The Nightingale
The story happened a great many years ago in China.
At that time, China was a prosperous country.
People from other countries come to visit China.
They wrote books about the empire and the whole country.
But when they heard the nightingale, they all declared that it was the best of all.
The emperor was curious about this.
He knew nothing of the nightingale.
He asked his courtiers to bring the bird into the court.
With the help of a little girl in the kitchen, they found the nightingale deep in the forest.
They invited the bird to perform in the court and the bird agreed. The nightingale sang in front of the emperor and all the courtiers.
She sang so sweetly that tears came out everyone’s eyes.
The emperor wanted to reward her, but she refused him.
She regarded the tears as the best reward.
The nightingale remained at court. The whole city was speaking of the wonderful bird.
Then one day, the emperor received an artificial nightingale from the Emperor of Japan.
The artificial nightingale looked like a real one.
It was decorated by jewels.
It could sing beautiful songs, but only one same tune.
People learned the tune of the artificial bird’s song.
Soon, the tune could be heard everywhere in the city.
Little by little, people forgot about the real one.
So she flew away in the night. One evening, however, the artificial bird broke down and stopped singing.
People couldn’t fix it, and it may never be able to sing again. Five years later, the emperor became seriously ill.
People expected him not to live long.
Death came to his side and waited for his death.
Then the real nightingale came.
She sang to the emperor of hope and trust.
She sang of the breeze, the rose, and the emperor’s garden.
Even Death lost himself in the music and went away to have a look at those sceneries. The emperor felt better.
He asked the nightingale to stay with him, but she refused to stay. From that day on, the nightingale came to the emperor from time to time.
She sang songs of good and evil, and telling everything in the country.
But no one knew about this little bird. | 
