The Soldier and the Ballerina.

This story is dedicated to Jose Marti. (Spacing of paragraphs has been affected by hackers.)

Once upon a time there was a very old toy maker who carved wonderful, life-like toys for all of the children in the village. One winter he worked with special care on a set of twelve wooden soldiers that were to be given to the children of Count Bezukhov for Christmas. The figures were exact reproductions of the Czar's personal guard. Every detail of the miniature uniforms was perfect, every brass button, medal and polished leather boot was exactly accurate, each figure was a tiny masterpiece of reproduction.

Everyone said that these figures were miraculously life-like. Only one, the captain of the troop, was given a sword made of metal and a red cap. He was a very dashing wooden soldier, who always tried to stand a bit straighter than the others. Most people say that he was the finest wooden soldier that had ever been carved. People who visited the shop commented on the beauty and life-like quality of these wooden soldiers.

On Christmas eve the Countess herself arrived to pick up the box with the wooden soldiers for her son. She was delighted that they were so impressive, but was dismayed that she had nothing equally magnificent to give to her daughter. The toy-maker smiled and, with a bow, offered the Countess a ballerina that he had made that very day.

The ballerina had golden hair woven out of the finest silk, her eyes were green, fashioned from tiny emeralds, her lips were the color of rose petals. She wore a gown made of white paper and her dancing shoes were blue. Her skin was painted white and she was made of fine alabaster.

"This will make a lovely gift for your daughter, my lady," said the toy-maker.

"Oh, yes ... she is lovely," said the Countess, who paid four gold coins for the wooden soldiers and the ballerina.

That evening the toys were wrapped in the finest paper and placed under the Christmas tree by servants at the castle. The next morning the children opened their gifts and were amused and happy to play with them. Maria, who loved her ballerina, was nine years-old; Ivan was twelve years-old -- and wore a uniform exactly like the one worn by the captain of his wooden soldiers. He called the toy soldiers: "My personal guard."

In the evenings, the children finished with their toys and left them for the servants to put away. This was a dangerous time for the toys because large German guard dogs were free to wander through the castle. As the dogs were always hungry, they tended to chew on any toys that were left behind by the servants. Whenever this happened the toys were destroyed and had to be thrown away. It was a most horrible way to end their lives, being chewed and broken into pieces by fearsome dogs. All of the toys were quite concerned not to be left behind by the servants.

One evening, as the servants placed the box of wooden soldiers into the toy chest of young Ivan, the dashing captain of the guard noticed that they had forgotten the ballerina. They had left her behind and the guard dogs had already been released into the great hall. Once the lights were put out, the captain of the guard climbed out of his box -- despite the protests and warnings shouted by his friends -- and made his way down, slowly, from the toy chest.

It was very dark and the great hall was far away, yet he knew that he had to find it somehow. He wandered through the castle, and every step that he took was accompanied by the howling of the large dogs. He was frightened, not for himself, only for the beautiful ballerina with the emerald eyes and yellow hair that was soft, like rain water.

It semed to take him forever to walk back towards the great hall. It was very cold, the fire was burning low. He could hear the growls of the black German dogs coming closer, so loud now, but his heart thundered only when he saw the ballerina face-down in the middle of the room, lying forgotten and abandoned on the cold stone floor. Everyone was nice to her when she was pretty and sitting on top of the toy chest, Maria's favorite toy, but when she lay in the middle of this cold and dark room, exposed to danger, none of the other toys would join him in coming to help her. This angered him. Most of the other toys were not good soldiers, as he tried to be, for her.

He then recalled how difficult he often found it to speak to her. She was so lovely that he forgot his words or stammered. It is most embarassing to stammer when speaking to a ballerina, yet soldiers are prone to this condition.

Now there was no time to think. The dogs entered the room and saw her. So the captain of the wooden soldiers ran as fast as he could and arrived at the ballerina's side just as the dogs came near, growling and circling around them both.

"Are you all right?" He asked.

"I am very frightened and so cold."

She said this while looking at him in wonder, perhaps seeing him for the first time. She had not really noticed him before, he thought, even though he always looked very fit around her and polished all of the buttons on his uniform twice as long as usual, whenever she came by. Ballerinas are often like that, he believed, based on his vast experience. They were difficult to impress. They pretended not to notice you for some reason, but then if you did not look at them, they became angry. Ballerinas are mysterious creatures.

He grabbed her arm and ran towards the chair nearest to them. "Please get under there," said the captain of the guard. He explained that the dogs would find it difficult to reach her behind the massive wooden legs of the chair. He gave her his sword and said:

"If they stick their heads in here, hit their noses with this sword."

She nodded her head and said, "yes."

Then the captain of the guard ran as fast as he could to the middle of the room, so the dogs would notice him and leave the ballerina in peace. They came after him and he ran in circles. One of the dogs reached him and bit down on his head. The biggest of the dogs chewed on the wooden soldier and shook its huge head, throwing him across the room; then the other dog ran and caught him, chewing down on his legs. All night the dogs threw him across the room and chewed on his wooden body, but he never screamed and he was happy because he knew that the ballerina was safe.

The next morning servants entered the great hall and found a beautiful ballerina doll under the massive arm chair, but she was not damaged at all. They combed her golden hair, straightened her white dress, and placed her on the toy chest, where all of the other toys greeted her. She would only ask about the captain of the guard, but he was nowhere to be found.

The servants found pieces of the wooden soldier everywhere in the great hall. His legs were torn to bits, his hands and arms too. Most of his face was chewed off, but one eye could still be seen and part of his nose. They gathered all of the pices and threw them in a large barrel filled with the trash that was to be burned. Later the barrel of trash was placed outside, as it happened, just below the window of the children's room.

The wooden soldier was very tired and hurt. Yet he found new strength when he looked up at the window, for he saw the beautiful ballerina smiling at her friends. The wooden soldier was happy whenever he looked at the ballerina. It was almost as though he could hear music when she smiled. And then, something very unusual happened that no wooden soldier had ever accomplished, he felt a tear run down his cheek, for the beautiful ballerina was staring down at him from the window and she was crying.