Ugh ! how he showed his teeth , as he cried to the chips of wood and straw : ` Hold him , hold him ! he has not paid the toll ! He has not shown his passport ! ' But the current became swifter and stronger . The Tin-soldier could already see daylight where the tunnel ended ; but in his ears there sounded a roaring enough to frighten any brave man . Only think ! at the end of the tunnel the gutter discharged itself into a great canal ; that would be just as dangerous for him as it would be for us to go down a waterfall . Now he was so near to it that he could not hold on any longer . On went the boat , the poor Tin-soldier keeping himself as stiff as he could : no one should say of him afterwards that he had flinched . The boat whirled three , four times round , and became filled to the brim with water : it began to sink ! The Tin-soldier was standing up to his neck in water , and deeper and deeper sank the boat , and softer and softer grew the paper ; now the water was over his head . He was thinking of the pretty little Dancer , whose face he should never see again , and there sounded in his ears , over and over again : ` Forward , forward , soldier bold ! Death 's before thee , grim and cold ! ' The paper came in two , and the soldier fell -- but at that moment he was swallowed by a great fish . Oh ! how dark it was inside , even darker than in the tunnel , and it was really very close quarters ! But there the steadfast little Tin-soldier lay full length , shouldering his gun . Up and down swam the fish , then he made the most dreadful contortions , and became suddenly quite still . Then it was as if a flash of lightning had passed through him ; the daylight streamed in , and a voice exclaimed , ` Why , here is the little Tin-soldier ! '
The fish had been caught , taken to market , sold , and brought XXXXX the kitchen , where the cook had cut it open with a great knife .
On at before by down for in into of that