The (Steadfast) Tin Soldier

Once upon a time, there was a toy store with a big window display. In the middle of that display, there was a box. And in that box, there were twenty-five tin soldiers carefully laid out, waiting patiently for someone to buy them. They were brothers, because they were all cast from the same melted-down tin spoon. They wore red and blue uniforms, held muskets in their hands, and they all looked very handsome.

One day, daylight finally shone on their faces. Someone had opened the box!

“Yay! Tin soldiers!” a little boy cried out happily, clapping his hands. He began to line all the soldiers up neatly, side by side, on the table next to a white cake. It was the boy’s birthday, and he had received the soldiers as a present.

“Let’s see. This one is different,” he said. And indeed it was! There hadn’t been enough tin left for the last soldier, so he only had one leg. Yet he stood just as strong as his brothers. And he looked around the world perhaps even more alertly.

With his keen eyes, he immediately noticed that there was also a beautiful paper castle in the room. It had small paper trees around it and a mirror in front that was meant to look like a lake with teensy snow-white wax swans. The most beautiful part of the scene was a tiny doll. She, too, was made of paper. She was wearing a little white gauze skirt decorated with a shiny star - and she was standing on one leg! The tin soldier didn’t know she was a ballet dancer. He thought she was just like him - she only had one leg, too.

“That would be the woman for me!”…