ent! It must have rained torrents. The paper boat rocked up and
down, and sometimes it whirled around so that the tin soldier shivered.
But he remained steadfast, did not lose color, looked straight ahead and
held his musket firm.

All at once the boat plunged under a long gutter-bridge. It was as dark
there as it had been in his box.

"Where am I going now?" thought he. "Yes, yes, that is the Troll's
fault. Oh! if the little lady were only in the boat, I would not care if
it were twice as dark."

At that instant there came a great water-rat who lived under the
gutter-bridge.

"Have you a pass?" said the rat. "Show me your pass."

But the tin soldier kept still, and only held his musket the firmer. The
boat rushed on, and the rat behind. Oh! how he gnashed his teeth, and
called to the sticks and straws:--

"Stop him! Stop him! He has not paid toll. He has showed no pass."

But the current got stronger and stronger. Before he got to the end of
the bridge the tin soldier could see daylight, but he heard also a
rushing noise that might frighten a brave man's heart. Just think! at
the end of the bridge the gutter emptied into a great canal, which for
him was as dangerous as for us to sail down a great waterfall.

He was so near it already that he could not stop. The boat went down.
The poor tin soldier held himself as straight as he could. No one should
say of him that he had ever blinked his eyes. The boat whirled three or
four times and filled with water. It had to sink. The tin soldier stood
up to his neck in water, and deeper, deeper sank the boat. The paper
grew weaker and weaker. Now the waves went over the soldier's head. Then
he thought of the pretty little dancer whom he never was to see again,
and there rang in the tin soldier's ears:--

"Farewell, warrior! farewell!
Death shalt thou stiffer."

Now the paper burst in two, and the tin soldier fell through,--but in
that minute he was swallowed by a big fish.

Oh! wasn't it dark in there. It was worse even than under the
gutter-bridge, and besides, so cramped. But the tin soldier was
steadfast, and lay at full length, musket in hand.

The fish rushed around and made the most fearful jumps. At last he was
quite still, and something went through him like a lightning flash. Then
a bright light rushed in, and somebody called aloud, "The tin soldier!"
The fish had been caught, brought to market, sold, and been taken to the
kitchen, where the maid