The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The one-legged toy soldier of Andersen's tale, cast last from the family's old tin spoon and brave out of all proportion. He falls from the windowsill, sails his paper boat down the gutter past rats and street boys, is swallowed whole by a fish, and at last is thrown into the stove with the paper dancer he loves; he never flinches once. The tale made the plain tin soldier a figure of quiet constancy and unspoken love, and it remains one of Andersen's most loved object stories. It was published in 1838 in his second collection of tales.