Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Robinson).djvu/222

HANS ANDERSEN'S FAIRY TALES him again; however, the Emperor now wished the real nightingale should sing something—but where was she? No one had remarked that she had flown out of the open window; flown away to her own green wood.

'What is the meaning of this?' said the Emperor; and all the courtiers abused the nightingale, and called her a most ungrateful creature. 'We have the best bird at all events,' said they, and for the four and thirtieth time they heard the same tune, but still they did not quite know it, because it was so difficult. The artist praised the bird inordinately; indeed he declared it was superior to the real nightingale, not only in its exterior, all sparkling with diamonds, but also intrinsically.

'For see, my noble lords, his Imperial Majesty especially, with the real nightingale, one could never reckon on what was coming; but everything is settled with the artificial bird; he will sing in this one way, and no other: this can be proved, he can be taken to pieces, and the works can be shown, where the wheels lie, how they move, and how one follows from another.'

'That is just what I think,' said everybody; and the artist received permission to show the bird to the people on the following Sunday. 'They too should hear him sing,' the Emperor said. So they heard him, and were as well pleased as if they had all been drinking tea; for it is tea that makes Chinese merry, and they all said oh! and raised their fore-fingers, and nodded their heads. But the fisherman, who had heard the real nightingale, said, 'It sounds very pretty, almost like the real bird; but yet there is something wanting, I do not know what.'

The real nightingale was, however, banished the empire.

The artificial bird had his place on a silken cushion, close to the Emperor's bed; all the presents he received, gold and precious stones, lay around him; he had obtained the rank and title of 'High Imperial Dessert Singer,' and, therefore, his 182