sang so beautifully that you have never
in all your life heard anything like it.

"Dear, dear," said the courtiers, "that is very pleasant; does that
little gray bird really make all that noise? She is so pale that I
think she has lost her color for fear of us."

The Chamberlain asked the little Nightingale to come and sing for the
Emperor. The little Nightingale said she could sing better in her own
greenwood, but she was so sweet and kind that she came with them.

That evening the palace was all trimmed with the most beautiful flowers
you can imagine, and rows and rows of little silver bells, that tinkled
when the wind blew in, and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of wax
candles, that shone like tiny stars. In the great hall there was a
gold perch for the Nightingale, beside the Emperor's throne.

When all the people were there, the Emperor asked the Nightingale to
sing. Then the little gray Nightingale filled her throat full, and
sang. And, my dears, she sang so beautifully that the Emperor's eyes
filled up with tears! And, you know, emperors do not cry at all
easily. So he asked her to sing again, and this time she sang so
marvelously that the tears came out of his eyes and ran down his
cheeks. That was a great success. They asked the little Nightingale
to sing, over and over again, and when they had listened enough the
Emperor said that she should be made "Singer in Chief to the Court."
She was to have a golden perch near the Emperor's bed, and a little
gold cage, and was to be allowed to go out twice every day. But there
were twelve servants appointed to wait on her, and those twelve
servants went with her every time she went out, and each of the twelve
had hold of the end of a silken string which was tied to the little
Nightingale's leg! It was not so very much fun to go out that way!

For a long, long time the Nightingale sang every evening to the Emperor
and his court, and they liked her so much that the ladies all tried to
sound like her; they used to put water in their mouths and then make
little sounds like this: glu-glu-glug. And when the courtiers met each
other in the halls, one would say "Night," and the other would say
"ingale," and that was conversation.

At last, one day, there came a little package to the Emperor, on the
outside of which was written, "The Nightingale." Inside was an
artificial bird, something like a Nightingale, only it was made of
gold, and silver, and rubies, and