allow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "do as I command
you."

So he plucked out the Prince's other eye, and darted down with it. He
swooped past the match-girl, and slipped the jewel into the palm of her
hand. "What a lovely bit of glass," cried the little girl; and she ran
home, laughing.

Then the Swallow came back to the Prince. "You are blind now," he said,
"so I will stay with you always."

"No, little Swallow," said the poor Prince, "you must go away to Egypt."

"I will stay with you always," said the Swallow, and he slept at the
Prince's feet.

All the next day he sat on the Prince's shoulder, and told him stories
of what he had seen in strange lands. He told him of the red ibises, who
stand in long rows on the banks of the Nile, and catch goldfish in their
beaks; of the Sphinx, who is as old as the world itself, and lives in
the desert, and knows everything; of the merchants, who walk slowly by
the side of their camels, and carry amber beads in their hands; of the
King of the Mountains of the Moon, who is as black as ebony, and
worships a large crystal; of the great green snake that sleeps in a
palm-tree, and has twenty priests to feed it with honey-cakes; and of
the pygmies who sail over a big lake on large flat leaves, and are
always at war with the butterflies.

"Dear little Swallow," said the Prince, "you tell me of marvelous
things, but more marvelous than anything is the suffering of men and of
women. There is no Mystery so great as Misery. Fly over my city, little
Swallow, and tell me what you see there."

So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich making merry
in their beautiful houses, while the beggars were sitting at the gates.
He flew into dark lanes, and saw the white faces of starving children
looking out listlessly at the black streets. Under the archway of a
bridge two little boys were lying in one another's arms to try to keep
themselves warm. "How hungry we are!" they said. "You must not lie
here," shouted the Watchman, and they wandered out into the rain.

Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen.

"I am covered with fine gold," said the Prince; "you must take it off,
leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; the living always think that gold
can make them happy."

Leaf after leaf of the fine gold the Swallow picked off, till the Happy
Prince looked quite dull and grey. Leaf after leaf of the fine gold he
brought to the poor, and the children's faces gre