n a
heavy rain. The paper boat rocked up and down, and sometimes turned
round so rapidly that the Tin Soldier trembled; but he remained firm,
and never changed countenance, and looked straight before him, and
shouldered his musket.

All at once the boat went into a long drain, and it became as dark as if
he had been in his box.

"Where am I going now?" he thought. "Yes, yes, that's the Goblin's
fault. Ah! if the little lady only sat here with me in the boat, it
might be twice as dark for what I should care."

Suddenly there came a great Water Rat, which lived under the drain.

"Have you a passport?" said the Rat. "Give me your passport."

But the Tin Soldier kept silence, and held his musket tighter than ever.

The boat went on, but the Rat came after it. Hu! how he gnashed his
teeth, and called out to the bits of straw and wood:

"Hold him! hold him! He hasn't paid toll--he hasn't shown his passport!"

But the stream became stronger and stronger. The Tin Soldier could see
the bright daylight where the arch ended; but he heard a roaring noise
which might well frighten a bolder man. Only think--just where the
tunnel ended, the drain ran into a great canal; and for him that would
have been as dangerous as for us to be carried down a great waterfall.

Now he was already so near it that he could not stop. The boat was
carried out, the poor Tin Soldier stiffening himself as much as he
could, and no one could say that he moved an eyelid. The boat whirled
round three or four times, and was full of water to the very edge--it
must sink. 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 sa