The Emperor's New Clothes
Hans Christian Andersen
(The original ending)

AND then the emperor walked in the procession under the beautiful canopy. And all the people in the street and at the windows said, "Heavens, how wonderful the emperor's new clothes are! What a lovely train he has on the robe! What a marvelous fit!" No one wanted it to appear that he couldn't see anything, for then of course he would have been unfit for his position or very stupid. None of the emperor's clothes had ever been such a success.

"But he doesn't have anything on!" said a little child.

Through the hubbub of the crowd the child's voice chimed with the clarity of a perfectly tuned bell, and the emperor, hearing, shuddered, for it seemed to him that the child was right. "I had better brief a lawyer" the emperor decided; "I can't have dangerous ideas like that getting about..." and then he thought, "Now I must go through with the procession." And he carried himself more proudly than ever, and the gentlemen-in-waiting carried the train that wasn't there at all.

Meanwhile the people in the crowd nearest the child looked around at this small dissenting voice, and the child - brought up to always tell the truth, glanced up, smiling to the adults in expectation of praise for such singular honesty.

In the next moment the nearest adult, with a hefty slap to the back of head, sent the child sprawling in the dust "Shut up, you little brat! What do you know about anything anyway?"

And the crowd turned back, applauding the emperor and his imaginary clothes, and with many a baa and much deference they all felt great contentment that they were part of one big happy flock.



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