The Bold Tin Soldier wanted to shout aloud and yell when he felt the rockers of the White Rocking Horse going over him. But he was a truly brave chap, and he knew it would never do to let that careless boy Tad know a Tin Soldier could pretend to be alive.
“I must not say a word!” thought the Soldier to himself.
And you can just imagine how the White Rocking Horse felt when he was made to run over his dear friend from the toy store!
“Oh, dear me,” said the White Rocking Horse to himself, when he heard the crunching sound, “something dreadful has happened! But it was not my fault! It was that boy’s!”
For you know, as well as I do, that if the White Rocking Horse had had his way he would have turned out, and not have gone over his friend, the Captain.
But Tad did not stop rocking, even when he heard the crunching sound. He swayed backward and forward in the saddle and cried:
“Gid-dap! Go faster!”
And he made the White Rocking Horse keep on. I don’t know what else would have happened. Maybe that careless boy would have rocked over the rest of the Tin Soldiers for all I know, only he happened to see the Lamb on Wheels.
“I’ll pull her around. That will be fun,” said Tad, springing off the back of the horse.
As the boy leaped from the back of the White Rocking Horse he turned that wooden chap half around so the animal could look at the Bold Tin Soldier lying on the carpet.