And the Oh, In this Hans Christian Anderson's short story classic, a boy receives a set of 25 toy soldiers

all cast from one old tin spoon and lines them up on a table top.

One soldier stands on a single leg, never faltering, and falls in love with a paper ballerina. A series of events overtake the tin soldier before he can realize his dream. As a learning tool for the young, the story

provides a great dinner table debate. The brave soldiers silence an inability to change his circumstances seems to tell us that blind fate not intention determines all our events

But beneath that lies the message that we as humans are not tin soldiers and that

we must act despite our limitations if we want to change the direction of our lives. This story has been adapted into ballet, film, and

television many times and in a number of variations. And now the Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson.

There were once five and twenty Tin Soldiers who were all brothers

for they had been made out of the same old

tin spoon. They shouldered arms and looked straight before them and wore a splendid

uniform red and blue. The first thing in the world they ever heard were the words,

tin soldiers uttered by a little boy who clapped his hands with delight when the

lid of the box in which they lay was taken off.

They were given him for a birthday present and he stood at the table to set them up.

The soldiers were all exactly alike except excepting one, who had only one leg.

He had been left to the last, and then there was not enough of the melted tin to finish him.

So they made him to stand firmly on one leg and this caused him to be very remarkable.

The table on which the tin soldiers stood was covered with other playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little playthings, but the most attractive to the eye was a pretty little paper castle.

Through the small windows the rooms could be seen.

In front of the castle, a number of little trees surrounded a piece of looking glass

which was intended to represent a transparent lake. Swans made of wax swam on the lake

and were reflected on it. All this was very pretty, but the

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