204 THE NIGHTINGALE.

peror’s palace was the most splendid in the world ; it was made
entirely of porcelain, very costly, but so delicate and brittle that
one had to take care how one touched it. In the garden were to
be seen the most wonderful flowers, and to the costliest of them
silver bells were tied, which sounded, so that nobody should pass
by without noticing the flowers. Yes, everything in the Emperor’s
garden was admirably arranged. And it extended so far, that
the gardener himself did not know where the end was. If a man
went on and on, he came into a glorious forest with high trees
and deep lakes. The wood extended straight down to the sea,
which was blue and deep; great ships could sail too beneath
the branches of the trees; and in the trees lived a Nightingale,
which sang so splendidly that even the poor fisherman, who
had many other things to do, stopped still and listened, when
he had gone out at night to throw out his nets, and heard the
Nightingale.

“ How beautiful thatis!” he said; but he was obliged to attend
to his property, and thus forgot the bird. But when in the next -
night the bird sang again, and the fisherman heard it, he exclaimed
again, “ How beautiful that is!” .

From all the countriés of the world travellers came to the city
of the Emperor, and admired it, and the palace and the garden, but
when they heard the Nightingale, they said, “‘ That is the best
of all!

And the travellers told of it when they came home; and the
learned men wrote many books about the town, the palace, and
the garden. But they did not forget the Nightingale: that was
placed highest of all; and those who were poets wrote most mag-
nificent poems about the Nightingale in the wood by the deep
lake.

The books went through all the world, and a few of them once
came to the Emperor. He sat in his golden chair, and read, and
read: every moment he nodded his head, for it pleased him to
peruse the masterly descriptions of the city, the palace, and the
garden. “ But the Nightingale is the best of all,” it stood written
there.

“What’s that ?” exclaimed the Emperor. “I don’t know the
Nightingale at all! Is there such a bird in my empire, and even
in my garden? I’ve never heard of that. To think that I should
have to learn such a thing for the first time from books!”

And herevpon he called his cavalier. This cavalier was so
grand that if any one lower in rank than himself dared to speak
to him, or to ask him any question, he answered nothing but “ P!”
—and that meant nothing. ‘

“There is said to be a wonderful bird here called a Nightin-
gale,” said the Emperor. ‘ They say it is the best thing in all
my great empire. Why have | never heard anything about
it?”