Page:The jade story book; stories from the Orient (IA jadestorybooksto00cous).pdf/20

4 beautiful it is!" he said, but he had to attend to his duties and then forgot about the bird. But each night it was the same; the fisherman could not resist the temptation and he left his work to listen to the bird.

The Emperor's palace and garden were so magnificent that many travelers from foreign countries wrote books describing their beauty; but every scholar who wrote said that the finest thing of all was the singing of this Nightingale.

These books were read by many people all over the world, and at last some of them reached the Emperor, who sat in his chair of solid jade and read and read and read. He was very much pleased that so many people who were scholars should write so much about his palace and garden, but he was surprised to find that in each book the Nightingale was spoken of as the finest and most wonderful thing of all.

"It is very strange," said the Emperor, "I've never heard this Nightingale and it does seem unusual that I should know about it for the first time from reading books written by travellers."