To and fro swam the fish, turning and twisting and making the strangest
movements, till at last he became perfectly still. Something like a flash of daylight passed through him, and a voice said,
"Tin Soldier!" The fish had been caught, taken to market, sold and
bought, and taken to the kitchen, where the cook had cut him with a
large knife. She seized the Tin Soldier between her finger and thumb and
took him to the room where the family sat, and where all were eager to
see the celebrated man who had traveled in the maw of a fish; but the
Tin Soldier remained unmoved. He was not at all proud. They set him upon the table there. But how could so curious a thing
happen? The Soldier was in the very same room in which he had been
before. He saw the same children, the same toys stood upon the table,
and among them the pretty dancing maiden, who still stood upon one leg. She too was steadfast. That touched the Tin Soldier's heart. He could
have wept tin tears, but that would not have been proper. He looked at
her and she looked at him, but neither spoke a word. And now one of the little boys took the Tin Soldier and threw him into
the stove. He gave no reason for doing so, but no doubt the Goblin in
the snuffbox had something to do with it. The Tin Soldier stood now in a blaze of red light. The heat he felt was
terrible, but whether it proceeded from the fire or from the love in his
heart, he did not know. He saw that the colors were quite gone from his
uniform, but whether that had happened on the journey or had been caused
by grief, no one could say. He looked at the little lady, she looked at
him, and he felt himself melting; still he stood firm as ever, with his
bayonet on his shoulder. Then suddenly the door flew open; the wind
caught the Dancer, and she flew straight into the stove to the Tin
Soldier, flashed up in a flame, and was gone! The Tin Soldier melted
into a lump; and in the ashes the maid found him next day, in the shape
of a little tin heart, while of the Dancer nothing remained save the
tinsel rose, and that was burned as black as a coal. [Illustration]




LITTLE THUMBELINA


THERE was once a woman who wished very much to have a little child. She
went to a fairy and said: "I should so very much like to have a little
child. Can you tell me where I can find one?" "Oh, that can be easily managed," said the fairy. "Here is a barleycorn;
it is not exactly of the same sort as those which grow in the farmers'
fields, and which the chickens eat. Put it into a flowerpot and see what
will happen." "Thank you," said the woman; and she gave the fairy twelve shillings,
which was the price of the barleycorn. Then she went home and planted
it, and there grew up a large, handsome flower, somewhat like a tulip in
appearance, but with its leaves tightly closed, as if it were still a
bud. "It is a beautiful flower," said the woman, and she kissed the red and
golden-colored petals; and as she did so the flower opened, and she
could see that it was a real tulip. But within the flower, upon the
green velvet stamens, sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden. She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and they gave her the name of
Little Thumb, or Thumbelina, because she was so small. A walnut shell, elegantly polished, served her for a cradle; her bed was
formed of blue violet leaves, with a rose leaf for a counterpane. Here
she slept at night, but during the day she amused herself on a table,
where the peasant wife had placed a plate full of water. Round this plate were wreaths of flowers with their stems in the water,
and upon it floated a large tulip leaf, which served the little one for
a boat. Here she sat and rowed herself from side to side, with two oars
made of white horsehair. It was a very pretty sight. Thumbelina could
also sing so softly and sweetly that nothing like her singing had ever
before been heard. One night, while she lay in her pretty bed, a large, ugly, wet toad
crept through a broken pane of glass in the window and leaped right upon
the table where she lay sleeping under her rose-leaf quilt. "What a pretty little wife this would make for my son," said the toad,
and she took up the walnut shell in which Thumbelina lay asleep, and
jumped through the window with it, into the garden. In the swampy margin of a broad stream in the garden lived the toad with
her son. He was uglier even than his mother; and when he saw the pretty
little maiden in her elegant bed, he could only cry "Croak, croak,
croak." "Don't speak so loud, or she will wake," said the toad, "and then she
might run away, for she is as light as swan's-down. We will place her on
one of the water-lily leaves out in the stream; it will be like an
island to her, she is so light and small, and then she cannot escape;
and while she is there we will make haste and prepare the stateroom
under the marsh, in which you are to live when you are married." Far out in the stream grew a number of water lilies with broad green
leaves which seemed to float on the top of the water. The largest of
these leaves appeared farther off than the rest, and the old toad swam
out to it with the walnut shell, in which Thumbelina still lay asleep. The tiny creature woke very early in the morning and began to cry
bitterly when she found where she was, for she could see nothing but
water on every side of the large green leaf, and no way of reaching the
land. Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room
with rushes and yellow wildflowers, to make it look pretty for her new
daughter-in-law. Then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf on
which she had placed poor Thumbelina. She wanted to bring the pretty
bed, that she might put it in the bridal chamber to be ready for her. The old toad bowed low to her in the water and said, "Here is my son; he
will be your husband, and you will live happily together in the marsh by
the stream." "Croak, croak, croak," was all her son could say for himself. So the
toad took up the elegant little bed and swam away with it, leaving
Thumbelina all alone on the green leaf, where she sat and wept. She
could not bear to think of living with the old toad and having her ugly
son for a husband. The little fishes who swam about in the water beneath
had seen the toad and heard what she said, so now they lifted their
heads above the water to look at the little maiden. As soon as they caught sight of her they saw she was very pretty, and it
vexed them to think that she must go and live with the ugly toads. "No, it must never be!" So they gathered together in the water, round
the green stalk which held the leaf on which the little maiden stood,
and gnawed it away at the root with their teeth. Then the leaf floated
down the stream, carrying Thumbelina far away out of reach of land. Thumbelina sailed past many towns, and the little birds in the bushes
saw her and sang, "What a lovely little creature."