Page:Hans Andersen's Fairy Tales (1888).djvu/282

 the palace imagined that he was anything but a swineherd—let not a day go by till he had speedily constructed another beautiful toy—a wonderful musical rattle. When twirled round even lightly it played all the waltzes, marches, and polkas that people had known since the world began.

It was not long before all this music attracted the princess to the spot, and she could only stand still as she listened, and say, “Oh, that is superb. I have never before heard finer music. Go at once and ask what that instrument will cost, but there shall be no more kisses remember.”

Then the court lady returned with the swineherd’s answer.

“He says that for this rattle he must receive a hundred kisses from the princess,” said the lady.

“I believe the man is mad,” she said, as she turned away, but she did not go far before she came to a sudden stop and called one of her ladies.

“We ought to encourage talent,” she said. “Especially I, who am the daughter of an emperor. Go to him once more and ask if he will take ten kisses from the princess, and the remainder of the hundred from the maids of honour.”

“Oh! but we should not like that,” they all said.

“Nonsense,” replied the princess. “Surely if I can kiss him you need not object. You forget that I provide you with food and clothes at a great cost.” So several of the ladies were obliged to go again to the swineherd, but they quickly returned with his reply.

“A hundred kisses from the princess and no one else, or I shall still keep my rattle.”

For a time the princess stood undecided what to do, at last she exclaimed, “Take your places and form a ring round me, I must have the rattle.”

So the ladies quickly formed a circle round the princess, and spread out their dresses to hide her when the swineherd arrived.

“What can all that commotion be about near the pigsties,” asked the emperor, as he came out into the balcony. Then he rubbed his eyes and put on his spectacles. “It looks as if the ladies of the court were having some foolish frolic, I must go nearer and see what it means.”

So he pulled up his slippers, which were down at heel, and walked slowly and cautiously through the garden, but the ladies were so busy counting the kisses, that they did not notice the emperor’s approach till he came so close that he stood on tiptoe to see what was going on.

“What is all this?” he asked, and the next moment, when he saw the kissing going on, he drew off his slipper and threw it at the head of the swineherd, just as he had completed the sixty-eighth kiss.

“Pack yourselves off quickly, bag and baggage,” thundered the emperor, for he was in a terrible rage, and both the princess and the swineherd knew that they were now exiled from the palace for ever.

There stood the princess weeping bitterly, while the swineherd, upon whom the rain streamed down, was upbraiding her for her folly.

“Oh, wretched creature that I am,” sighed the princess, “if I had accepted the offer of that handsome prince I should not be so dreadfully unhappy now.”