The Nightingale 1

In China, as you know, the Emperor is a Chinaman, and all the people around him are Chinamen too. It is many years since the story I am going to tell you happened, but that is all the more reason for telling it, to avoid it being forgotten.

The emperor’s palace was the most beautiful thing in the world. It was made entirely of the finest porcelain, very costly, but at the same time so fragile that it could only be touched with the very greatest care. There were the most extraordinary flowers to be seen in the garden; the most beautiful ones had little silver bells tied to them, which tinkled all the time, so that nobody could pass the flowers without looking at them. Every little detail in the garden had been most carefully thought out, and it was so big, that even the gardener himself did not know where it ended. If you went on walking, you came to beautiful woods with high trees and deep lakes. The wood went all the way to the sea, which was deep and blue, deep enough for large ships to sail up right under the branches of the trees. Among these trees lived a nightingale, which sang so wonderfully, that even the poor fisherman, who had plenty of other things to do, lay still to listen to it, when he was out at night drawing in his fishing nets. ‘Heavens, how beautiful it is!’ he said, but then he had to go back to work and forgot it. The next night when he heard it again he would again exclaim, ‘Heavens, how beautiful it is!’

 Travellers came to the emperor’s city, from every country in the world. They admired everything very much, especially the palace and the gardens, but when they heard the nightingale they all said, ‘This is better than anything!’no

When they got home they told everyone about it and writers wrote many books about the town, the palace and the garden. But nobody forgot the nightingale, it was always said that it was the most precious thing of all. Poets wrote the most beautiful poems, all about the nightingale in the woods by the deep blue sea. These books went all over the world, and after a while some of them reached the emperor. He sat in his golden chair reading and reading, and nodding his head, well pleased to hear such beautiful descriptions of the town, the palace and the garden. ‘But the nightingale is the best of all,’ he read.

‘What is this?’ said the emperor. ‘The nightingale? Why, I know nothing about it. Is there such a bird in my kingdom, and in my own garden in fact and I have never heard of it? Imagine my having to discover this from a book?’

Then he called his butler, who acted very grand.

‘There is said to be a very wonderful bird called a nightingale here,’ said the emperor. ‘They say that it is better than anything else in all my great kingdom! Why have I never been told anything about it?’

‘I have never heard it mentioned,’ said the butler. ‘It has never been introduced in the palace.’

‘I wish it to appear here this evening to sing to me,’ said the emperor. ‘The whole world knows what I own and I know nothing about it!’

‘I have never heard it mentioned before,’ said the butler. ‘I will look for it, and I will find it!’ But where was it to be found? The butler ran upstairs and downstairs and in and out of all the rooms and corridors. No one of all those he met had ever heard anything about the nightingale; so the butler ran back to the emperor, and said that it must not a true story, made up by the writers of the books. ‘Your majesty must not believe everything that is written. Books are often not true.!’

‘But the book in which I read it is sent to me by the powerful Emperor of Japan, so it must be true. I will hear this nightingale; I insist it is brought here to-night. I will make sure it is well taken care of. If, however, it is not brought here, I will have punish everyone after supper!’

‘As you please!’ said the gentleman-in-waiting, and away he ran again, up and down all the stairs, in and out of all the rooms and corridors; half the court ran with him, for they none of them wished to be punished. There were many questions about this nightingale, which was known to all the outside world, but to no one at court. At last they found a poor little maid in the kitchen. She said, ‘Oh heavens, the nightingale? I know it very well. Yes, indeed it can sing. Every evening I am allowed to take left-over meat to my poor sick mother who lives down by the shore. On my way back, when I am tired, I rest awhile in the wood, and then I hear the nightingale. Its song brings the tears into my eyes, I feel as if my mother were kissing me!’

‘Little kitchen-maid,’ said the gentleman-in-waiting, ‘I will make sure you get a good job in the kitchen, if you will take us to the nightingale. It is commanded to appear at court to-night.’

Then they all went out into the wood where the nightingale usually sang. Half the court was there. As they were going along at their best pace a cow began to moo.

‘Oh!’ said a young assistant, ‘there we have it. What wonderful power for such a little creature. I have certainly heard it before.’

‘No, those are the cows mooing, we are a long way yet from the place.’ Then the frogs began to croak in the marsh.

‘Beautiful!’ said the Chinese priest, ‘it is just like the tinkling of church bells.’

‘No, those are the frogs!’ said the little kitchen-maid. ‘But I think we shall soon hear it now!’

Then the nightingale began to sing.

‘There it is!’ said the little girl. ‘Listen, listen, there it sits!’ and she pointed to a little grey bird up among the branches.

‘Is it possible?’ said the gentleman-in-waiting. ‘I should never have thought it was like that. How ordinary it looks! Seeing so many important people must have frightened all its colours away.’

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