THE NIGHTINGALE. 295

“T have never heard him named,” replied the cavaner. “He
has never been introduced at Court.”

“ T command that he shall appear this evening, and sing before
me,” said the Emperor, “All the world knows what I possess,
and I do not know it myself!”

“J have never heard him mentioned,” said the cavalier, “I
will seek for him. I will find him.”

But where was he to be found? The cavalier ran up and down
all the staircases, through halls and passages, but no one among
all those whom he met had heard talk of the Nightingale. And
the cavalier ran back to the Emperor, and said that it must be
a fable invented by the writers of books.

“Your Imperial Majesty cannot believe how much is written
that is fiction, besides something that they call the black
art.”

“ But the book in which I read this,” said the Emperor, “ was
sent to me by the high and mighty Emperor of Japan, and there-
- fore it cannot be a falsehood. I wé// hear the Nightingale! It
must be here this evening! It has my imperial favour; and if
it does not come, all the Court shall be trampled upon after the
Court has supped!”

“Tsing-pe!” said the cavalier; and again heran up and down
all the staircases, and through all the halls and corridors; and
half the Court ran with him, for the courtiers did not like being
trampled upon.

Then there was a great inquiry after the wonderful Nightingale,
which all the world knew excepting the people at Court.

At last they met with a poor little girl in the kitchen, who
said,

“The Nightingale? I knowit well; yes, it can sing gloriously.
Every evening I get leave to carry my poor sick mother the scraps
from the table.- She lives down by the strand; and when I get .
back and am tired, and rest in the wood, then I hear the Nightin-
galesing. And then the water comes into my eyes, and it is just
as if my mother kissed me.”

“Little kitchen girl,” said the cavalier, “1 will get you a place
in the kitchen, with permission to see the Emperor dine, if you
will but lead us to the Nightingale, for it is announced for this
evening.”

So they all went out into the wood where the Nightingale was
accustomed to sing; half the Court went forth. When they were
in the midst of their journey a cow began to low.

“Oh!” cried the Court pages, “now we have it! That shows
a wonderful power in so small a creature! I have certainly heard
it before.”

“ No, those are cows lowing,” said the little kitchen girl. “ We
are a long way from the place yet.”

Now the frogs began to croak in the marsh,