side the door hangs a
nightingale in a cage who will sing."

'"I don't think it's proper," said the kettle, "that such a foreign bird
should be heard."

'"Oh, let us have some acting," said everyone. "Do let us!"

'Suddenly the door opened and the maid came in. Everyone was quite
quiet. There was not a sound. But each pot knew what he might have done,
and how grand he was.

'The maid took the matches and lit the fire with them. How they
spluttered and flamed, to be sure! "Now everyone can see," they thought,
"that we are the grandest! How we sparkle! What a light-"

'But here they were burnt out.'

'That was a delightful story!' said the sultana. 'I quite feel myself in
the kitchen with the matches. Yes, now you shall marry our daughter.'

'Yes, indeed,' said the sultan, 'you shall marry our daughter on
Monday.' And they treated the young man as one of the family.

The wedding was arranged, and the night before the whole town was
illuminated.

Biscuits and gingerbreads were thrown among the people, the street boys
stood on tiptoe crying hurrahs and whistling through their fingers. It
was all splendid.

'Now I must also give them a treat,' thought the merchant's son. And
so he bought rockets, crackers, and all the kinds of fireworks you can
think of, put them in his trunk, and flew up with them into the air.

Whirr-r-r, how they fizzed and blazed!

All the Turks jumped so high that their slippers flew above their heads;
such a splendid glitter they had never seen before.

Now they could quite well understand that it was the god of the Turks
himself who was to marry the princess.

As soon as the young merchant came down again into the wood with his
trunk he thought, 'Now I will just go into the town to see how the show
has taken.'

And it was quite natural that he should want to do this.

Oh! what stories the people had to tell!

Each one whom he asked had seen it differently, but they had all found
it beautiful.

'I saw the Turkish god himself,' said one. 'He had eyes like glittering
stars, and a beard like foaming water.'

'He flew away in a cloak of fire,' said another. They were splendid
things that he heard, and the next day was to be his wedding day.

Then he went back into the wood to sit in his trunk; but what had become
of it? The trunk had been burnt. A spark of the fireworks had set it
alight, and the trunk was in ashes. He could no longer fly, and could
never reach his bride.

She s