had not wanted
to say it even in his mind. The trees also knew what had happened.
It was on his account they tuned up so loudly the instant he
appeared. And now they sang of him--there was no mistaking it now,
when they thought him asleep. Perhaps they did not wish him to hear
how much they were making of him.

And what a song, what a song! He lay all the while with his eyes
shut, but could hear the better for that. Not a sound was lost to
him.

Ah, this was music! It was not just the young trees at the edge of
the road that made music now, but the whole forest. There were
organs and drums and trumpets; there were little thrush flutes and
bullfinch pipes; there were gurgling brooks and singing water-sprites,
tinkling bluebells and thrumming woodpeckers.

Never had he heard anything so beautiful, nor listened to music in
just this way. It rang in his ear; so that he could never forget
it.

When the song was finished and the forest grew silent, he sprang to
his feet as if startled from a dream. Immediately he began to sing
this hymn of the woods so as to fix it forever in his memory.

The Empress's father, for his part,
Feels so happy in his heart.

Then came the refrain, which he had not been able to catch word for
word, but anyhow he sang it about as it had sounded to him:

Austria, Portugal, Metz, Japan,
Read the newspapers, if you can.
Boom, boom, boom, and roll.
Boom, boom.

No gun be his but a sword of gold;
Now a crown for a cap on his head behold!
Austria, Portugal, Metz, Japan,
Read the newspapers, if you can.
Boom, boom, boom, and roll.
Boom, boom.

Golden apples are his meat,
No more of turnips shall he eat.
Austria, Portugal, Metz, Japan,
Read the newspapers, if you can.
Boom, boom, boom, and roll.
Boom, boom.

Court ladies clothed in bright array
Bow as he passes on his way.
Austria, Portugal, Metz, Japan,
Read the newspapers, if you can.
Boom, boom, boom, and roll.
Boom, boom.

When he the forest proudly treads,
All the tree-tops nod their heads.
Austria, Portugal, Metz, Japan,
Read the newspapers, if you can.
Boom, boom, boom, and roll.
Boom, boom.

It was just this "boom, boom" that had sounded best of all to him.
With every boom he struck the ground hard with his stick and made
his voice as deep and