“What a beautiful stove!” he heard some one say as the wrappings were taken off. Then the door of the stove was opened.
“Why, here is a little child inside the stove! What does this mean?” said the same voice.
August crept out of the stove and knelt down before the grand man he saw surrounded by others in uniform.
“Oh, sir!” he exclaimed, “please let me stay with my Hirschvogel. It belonged to my mother, and we love it dearly. Please let me stay with it!”
The man was the king and he looked very kindly at August and made him tell all the story of the great stove, and about his father and his brothers and sisters and the journey he had made inside the stove. There were tears in the king’s eyes when August had finished his story.
“You must have loved the stove very much,” said he.
“Oh, yes, sir,” answered the boy; “and it would break my heart to have to give it up.”
“You need not do that, my child,” said the king, “you may live here in the palace and look after your stove if you wish.”
August was overjoyed at this. He lived in the palace and took care of the great stove for the king. In after years he became a painter on porcelain and painted many fine stoves for the great lords of the kingdom, but he never could make one as beautiful as Hirschvogel.