The Happy Prince Page #2

The Happy Prince and Other Tales is a collection of stories for children by Oscar Wilde first published in May 1888. It contains five stories: "The Happy Prince", "The Nightingale and the Rose", "The Selfish Giant", "The Devoted Friend", and "The Remarkable Rocket".

• Children

								

beautiful girl came out on the balcony with her lover.  “How wonderful
the stars are,” he said to her, “and how wonderful is the power of love!”

“I hope my dress will be ready in time for the State-ball,” she answered;
“I have ordered passion-flowers to be embroidered on it; but the
seamstresses are so lazy.”

He passed over the river, and saw the lanterns hanging to the masts of
the ships.  He passed over the Ghetto, and saw the old Jews bargaining
with each other, and weighing out money in copper scales.  At last he
came to the poor house and looked in.  The boy was tossing feverishly on
his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired.  In he
hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman’s thimble.
Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his
wings.  “How cool I feel,” said the boy, “I must be getting better”; and
he sank into a delicious slumber.

Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had
done.  “It is curious,” he remarked, “but I feel quite warm now, although
it is so cold.”

“That is because you have done a good action,” said the Prince.  And the
little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep.  Thinking always
made him sleepy.

When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath.  “What a
remarkable phenomenon,” said the Professor of Ornithology as he was
passing over the bridge.  “A swallow in winter!”  And he wrote a long
letter about it to the local newspaper.  Every one quoted it, it was full
of so many words that they could not understand.

“To-night I go to Egypt,” said the Swallow, and he was in high spirits at
the prospect.  He visited all the public monuments, and sat a long time
on top of the church steeple.  Wherever he went the Sparrows chirruped,
and said to each other, “What a distinguished stranger!” so he enjoyed
himself very much.

When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.  “Have you any
commissions for Egypt?” he cried; “I am just starting.”

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “will you not stay
with me one night longer?”

“I am waited for in Egypt,” answered the Swallow.  “To-morrow my friends
will fly up to the Second Cataract.  The river-horse couches there among
the bulrushes, and on a great granite throne sits the God Memnon.  All
night long he watches the stars, and when the morning star shines he
utters one cry of joy, and then he is silent.  At noon the yellow lions
come down to the water’s edge to drink.  They have eyes like green
beryls, and their roar is louder than the roar of the cataract.”

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “far away across the
city I see a young man in a garret.  He is leaning over a desk covered
with papers, and in a tumbler by his side there is a bunch of withered
violets.  His hair is brown and crisp, and his lips are red as a
pomegranate, and he has large and dreamy eyes.  He is trying to finish a
play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any
more.  There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.”

“I will wait with you one night longer,” said the Swallow, who really had
a good heart.  “Shall I take him another ruby?”

“Alas!  I have no ruby now,” said the Prince; “my eyes are all that I
have left.  They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of
India a thousand years ago.  Pluck out one of them and take it to him.
He will sell it to the jeweller, and buy food and firewood, and finish
his play.”

“Dear Prince,” said the Swallow, “I cannot do that”; and he began to
weep.

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “do as I command
you.”

So the Swallow plucked out the Prince’s eye, and flew away to the
student’s garret.  It was easy enough to get in, as there was a hole in
the roof.  Through this he darted, and came into the room.  The young man
had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the
bird’s wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying
on the withered violets.

“I am beginning to be appreciated,” he cried; “this is from some great
admirer.  Now I can finish my play,” and he looked quite happy.

The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbour.  He sat on the mast of
a large vessel and watched the sailors hauling big chests out of the hold
with ropes.  “Heave a-hoy!” they shouted as each chest came up.  “I am
going to Egypt”! cried the Swallow, but nobody minded, and when the moon
rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.

“I am come to bid you good-bye,” he cried.

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “will you not stay
with me one night longer?”

“It is winter,” answered the Swallow, “and the chill snow will soon be
here.  In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm-trees, and the
crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them.  My companions are
building a nest in the Temple of Baalbec, and the pink and white doves
are watching them, and cooing to each other.  Dear Prince, I must leave
you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back
two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away.  The ruby
shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the
great sea.”

“In the square below,” said the Happy Prince, “there stands a little
match-girl.  She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all
spoiled.  Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money,
and she is crying.  She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is
bare.  Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will
not beat her.”

“I will stay with you one night longer,” said the Swallow, “but I cannot
pluck out your eye.  You would be quite blind then.”

“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “do as I command
you.”

So he plucked out the Prince’s other eye, and darted down with it.  He
swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her
hand.  “What a lovely bit of glass,” cried the little girl; and she ran
home, laughing.

Then the Swallow came back to the Prince.  “You are blind now,” he said,
“so I will stay with you always.”

“No, little Swallow,” said the poor Prince, “you must go away to Egypt.”

“I will stay with you always,” said the Swallow, and he slept at the
Prince’s feet.

All the next day he sat on the Prince’s shoulder, and told him stories of
what he had seen in strange lands.  He told him of the red ibises, who
stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch gold-fish in their
beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in the
desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by the
side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the King
of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and worships a
large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a palm-tree, and
has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of the pygmies who
sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are always at war with the
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