There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers, were all brothers, for they had made out of the same old spoon. They shouldered arms and looked before them, and wore a splendid , red and blue. The first thing the world they ever heard were words, ‘Tin soldiers!’ uttered by a boy, who clapped his hands with when the lid of the box, which they lay, was taken off. were given to him for a present, and he stood at the to set them up. The soldiers all exactly alike, excepting one, who only one leg; he had been to the last, and then there not enough of the melted tin finish him, so they made him stand firmly on one leg, and caused him to be very remarkable.

table on which the tin soldiers , was covered with other playthings, but most attractive to the eye was pretty little paper castle. Through the windows the rooms could be seen. front of the castle a number little trees surrounded a piece of -glass, which was intended to represent a lake. Swans, made of wax, swam the lake, and were reflected in . All this was very pretty, but prettiest of all was a tiny lady, who stood at the open of the castle; she, also, was of paper, and she wore a of clear muslin, with a narrow ribbon over her shoulders just like scarf. In front of these was a glittering tinsel rose, as large her whole face. The little lady a dancer, and she stretched out her arms, and raised one of legs so high, that the tin could not see it at all, he thought that she, like himself, only one leg. ‘That is the for me,’ he thought; ‘but she too grand, and lives in a , while I have only a box live in, five-and-twenty of us altogether, is no place for her. Still must try and make her acquaintance.’

he laid himself at full length the table behind a snuff-box that upon it, so that he could at the little delicate lady, who to stand on one leg without her balance.