nothing was left of the dancer but her burnt gilt rose.

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