That was a terrible passage!
He put his leg straight up, and stuck with helmet downward and his
bayonet between the paving-stones.
The servant-maid and the little boy came down directly to look for him,
but though they almost trod upon him, they could not see him. If the
Soldier had cried out "Here I am!" they would have found him; but he
did not think it fitting to call out loudly, because he was in uniform.
Now it began to rain; the drops soon fell thicker, and at last it came
down into a complete stream. When the rain was past, two street boys
came by.
"Just look!" said one of them: "there lies a Tin Soldier. He must come
out and ride in the boat."
And they made a boat out of a newspaper, and put the Tin Soldier in
the middle of it, and so he sailed down the gutter, and the two boys
ran beside him and clapped their hands. Goodness preserve us! how the
waves rose in that gutter, and how fast the stream ran! But then
it had been a heavy rain. The paper boat rocked up and down, and
sometimes turned round so rapidly that the Tin Soldier trembled; but
he remained firm, and never changed countenance, and looked straight
before him, and shouldered his musket.
All at once the boat went into a long drain, and it became as dark as
if he had been in his box.
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