The Happy Prince Oscar Wilde

"Who are you?" he said.

"I am the Happy Prince."

"Why are you crying then?" asked the Swallow.

"When I was alive and had a human heart," answered the statue, "I did not know what tears were, because I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci, where crying was not allowed. In the daytime I played with my friends in the garden, and in the evening I danced in the Great Hall. There was a high wall around the garden but I never asked what was behind it. Everything around me was so beautiful. Everybody called me the Happy Prince. And I was really happy. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have placed me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city. My heart is made of metal but I can't help crying."

"Is he not built completely of gold?" said the Swallow to himself. But he did not say it aloud, because he was very polite.

"Far away," continued the statue, "far away in a little street there is a poor house. One of the windows is open, and through it I can see a woman at a table. Her son is very ill and he has a fever. He is thirsty, but she has nothing to give him, because she is very poor. Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow, can you bring her the jewel out of my armour? My feet cannot move from this column."

"My friends are waiting for me in Egypt," said the Swallow. "They are flying up and down the River Nile and they are going to sleep in a tomb of a great and glorious king."

"Swallow, Swallow, little Swallow," said the Prince, "will you not stay with me for one night and help me? The boy is so thirsty, and the mother so sad."

"I do not like boys," answered the Swallow. "Last summer, when I was staying on the river, there were two rude boys who were always throwing stones at me."

But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little Swallow was sorry. "It is very cold here," he said, "but I will stay with you for one night and help you."

"Thank you, little Swallow," said the Prince.

So the Swallow picked out the great jewel from the Prince's armour and flew away with it over the roofs of the town.

He passed by the cathedral tower, he passed by the palace and heard the sound of dancing. He passed over the river and at last he came to the poor house and looked in. The boy was turning on his bed, and the mother had fallen asleep because she was so tired. He came in and laid the great jewel on the table beside her. Then he flew gently round the bed, waving his wings in front of the boy's forehead. "How cool I feel," said the boy, "I must be getting better". He went to sleep.

Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had done. "It is interesting," he said, "that I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold."

"That is because you have done a good thing," said the Prince. And the little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep.

In the morning he flew down to the river and had a bath. "How strange," said the Professor as he was walking over the bridge. "A swallow in winter!" And he wrote a long letter about it to the local newspaper.