Hans Christian Andersen 
Nightingale 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Being A story for children and A parable for men and women. N china, you must know, the Emperor is a Chinaman, and all whom he has about him are I Chinamen too. It happened a good many years ago, but that’s just why it’s worth while to hear the story before it’s forgotten! The Emperor’s Palace was the most splendid in the World; it was made entire ly of porcelain, very costly, but so delicate and brittle that one had to take care how one touched it. In the Garden were to be seen the most wonderful flowers, and to the costliest of them silver bells were tied, which sounded, so that nobody should pass by without noticing the flowers. Yes, every thing in the Emperor’s Garden was admirably arranged. And it extended so far, that the Gardener himself did not know where the end was. If a man went on and on, he came into a glorious forest with high trees and deep lakes. The wood extended straight down to the sea, which was blue and deep; great vessels could sail beneath the branches of the trees, and in the trees lived a Nightingale, which sang so splendidly that even the poor Fisherman, who had many other things to do, stopped still and listened, when he had gone out at night to throw out his nets, and heard the N ightin gale. How beautiful that is! He said; but he was obliged to attend to his property and thus forgot the bird. But when in the next night, the bird sang again and the Fisherman heard it, he exclaimed again, H ow beautiful that is!tin at? From all the countries of the World, Travellers came to the City of the Emperor and admired it, and the Pal ace and the Garden, but when they heard the song of the Nightingale, they said: That is the best of all! And the Travellers told of it when they came home; and the learned men wrote many books about the Town, the Palace, and the Garden. But they did not forget the Nightingale; that was placed highest of all; and those who were Poets wrote most magnificent poems about the Nightingale in the wood, by the deep lake. The