The Happy Prince Page #9

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

								

But I am afraid I shall never have such beautiful ideas as you have.’

“‘Oh! they will come to you,’ said the Miller, ‘but you must take more
pains.  At present you have only the practice of friendship; some day you
will have the theory also.’

“‘Do you really think I shall?’ asked little Hans.

“‘I have no doubt of it,’ answered the Miller, ‘but now that you have
mended the roof, you had better go home and rest, for I want you to drive
my sheep to the mountain to-morrow.’

“Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the next
morning the Miller brought his sheep round to the cottage, and Hans
started off with them to the mountain.  It took him the whole day to get
there and back; and when he returned he was so tired that he went off to
sleep in his chair, and did not wake up till it was broad daylight.

“‘What a delightful time I shall have in my garden,’ he said, and he went
to work at once.

“But somehow he was never able to look after his flowers at all, for his
friend the Miller was always coming round and sending him off on long
errands, or getting him to help at the mill.  Little Hans was very much
distressed at times, as he was afraid his flowers would think he had
forgotten them, but he consoled himself by the reflection that the Miller
was his best friend.  ‘Besides,’ he used to say, ‘he is going to give me
his wheelbarrow, and that is an act of pure generosity.’

“So little Hans worked away for the Miller, and the Miller said all kinds
of beautiful things about friendship, which Hans took down in a
note-book, and used to read over at night, for he was a very good
scholar.

“Now it happened that one evening little Hans was sitting by his fireside
when a loud rap came at the door.  It was a very wild night, and the wind
was blowing and roaring round the house so terribly that at first he
thought it was merely the storm.  But a second rap came, and then a
third, louder than any of the others.

“‘It is some poor traveller,’ said little Hans to himself, and he ran to
the door.

“There stood the Miller with a lantern in one hand and a big stick in the
other.

“‘Dear little Hans,’ cried the Miller, ‘I am in great trouble.  My little
boy has fallen off a ladder and hurt himself, and I am going for the
Doctor.  But he lives so far away, and it is such a bad night, that it
has just occurred to me that it would be much better if you went instead
of me.  You know I am going to give you my wheelbarrow, and so, it is
only fair that you should do something for me in return.’

“‘Certainly,’ cried little Hans, ‘I take it quite as a compliment your
coming to me, and I will start off at once.  But you must lend me your
lantern, as the night is so dark that I am afraid I might fall into the
ditch.’

“‘I am very sorry,’ answered the Miller, ‘but it is my new lantern, and
it would be a great loss to me if anything happened to it.’

“‘Well, never mind, I will do without it,’ cried little Hans, and he took
down his great fur coat, and his warm scarlet cap, and tied a muffler
round his throat, and started off.

“What a dreadful storm it was!  The night was so black that little Hans
could hardly see, and the wind was so strong that he could scarcely
stand.  However, he was very courageous, and after he had been walking
about three hours, he arrived at the Doctor’s house, and knocked at the
door.

“‘Who is there?’ cried the Doctor, putting his head out of his bedroom
window.

“‘Little Hans, Doctor.’

“’What do you want, little Hans?’

“‘The Miller’s son has fallen from a ladder, and has hurt himself, and
the Miller wants you to come at once.’

“‘All right!’ said the Doctor; and he ordered his horse, and his big
boots, and his lantern, and came downstairs, and rode off in the
direction of the Miller’s house, little Hans trudging behind him.

“But the storm grew worse and worse, and the rain fell in torrents, and
little Hans could not see where he was going, or keep up with the horse.
At last he lost his way, and wandered off on the moor, which was a very
dangerous place, as it was full of deep holes, and there poor little Hans
was drowned.  His body was found the next day by some goatherds, floating
in a great pool of water, and was brought back by them to the cottage.

“Everybody went to little Hans’ funeral, as he was so popular, and the
Miller was the chief mourner.

“‘As I was his best friend,’ said the Miller, ‘it is only fair that I
should have the best place’; so he walked at the head of the procession
in a long black cloak, and every now and then he wiped his eyes with a
big pocket-handkerchief.

“‘Little Hans is certainly a great loss to every one,’ said the
Blacksmith, when the funeral was over, and they were all seated
comfortably in the inn, drinking spiced wine and eating sweet cakes.

“‘A great loss to me at any rate,’ answered the Miller; ‘why, I had as
good as given him my wheelbarrow, and now I really don’t know what to do
with it.  It is very much in my way at home, and it is in such bad repair
that I could not get anything for it if I sold it.  I will certainly take
care not to give away anything again.  One always suffers for being
generous.’”

“Well?” said the Water-rat, after a long pause.

“Well, that is the end,” said the Linnet.

“But what became of the Miller?” asked the Water-rat.

“Oh!  I really don’t know,” replied the Linnet; “and I am sure that I
don’t care.”

“It is quite evident then that you have no sympathy in your nature,” said
the Water-rat.

“I am afraid you don’t quite see the moral of the story,” remarked the
Linnet.

“The what?” screamed the Water-rat.

“The moral.”

“Do you mean to say that the story has a moral?”

“Certainly,” said the Linnet.

“Well, really,” said the Water-rat, in a very angry manner, “I think you
should have told me that before you began.  If you had done so, I
certainly would not have listened to you; in fact, I should have said
‘Pooh,’ like the critic.  However, I can say it now”; so he shouted out
“Pooh” at the top of his voice, gave a whisk with his tail, and went back
into his hole.

“And how do you like the Water-rat?” asked the Duck, who came paddling up
some minutes afterwards.  “He has a great many good points, but for my
own part I have a mother’s feelings, and I can never look at a confirmed
bachelor without the tears coming into my eyes.”

“I am rather afraid that I have annoyed him,” answered the Linnet.  “The
fact is, that I told him a story with a moral.”

“Ah! that is always a very dangerous thing to do,” said the Duck.

And I quite agree with her.

     [Picture: Decorative graphic of windmill and overturned barrow]




The Remarkable Rocket.


                     [Picture: The Remarkable Rocket]

THE King’s son was going to be married, so there were general rejoicings.
He had waited a whole year for his bride, and at last she had arrived.
She was a Russian Princess, and had driven all the way from Finland in a
sledge drawn by six reindeer.  The sledge was shaped like a great golden
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