gems.

The other courtiers said, in a whisper, "_Flatterers prey upon fools_."

* * * * *

FAIRY TALES AND LAUGHTER STORIES

* * * * *

SCANDINAVIAN STORIES

* * * * *

THE HARDY TIN SOLDIER

BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

There were once five-and-twenty tin soldiers; they were all brothers,
for they had all been born of one old tin spoon. They shouldered their
muskets, and looked straight before them; their uniform was red and
blue, and very splendid. The first thing they had heard in the
world, when the lid was taken off their box, had been the words "Tin
soldiers!" These words were uttered by a little boy, clapping his
hands: the soldiers had been given to him, for it was his birthday;
and now he put them upon the table. Each soldier was exactly like the
rest; but one of them had been cast last of all, and there had not
been enough tin to finish him; but he stood as firmly upon his one leg
as the others on their two; and it was just this Soldier who became
remarkable.

On the table on which they had been placed stood many other
playthings, but the toy that attracted most attention was a neat
castle of cardboard. Through the little windows one could see straight
into the hall. Before the castle some little trees were placed round a
little looking-glass, which was to represent a clear lake. Waxen swans
swam on this lake, and were mirrored in it. This was all very pretty;
but the prettiest of all was a little lady, who stood at the open door
of the castle; she was also cut out in paper, but she had a dress
of the clearest gauze, and a little narrow blue ribbon over her
shoulders, that looked like a scarf; and in the middle of this ribbon
was a shining tinsel rose as big as her whole face. The little lady
stretched out both her arms, for she was a dancer; and then she lifted
one leg so high that the Tin Soldier could not see it at all, and
thought that, like himself, she had but one leg.

"That would be the wife for me," thought he; "but she is very
grand. She lives in a castle, and I have only a box, and there are
five-and-twenty of us in that. It is no place for her. But I must try
to make acquaintance with her."

And then he lay down at full length behind a snuff-box which was on
the table; there he could easily watch the little dainty lady, who
continued to stand upon one leg without losing her balance