The Small Soldier Who Took Many Countries

The Small Soldier was a man who lived about two hundred years before now, in a country known for its good bread. Many people thought he was a small man, but this was not true: people who did not like him drew him very small in pictures, to laugh at him, and many thought the pictures were true.

How he went up

He started as a soldier like other soldiers. But he was very good at telling soldiers what to do, and his soldiers won and won. Because of this, his country put him in front of all its soldiers when he was young, and a short time after that, he became the country's head. No one gave this to him. He took it.

He did not stop there. His soldiers went into the countries near his, and took them one after another. For some years this worked, and most of the countries in his part of the ground became his.

He made a big group of laws with his name on them, and many countries use parts of these laws to this day.

How he fell

Then he took his soldiers into a very big, very cold country. The cold part of the year started. Most of his men died there — not because other soldiers hurt them, but because of the cold, and because there was no food.

After that, he could not win. The other countries made their soldiers into one big group, and they made him go and live on a small piece of ground with water all around it. He did not live there long: he went back, and led his soldiers one more time — and did not win, one more time. People now use the name of the place where he did not win to mean a very bad end.

After this, they made him live on another piece of ground with water all around it, very far from all other places, where no one could help him. He died there.