The Happy Prince
By Oscar Wilde
Abridged and adapted by Algirdas Makarevicius
In the middle of the city, on a tall column, there was a statue of the Happy Prince. The statue looked like an angel. Its body was covered with gold leaf. It had two sapphires for its eyes and a large red ruby on its sword-belt. Most people thought it was very beautiful.
It was late autumn. Winter was about to start. One night a little bird arrived, on its way to the warmer climate in Egypt. The other birds had already gone there. This one sat between the two feet of the statue and wanted to sleep. As he was about to go to sleep a large drop of water fell on his head. "What a strange thing!" he cried. Then another drop fell. He decided to leave. Before he opened his wings to fly away, a third drop fell. He looked up, and saw that the eyes of the Happy Prince were filled with tears.
"When I was alive and had a human heart," said the statue, "I did not know what tears were. I lived in the royal Palace, where sorrow never entered. In the daytime I played with my friends in the garden, and in the evening I danced in the Great Hall. I didn’t know what was beyond the wall. My servants called me the Happy Prince, and I was happy, if pleasure is happiness. So I lived, and so I died. And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the sadness of my city, and although my heart is made of lead I cry."
"What! Is he not made from solid gold?" said the bird to himself. "Far away," continued the statue in a low voice, "far away in a little street there is a poor house. In it I can see a poor woman sitting at a table. She is a seamstress. She is sewing flowers on a dress for a princess. Her little son is very ill. He has a fever, and is asking for oranges. His mother can only give him water. Little bird, please take the ruby out of my sword-belt and give it to the mother. I cannot move.
"Sorry, I cannot wait to go to Egypt," said the bird. The statue replied, "Will you not stay with me for one more night, and be my messenger? The boy is so thirsty, and the mother so sad."
"I don't like boys," answered the bird. "Last summer, some boys threw stones at me.” But the Happy Prince looked so sad that the little bird decided to stay one night.
So the bird picked out the great ruby from the Prince's belt, and flew away with it. He passed over the river and came to the seamstress’s house. The boy was hot on his bed and not sleeping well, but the mother had fallen asleep, she was so tired. The bird put the ruby on the table, and flew around the boy’s bed to make him feel cooler.
Then the bird flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what he had done. "It is strange," the bird said "but I feel quite warm now, although it is so cold."
"That is because you have done a good action," said the Prince. And the little bird began to think, and then he fell asleep.
The next day when the moon rose the bird flew back to the Happy Prince after spending a nice day flying around the town. "Do you have any messages for Egypt?" he asked; "I am leaving." The Prince asked the bird to stay with him one night longer.
"But my friends are waiting for me in Egypt, and Egypt is full of wonderful things," answered the bird. The Prince said, "Little bird, across the city I see a young man sitting by a desk covered with papers. He is trying to finish writing a play for the theater, but he is too cold to write any more. There is no fire in his house and he is so hungry he cannot work."
"I will wait with you one night longer," said the Swallow, who really had a good heart. "Shall I take the young writer another ruby?"
"I don’t have any more rubies," said the Prince; "my eyes are all that I have left. They are made of sapphires. Take out one of them and deliver it to him. He can sell it, and buy food and firewood, and finish his play." The young man did not hear the bird as it entered, and when he looked up he found the beautiful sapphire lying on the desk. "People are beginning to appreciate me," the young writer cried; "now I can finish my play," and he looked quite happy.
The next day the Swallow flew down to the harbor. When the moon rose he flew back to the Happy Prince, who requested him to stay one night longer.
"It is cold here," answered the Swallow. "In Egypt the sun is warm. I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away."
"In the square below," said the Happy Prince, "there is a little girl selling matches. Her matches have fallen onto the wet ground, and they are all spoiled. Her father will beat her if she does not bring home some money, and she is crying. She has no shoes and no hat – she must be very cold. Take out my other eye, and give it to her, and her father will not beat her."
"I will stay with you one night longer," said the bird, "but I cannot take out your other eye. If I do you will be blind." But as requested by the Prince he took out the Prince's other eye, and slipped the jewel into the hand of the girl. "What a lovely bit of glass," cried the little girl; and she ran home, laughing.
Then the bird came back to the Prince. "You are completely blind now," he said, "so I will stay with you always." "No, little bird," said the poor Prince, "you must go away to Egypt." "I will stay with you always," said the bird, and he slept at the Prince's feet.
All next day he sat on the Prince's shoulder, and told him stories of what he had seen in strange lands. But the Prince was more interested in human suffering than the strange and marvelous. “There is no mystery so great as misery,” he said. “Fly over my city, little bird, and tell me what you see there."
So the Swallow flew over the great city, and saw the rich and the beggars. Under a bridge he saw two poor little boys who were trying to keep themselves warm. "You must not lie here," shouted a policeman, and so they walked out into the rain.
Then he flew back and told the Prince what he had seen.
"I am covered with fine gold," said the Prince, "you must take it off, leaf by leaf, and give it to my poor; people think that gold can make them happy."
The Swallow picked off leaf after leaf of the fine gold, till the Happy Prince looked quite dull and grey. The bird brought the gold to the poor, and the children's faces looked happier, and they laughed and played games in the street. "We have bread now!" they cried.
Then the snow came. The little bird grew colder and colder, but he would not leave the Prince, he loved him so much. He picked up crumbs outside the baker's door and tried to keep himself warm by flapping his wings.
At last he knew that he was going to die. He had enough strength to fly up to the Prince's shoulder once more. "Goodbye, dear Prince!" he said, "Will you let me kiss your hand?"
"I am glad that you are going to Egypt at last, little Swallow," said the Prince, "you have stayed here too long; but you must kiss me on the lips, because I love you."
"I am not going to Egypt," said the Swallow. "I am going to the House of Death." And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips, and fell down dead at his feet. At that moment a snap sounded inside the statue, as if something had broken. The heard made of lead had broken in two.
Early the next morning the mayor of the town was walking in the square with some officials. As they passed the column he looked up at the statue and was surprised at how grey and ugly the Happy Prince looked without the gold and jewels. He looked like a beggar.
"And there is a dead bird at his feet!" said the Mayor. "We must issue an order that birds are not allowed to die here." They pulled down the statue of the Happy Prince. "As he is no longer beautiful he is no longer useful," said an artist.
Then they melted the statue and everybody in the town wanted to have a statue of himself made with the metal. "What a strange thing!" said the man responsible for the melting. "The broken lead heart of the Happy Prince will not melt. We must throw it away." So they threw it on a dust-heap where the dead bird was also lying.
"Bring me the two most precious things in the city," said God to one of His angels. The angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird. “In my garden of Paradise,” said God, “this little bird shall sing for ever, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me only."
Retrieved and abridged from the original version by Dr. Algirdas Makarevicius:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/HapPri.shtml
