sed him to peruse the masterly descriptions
of the city, the palace, and the garden. "But the Nightingale is the
best of all," it stood written there.

"What's that?" exclaimed the Emperor. "I don't know the Nightingale at
all! Is there such a bird in my empire, and even in my garden? I've
never heard of that. To think that I should have to learn such a thing
for the first time from books!"

And hereupon he called his cavalier. This cavalier was so grand that if
anyone lower in rank than himself dared to speak to him, or to ask him
any question, he answered nothing but "P!"--and that meant nothing.

"There is said to be a wonderful bird here called a Nightingale," said
the Emperor. "They say it is the best thing in all my great empire. Why
have I never heard anything about it?"

"I have never heard him named," replied the cavalier. "He has never been
introduced at Court."

"I command that he shall appear this evening, and sing before me," said
the Emperor. "All the world knows what I possess, and I do not know it
myself!"

"I have never heard him mentioned," said the cavalier. "I will seek for
him. I will find him."

But where was he to be found? The cavalier ran up and down all the
staircases, through halls and passages, but no one among all those whom
he met had heard talk of the Nightingale. And the cavalier ran back to
the Emperor, and said that it must be a fable invented by the writers of
books.

"Your Imperial Majesty cannot believe how much is written that is
fiction, besides something that they call the black art."

"But the book in which I read this," said the Emperor, "was sent to me
by the high and mighty Emperor of Japan and therefore it cannot be a
falsehood. I _will_ hear the Nightingale! It must be here this evening!
It has my imperial favor; and if it does not come, all the Court shall
be trampled upon after the Court has supped!"

"Tsing-pe!" said the cavalier; and again he ran up and down all the
staircases, and through all the halls and corridors; and half the Court
ran with him, for the courtiers did not like being trampled upon.

Then there was a great inquiry after the wonderful Nightingale, which
all the world knew excepting the people at Court.

At last they met with a poor little girl in the kitchen, who said:

"The Nightingale? I know it well; yes, it can sing gloriously. Every
evening I get leave to carry my poor sick mother the scraps from the
table. She lives down by the str