tuff was said to possess.

"'I will send my worthy old minister,' said the Emperor at last,
after much consideration; 'he will be able to say how the stuff
looks better than anybody.'

"So the worthy old minister went to the room where the two
swindlers were' working away with all their might and main. 'Lord
help me!' thought the old man, opening his eyes as wide as
possible--'Why, I can't see the least thing whatever on the loom.'
But he took care not to say so.

"The swindlers, pointing to the empty frame, asked him most
politely if the colours were not of great beauty. And the poor old
minister looked and looked, and could see nothing whatever. 'Bless
me!' thought he to himself, 'Am I, then, really a simpleton? Well,
I never thought so. Nobody knows it. I not fit for office! No,
nothing on earth shall make me say that I have not seen the stuff!'

"'Well, sir,' said one of the swindlers, still working busily at
the empty loom, 'you don't say if the stuff pleases you or not.'

"'Oh beautiful! beautiful! the work is admirable!' said the old
minister looking hard through his spectacles. 'This pattern, and
these colours! Well, well, I shall not fail to tell the Emperor
that they are most beautiful!'

"The swindlers then asked for more money, and silk, and gold
thread; but they put as before all that was given them into their
own pocket, and still continued to work with apparent diligence at
the empty loom.

"Some time after, the Emperor sent another officer to see how the
work was getting on. But he fared like the other; he stared at the
loom from every side; but as there was nothing there, of course he
could see nothing. 'Does the stuff not please you as much as it did
the minister?' asked the men, making the same gestures as before,
and talking of splendid colours and patterns, which did not exist.

"'Stupid I certainly am not!' thought the new commissioner; 'then
it must be that I am not fitted for my lucrative office--that were
a good joke! However, no one dare even suspect such a thing.' And
so he began praising the stuff that he could not see, and told the
two swindlers how pleased he was to behold such beautiful colours,
and such charming patterns. 'Indeed, your majesty,' said he to the
Emperor on his return, 'the stuff which