The Tin Soldier stood up to his neck in water, and the boat
sank deeper and deeper, and the paper was loosened more and more; and
now the water closed over the soldier's head. Then he thought of the
pretty little Dancer, and how he should never see her again; and it
sounded in the Soldier's ears:
"Farewell, farewell, thou warrior brave,
For this day thou must die!"
And now the paper parted, and the Tin Soldier fell out; but at that
moment he was snapped up by a great fish.
Oh, how dark it was in that fish's body! It was darker yet than in
the drain tunnel; and then it was very narrow too. But the Tin Soldier
remained unmoved, and lay at full length shouldering his musket.
The fish swam to and fro; he made the most wonderful movements, and
then became quite still. At last something flashed through him like
lightning. The daylight shone quite clear, and a voice said aloud,
"The Tin Soldier!" The fish had been caught, carried to market,
bought, and taken into the kitchen, where the cook cut him open with a
large knife. She seized the Soldier round the body with both her
hands and carried him into the room, where all were anxious to see the
remarkable man who had traveled about in the inside of a fish; but the
Tin Soldier was not at all proud.
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