WELCOME
TO CLASS IX
ENGLISH CLASS
HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a large red ruby glowed on his sword hilt.
Actually, his friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, as he had stayed behind; then he decided to go to Egypt too.
One night there flew over the city a little swallow.
When he arrived at the city, it was night time.
….that he decided to search for a place to sleep.
He noticed that the town had made preparations..
“I will put up there,”
he cried. “It is a fine
position with plenty of
fresh air.” So he alighted
just between the feet of
the Happy Prince.
The little swallow saw the statue of Happy Prince and said
When I was alive and had a human heart, I did not know what tears were, for I lived in the Palace, where sorrow is not allowed to enter. My courtiers called me the Happy Prince, and happy indeed I was. So I lived, and so I died.
And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see the ugliness and all the misery of my city, and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep.”
Far away,” continued the statue in a low musical voice, “far away in a little street there is a poor house. I can see a seamstress seated at a table. Her face is thin and worn”.
“In a bed in the corner of the room her little boy is lying ill. He has a fever, and is asking his mother to give him oranges. His mother has nothing to give him but river water, so he is crying”.
“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you not bring her the ruby out of my sword hilt? My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move.”
I am waited for in Egypt,”.
“My friends are flying up and down the Nile, and talking to the large lotus flowers.
The Prince asked the swallow to stay with him for one night and be his messenger. “The boy is so thirsty, and the mother so sad,” he said.
“I don’t think I like boys,” answered the swallow. “I want to go to Egypt.”
But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little swallow was sorry.
But he agreed to stay with him for one night and be his messenger.
It is very cold here. Ohm. Ok. I will be your messenger
The swallow picked out the great ruby from the Prince’s sword, and flew away with it in his beak over the roofs of the town and reached the house of the seamstress.
The boy was tossing feverishly on his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired. In he hopped, and laid the great ruby on the table beside the woman’s thimble. Then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the boy’s forehead with his wings. “How cool I feel!” said the boy, “I must be getting better;” and he sank into a delicious slumber.
Then, the swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him
what he had done.
“It is curious, but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold
“That is because you have done a good action,”
When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath.
“Tonight I go to Egypt,” said the swallow, and he was in high spirits at the prospect. He visited all the monuments and sat a long time on top of the church steeple.
When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince.
“Have you any commissions for Egypt?” “I am just starting.”
“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, will you stay with me one night longer?”
“I am waited for in Egypt,” answered the swallow.
Alas! I have no ruby now, “My eyes are all
that I have left. They are made of rare sapphires, which were brought out of India a thousand years ago.
“far away across the city I see a young man in a garret. He is leaning over a desk covered with papers, and in the glass by his side there is a bunch of withered violets. ……… He is trying to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in the grate, and hunger has made him faint.”
“I will wait with you one night longer,” said the swallow, who really had a good heart..
He ordered the swallow to pluck out one of them and take it to the Playwright so that he could sell it to the jeweller, and buy firewood, and finish his play,”
But the swallow refused to do as his one eye would become blind. He started to weep, “I cannot do that,” and he began to weep.
Seeing this, the Happy Prince said,
“Do as I command you.”
So the swallow plucked out the Prince’s
eye, and flew away to the young man’s
garret.
The young man had his head buried in his hands, so he did not hear the flutter of the bird’s wings, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying on the withered violets.
“I am beginning to be appreciated,” he cried. “This is from some great admirer. Now I can finish my play,” and he looked quite happy.
The next day the swallow flew down to the harbour. He sat on the mast of a large vessel and watched the sailors working. “I am going to Egypt,”
Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow will you not stay with me one night longer?
“I have come to bid you goodbye,”
It is winter and the snow will soon be here. In Egypt the sun is warm on the green palm trees, and the crocodiles lie in the mud and look lazily about them.
NEXT DAY
“Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow,” said the Prince, “do as I command you.”
I will stay with you one night longer but I cannot pluck out your eye. You would be quite blind then.
In the square below there stands a little matchgirl. She has let her matches fall in the gutter, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes or stockings, and her little head is bare.
Pluck out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her.”
So he plucked out the Prince’s other eye, and darted down with it and slipped the jewel into the palm of the match girl.
“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.”
All the next day he sat on the Prince’s shoulder, and told him stories of what he had seen in strange lands.
“Dear little Swallow,” said the Prince, “you tell me of marvellous things, but more marvellous than anything is the suffering of men and 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.
The swallow flew back and told the Prince what he had seen and narrated the sufferings of the poor and merry making of the rich.
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 grew
rosier, and they laughed and played in the street. “We have bread now!” they cried.
“I am covered with fine gold. “You must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to the poor; the living always think that gold can make them happy.”
Then the snow came, and after the snow came the frost. The poor little swallow grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him too well. He picked up crumbs outside the baker’s door when the baker was not looking, and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings. But at last he knew that he was going to die. He had just enough strength to fly up to the Prince’s shoulder once more.
“Goodbye, dear Prince!” he murmured. “Will you let me kiss your
hand?
I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow. You have stayed too long here but you must kiss me on the lips, for I love you.
“It is not to Egypt that I am going,” said the swallow. “I am going to the House of Death. Death is the brother of Sleep, is he not?”
At that moment a curious crack sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The fact is that the leaden heart had snapped right in two. It certainly was a dreadfully hard frost.
And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet.
Early the next morning the Mayor was walking in the square below in company with the Town Councillors. As they passed the column he looked up at the statue.
Dear me! How shabby the Happy Prince looks!” he said.
“How shabby, indeed!” cried the Town Councillors, who always
agreed with the Mayor and they went up to look at it.
“The ruby has fallen out of his sword, his eyes are gone, and
he is golden no longer,” said the Mayor. “In fact, he is little better
than a beggar!”
“Little better than a beggar,” said the Town Councillors.
And here is actually a dead bird at his feet!” continued the Mayor. “We must really issue a proclamation that birds are not to be allowed to die here.” And the Town Clerk made a note of the suggestion.
So they pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. “As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful,” said the Art Professor at the University.
Then they melted the statue in a furnace. “What a strange thing!” said the overseer of the workmen at the foundry. “This broken lead heart will not melt in the furnace. We must throw it away.” So they threw it on a dust heap where the dead swallow was also lying.
“Bring me the two most precious things in the city,” said God` to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.
“You have rightly chosen,” said God, “for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for ever more and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.”