design that were not there. To the Emperor he said,
"It is charming!"

Soon everybody in town was talking about the wonderful cloth that the
two rogues were weaving.

The Emperor began to think now that he himself would like to see the
wonderful cloth while it was still on the looms. Accompanied by a number
of his friends, among whom were the two faithful officers who had
already beheld the imaginary stuff, he went to visit the two men who
were weaving, might and main, without any fiber and without any thread.

"Isn't it splendid!" cried the two statesmen who had already been there,
and who thought the others would see something upon the empty looms.
"Look, your Majesty! What colors! And what a design!"

"What's this?" thought the Emperor. "I see nothing at all! Am I a dunce?
Am I not fit to be Emperor? That would be the worst thing that could
happen to me, if it were true."

"Oh, it is very pretty!" said the Emperor aloud. "It has my highest
approval!"

He nodded his head happily, and stared at the empty looms. Never would
he say that he could see nothing!

His friends, too, gazed and gazed, but saw no more than had the others.
Yet they all cried out, "It is beautiful!" and advised the Emperor to
wear a suit made of this cloth in a great procession that was soon to
take place.

"It is magnificent, gorgeous!" was the cry that went from mouth to
mouth. The Emperor gave each of the rogues a royal ribbon to wear in his
buttonhole, and called them the Imperial Court Weavers.

The rogues were up the whole night before the morning of the procession.
They kept more than sixteen candles burning. The people could see them
hard at work, completing the new clothes of the Emperor. They took yards
of stuff down from the empty looms; they made cuts in the air with big
scissors; they sewed with needles without thread; and, at last, they
said, "The clothes are ready!"

The Emperor himself, with his grandest courtiers, went to put on his new
suit.

"See!" said the rogues, lifting their arms as if holding something.
"Here are the trousers! Here is the coat! Here is the cape!" and so on.
"It is as light as a spider's web. One might think one had nothing on.
But that is just the beauty of it!"

"Very nice," said the courtiers. But they could see nothing; for there
_was_ nothing!

"Will your Imperial Majesty be graciously pleased to take off your
clothes," asked the rogues, "so that we may put on the new ones before
this