emeralds, and diamonds. When it was
wound up it played a waltz tune, and as it played it moved its little
tail up and down. Everybody in the court was filled with delight at
the music of the new nightingale. They made it sing that same tune
thirty-three times, and still they had not had enough. They would have
made it sing the tune thirty-four times, but the Emperor said, "I
should like to hear the real Nightingale sing, now."

But when they looked about for the real little Nightingale, they could
not find her anywhere! She had taken the chance, while everybody was
listening to the waltz tunes, to fly away through the window to her own
greenwood.

"What a very ungrateful bird!" said the lords and ladies. "But it does
not matter; the new nightingale is just as good."

So the artificial nightingale was given the real Nightingale's little
gold perch, and every night the Emperor wound her up, and she sang
waltz tunes to him. The people in the court liked her even better than
the old Nightingale, because they could all whistle her tunes,--which
you can't do with real nightingales.

About a year after the artificial nightingale came, the Emperor was
listening to her waltz-tune, when there was a SNAP and WHIR-R-R inside
the bird, and the music stopped. The Emperor ran to his doctor but he
could not do anything. Then he ran to his clock-maker, but he could
not do much. Nobody could do much. The best they could do was to
patch the gold nightingale up so that it could sing once a year; even
that was almost too much, and the tune was pretty shaky. Still, the
Emperor kept the gold nightingale on the perch in his own room.

A long time went by, and then, at last, the Emperor grew very ill, and
was about to die. When it was sure that he could not live much longer,
the people chose a new emperor and waited for the old one to die. The
poor Emperor lay, quite cold and pale, in his great big bed, with
velvet curtains, and tall candlesticks all about. He was quite alone,
for all the courtiers had gone to congratulate the new emperor, and all
the servants had gone to talk it over.

When the Emperor woke up, he felt a terrible weight on his chest. He
opened his eyes, and there was Death, sitting on his heart. Death had
put on the Emperor's gold crown, and he had the gold sceptre in one
hand, and the silken banner in the other; and he looked at the Emperor
with his great hollow eyes. The room was full of shadows, and t