p<br>rince, and rose a<br>loft withthe other spirits of the air to the rosy clouds which sailed above.'In three hundred years we shall thus float into Paradise.''We might reach it sooner,' whispered one. 'Unseen we flit into thosehomes of men where there are children, and for every day that we find agood child who gives pleasure to its parents and deserves their love Godshortens our time of probation. The child does not know when we flythrough the room, and when we smile with pleasure at it one year of ourthree hundred is taken away. But if we see a naughty or badly disposedchild, we cannot help shedding tears of sorrow, and every tear adds aday to the time of our p<br>robation.'THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHESMany years ago there was an Emperor, who was so excessively fond of newclothes that he spent all h<br>is money on them. He cared nothing about hissoldiers, nor for the theatre, nor for driving in the woods except forthe sake of showing off his new clothes. <br>He had a costume for every hourin the day, and instead of saying, as one does about any other king oremperor, 'He is in his <br>council chamber,' here one always said, 'TheEmperor is in his dressing-room.'Life was very gay in the great town where h<br>e lived; hosts of strangerscame to visit it every day, and among them one day two swindlers. Theygave themselves out as weavers, and said that they kn<br>ew how to weave themost beautiful stuffs imaginable. Not only were the colours and patternsunusually fine, but the clothes that were made of the stuffs had thepeculiar quality of becoming invisible to every person who was not fitfor the office he held, or if he was impossibly dull.'Those must be splendid clothes,' thought the Emperor. 'By wearing themI should be able to discover which men in my kin<br>gdom are unfitted fortheir posts. I shall distinguish the wise men from the fools. Yes, Icertainly must order some<br> of that stuff <br>to be woven for me.'He paid the two swindlers a lot of money in advance so that they mightbegin their work at once.The<br>y did put up <br>two looms and pretended to weave, but they had nothingwhatever upon their shuttles. At the outset they asked for a quant<br>ity ofthe finest silk and the purest gold thread, all of which they put intotheir own bags, while they worked away at the empty looms<br> far into the<br>night.'I should like to know how those weavers are getting on with the stuff,'thought the Emperor; but he felt a little queer when he<br> reflected thatany one who was stupid or unfit for his post would not be able to seeit. He certainly thought that he nee<br>d have no fears f<br>or himself, butstill he thought he would send somebody else first to see how it wasgetting on. Everybody in the town<br> knew what wonderful pow<br>er the stuffpossessed, and every one was anxious to see how stupid his neighbourwas.'I will send my faithful old minister to t<br>he weavers,' thought theEmperor. 'He will be best able to see how the stuff looks, for he is aclever man, and no one<br> fulfils his duties <br>better than he does!'So the good old minister went into the room where the two swindlers satworking at the empty <br>loom.'Heaven preserve us!' thought the old minister, opening his eyes verywide. 'Why, I can't see a thing!' But he took care not to say so.Both the sw