“Command my brother, the Sun, to shine to-morrow,” he said, to his attendants. “Command the spring to come, also. And be ready, all of you, to go to the country to-morrow.”
One of the attendants wrote the Emperor’s commands on the finest Chinese paper and then burned it in the garden. He thought in this way the commands might reach the sun.
Perhaps they did; for the sun shone beautifully the next day, and the Emperor and his attendants went to the country palace.
II
The next morning the Emperor waked up very early. A little bird was singing in the garden. It was a lovely day.
The Emperor thought he would go out into the garden to hear the little bird sing.
He put on his silk dressing-gown, his silver shoes, and his gold crown. It was only six o’clock, so no one was awake in the palace.
When the Emperor went into the garden the bird flew into the forest and sang still more sweetly.
“How stupid I was,” thought the Emperor, “I ought to have commanded it to stay here. Now I must go into the woods to see it.”