III
The Emperor promised to do this, although he could not believe he had been deceived.
Just then all the attendants came running across the field, for they had waked up and missed the Emperor.
Tears ran down their cheeks. They wished to have the Emperor think they were weeping because he was gone. He did not know each one had an onion in his handkerchief.
“Command them to stop where they are,” the peasant whispered.
The Emperor made them stop about twenty feet away, right in the middle of a ditch.
“We are weeping because of your absence, beloved Emperor,” said the chief attendant. He wiped his eyes with his handkerchief, and all the others did the same thing.
“How do you dare to stand beside the Emperor, you peasant,” said the Lord Marshal. “Go back to your plow!”
“Say that I am standing beside my plow,” whispered the peasant. He was really standing beside the Emperor, and the plow was thirty feet away.
“Do you not see,” said the Emperor, “that he is standing beside the plow?”
“Oh, yes,” said one, “he is holding the plow with one hand.”
“Yes, yes,” said another, “he is surely driving his oxen.”
“Ask them,” whispered the peasant, “if they ever saw such white oxen.”
Now the peasant’s oxen were coal black, without a single white spot on them.
“Have you ever seen such beautiful white oxen?” said the Emperor, pointing to the black ones.
“No, never,” said one, “they are indeed snow white.”
“Yes,” said another, “they are whiter than snow. It hurts my eyes to look at them, they are so white.”
The Emperor knew now that they were not telling the truth, and he decided to punish them.
“Come here,” he called to some peasants who were plowing in the next field.
“There is nothing so pleasant as plowing,” he said to his attendants.
“It is a great pleasure,” said one.
“I enjoy it more than anything in the world,” said another.
“I would rather plow than dance,” said a third.
“I am very glad you think so, my lords,” said the Emperor. “These peasants will be glad to have you plow for them. This is my command. Begin at once!”
There was no help for it. The courtiers did not dare to disobey, so they took hold of the plows and tried to drive the oxen across the long fields.
I do not believe they plowed very well, for they had never touched a plow before, and did not know how to drive oxen.
But the peasant went to the palace and became the Emperor’s chief counsellor.
The Emperor had this story written on a block of marble in golden letters, but few people can read it because it is written in Chinese, and it is very hard to have to read Chinese.
—Anna von Rydingsvärd.