THE ORIGINAL STORY OF `NUTCRACKER' (ABRIDGED)

On Christmas Eve, a young girl named Marie receives a nutcracker from her godfather, who tells a strange tale about a handsome young boy who was turned into an ugly nutcracker by the mouse queen. The princess whose hand was promised rejects him because of his unattractive looks.

He cannot break the spell unless he defeats the Mouse Queen's son and wins the heart of a lady.

Marie stays up after everyone else is in bed, hears rustling noises and a voice say:

"Clocks, listen and stop your ticking.

Now the mouse king is awakening.

In the light of the full moon

comes the hour of the nutcracker's doom!"

Soon the room is filled with mice, and the mouse queen's son appears. The nutcracker comes out of his cabinet and is soon joined by Marie's dolls and Fritz's tin soldiers.

A battle rages until Marie, wanting to save her friend the nutcracker, throws her shoe at the mouse king. Everything then grows dark and she falls to the floor.

When she opens her eyes, only the victorious nutcracker is there, and proceeds to show her the world inside the toy cabinet. Soon they're in a gingerbread town, then a town made of spun sugar, and Marzipan Castle.

This was Toyland.

"Hail to the King of Toyland" the little dolls yell, and Marie realizes that the nutcracker story is true. He has defeated the mouse king and won back his kingdom, but what of the princess?

"I don't understand why the princess was so mean," Marie says, feeling very sorry for the nutcracker. "I would have remained your friend and companion no matter what you looked like. I would not have minded one bit if you were in the shape of a nutcracker!

With those words, the king's castle disappears and Marie feels herself falling until she's in her own bed and her mother says, "Wake up, Sleepy Head. It is Christmas morning."

Her mother says she must get up, because her godfather has arrived with his nephew.

She dresses and runs downstairs to see a handsome young man her age whose eyes were the same as her nutcracker's.

When her godfather leaves the two children alone, his nephew kneels before her.

By pledging to be his friend despite his ugliness, she has broken the mouse queen's curse, he says. He begs her to be his friend always and to rule with him.

Marie says yes, and when she grows up marries the king. They live in Marzipan Castle and rule over the magical Kingdom of Toyland.