The Happy Prince
One night a little swallow flew over the city where a beautiful statue was stood. The swallow’s friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before but ha had not because he was in love with the most beautiful reed. The other swallows had told him that his love was ridicous because the reed had no money and too many relations, and she was always flirting with the wind.
While he was flying he saw the statue, it was covered by thin leaves of fine gold, for eyes he had two sapphires and a large red ruby glowed on his sword. When he was alive he did not know what tears were, he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed. The courtesy used to call him the Happy Prince, and when he died the Town Councillors decided to build the statue which was set up so high that he could see everything.
The swallow decided to sleep on the statue’s feet, but just when he was putting his head under his wings, he felt a drop of water, and then another, when he looked up he realized that the Happy Prince was crying because he could see the misery and ugliness of his own city. So the Happy Prince asked the swallow to be his massager. Thought a small window the Happy Prince could see a very poor seamstress who was embroidering passion flowers on a satin grown, and he could also see her ill boy. They had no food to eat, so the Happy Prince told the swallow to take out one ruby from his sword and you give it to them.
There following night the Happy Prince saw a man in a cold garret trying to finish a play but he was too cold to write, so the Happy Prince asked the swallow to take out a sapphire of his eyes and to give it to him in order to buy wood. The following day, he saw a match-girl whose matches had fallen in the gutter so her father was going to hit her if she did not bring home some money. In order to help the girl the Happy Prince asked the swallow to pluck out the sapphire of his eyes to give it to her. As a result of this action he became blind and the swallow had to fly over...
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