on the cliff?" said he.

"Grandpapa is afraid I shall fall over."

"But it is not so very high."

"Grandpapa won't let me, for all that."

"Mother knows so many songs," said he.

"Grandpapa does too, you can believe."

"Yes, but he does not know what mother does."

"Grandpapa knows one about a dance. Would you like to hear it?"

"Yes, very much."

"Well, then, you must come farther over here, and I will tell it to
you."

He changed his place, and then she recited a little piece of a song
three or four times over so that the little boy learned it, and that
was the first he learned at school.

Then the children sang, and Oeyvind stood with Marit by the door. All
the children stood with folded hands and sang. Oeyvind and Marit also
folded their hands, but they could not sing. And that was the first
day at school.

_The Emperor's New Clothes_

There once lived an Emperor who was so fond of fine clothes that he
spent great sums of money in order to be beautifully dressed. He cared
little about his army or other affairs of State; he did not care for
amusements; nothing pleased him so much as walking abroad to show off
his new clothes. He had a coat for every hour of the day; and as they
often say of a king, "He is in the council chamber," here it would
usually be, "The Emperor is at his toilet."

The great city in which he lived had always something fresh to show;
every day many strangers came there. One day two men arrived who said
that they were weavers, and knew how to manufacture the most beautiful
cloth imaginable. Not only were the material and texture uncommonly
beautiful, but clothes made of the stuff possessed this wonderful
property that they were invisible to anyone who was not fit for his
office, or who was very stupid.

"Those must indeed be splendid clothes," thought the Emperor.
"Besides, if I had an outfit, I could find out which of my servants
are unfit for the offices they hold; I should know the wise from the
stupid! Yes, this cloth must be woven for me." And he gave the men
much money that they might begin at once to weave their cloth.

Of course they were impostors, but they put together two looms, and
began to move about as if they were working, though they had nothing
whatever on the looms. They were also given quantities of the finest
silk and the best gold, which they hid.

"I wonder how far they have got on with the cloth," thought the
Emperor one day. He remembered tha