Tell Me Another Story | Page 5

present," the little boy said. "You will have to
stay. Can't you try and make the best of it?"
The old man came in now with the box. Secret springs released the
drawers and in these were cards, large and gilded, such as one never
sees now. Then he opened the piano. It had landscapes painted on the
inside of the lid. It was very hoarse but the old man could play on it and
he sang a song too.
"I will go to the wars! I will go to the wars!" shouted the toy soldier as
loudly as he could, and he threw himself off the cabinet right down on
the floor.
Where was he? The old man looked, and the little boy looked, but the

soldier was away and he stayed away.
"I shall find him!" said the old man, but he never did. The floor was too
open. The toy soldier had fallen through a crack, and there he lay.
The little boy went home, and that week passed, and several weeks too.
The windows were frosted; the little boy had to breathe on them to get
a peep over at the old house; and snow covered the carved heads over
the windows. The old house looked very cold, but now there was no
one at home in it. And when the spring came they pulled the house
down.
After a while a fine house was built in its place with large windows and
smooth white walls. Before it, where part of the old house had stood, a
garden was laid out and there were grape vines running along the walks.
Birds built their nests in the vines and chattered away to each other, but
not about the old house, for they could not remember it, so many years
had passed. So many years had gone by that the little boy had grown up
to a whole man. And he had just been married and had brought his wife
to live in the house here, where the garden was. She had brought a wild
flower with her that she found very pretty and he stood by her as she
planted it in the garden and pressed the earth around it with her fingers.
Oh, what was that? She had pricked her finger. There sat something
pointed, sticking straight out of the soft mould.
It was--yes, guess--it was the toy soldier who had tumbled and turned
about among the timber and the rubbish, and had lain for many years in
the ground.
The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green leaf,
and then with her fine handkerchief. It was just as if the toy soldier had
awakened from a dream. Then the young man told his wife about the
old house and the old man and the toy soldier that he had sent over
because the old man had been so lonely.
"Very, very lonely!" said the toy soldier, "but it is delightful not to be
forgotten!"

THE LITTLE BOY WHO WANTED A CASTLE
There was once a boy who thought a great deal about castles. He had a
very beautiful picture book with coloured pictures of castles that
showed how large and different and fine they were, and, presently, after
thinking a long time about it, the boy decided that a castle was where
he would like, most of all, to live.
So very early one morning, when it was a sunny day and pleasant
enough for any sort of an adventure, the boy made up his mind that he
would go out for a little journey and try to find himself a castle.
He told his mother about it, for he always told her everything, and she
smiled down into his face as she buttoned his coat.
"Are you sure that you can find a castle?" she asked.
"Oh, yes indeed, very sure," the boy answered. "And if I can't I'll ask
some one on the road and he'll be able to tell me."
"Well, don't go so far away from home as to be late for supper," said
his mother, kissing him good-bye. And the boy said good-bye to his
mother and started off, but he made up his mind that probably he
wouldn't be home that night because he would be having his supper in
his castle.
The road was wide, and long, and winding, and the boy went down it
for a long way. He saw no great golden castle, only pleasant little white
houses with gardens, and people passing by with loads of vegetables
and fruit and flowers going to the town. At last he came to a sharp turn
in the road, and he saw an old man standing there with his dog.
"Please, sir," asked the boy,