The Happy Prince story is an amazing bedtime story. This story about one little and very beautiful sparrow and one Prince Statue. Read the full story to hear the conversation between Happy Prince and Little Sparrow.
The statue of the Happy Prince stood high up above the city on a tall column. He glittered in the sunlight, for he was painted all over in gold leaf and had a glowing ruby set into his sword hilt and two sparkling sapphires for eyes. The people of the city often looked up at the Happy Prince and sighed, for they admired his beauty and envied his contented smile.
One evening, a little Sparrow came fluttering through the skies and landed between the prince’s golden feet. It was well past the end of the summer and the wind had grown chilly. The Sparrow friends had set off several weeks ago for a warmer land. The Sparrow had stayed behind because he had fallen in love with a slender reed by the river, and he could not bear to leave her. But the wind had grown chilly and the bite of frost had crept into the air. The shivering Sparrow had realized that to stay any longer would mean certain death from the cold. He had begged the reed to travel with him, but the reed had simply shaken her head.
So the Sparrow had been forced to fly sadly off without her. Tomorrow he would fly away and catch up with his friends. Now the little bird tucked his head under his wing and prepared to get some rest for the long journey. But just as the Sparrow began to drift off into dreams, large raindrops started to fall on his head. The Sparrow looked up in puzzlement at the clear night sky and saw that the statue above him was crying.
“Who are you and why are you weeping?” the little Sparrow asked, as the statue’s tears shone in the moonlight like diamonds.
“People call me the Happy Prince,” replied the statue, but in truth, I am full of sadness. They have me up here so high that I can look out over the whole day and see all its ugliness and misery Tonight, I can see a poor woman sitting in a house near the edge of town.
The woman is thin from hunger and pales from tiredness, but she is still at work, sewing passion flowers onto a gown for one of the queen’s maids-of-honor. In the comer of the room, her little boy lies very ill in bed, asking for oranges. But the woman has no money to buy him anything, so all she can give him is water. “The Happy Prince sighed. “Little Sparrow, will you pluck out the ruby from my sword and take it to the woman, so that she might sell it to the jeweler for money. My feet are fastened to this pedestal and I cannot move.”
The Happy Prince looked so sad that the Sparrow agreed to be his messenger. The little bird pecked the ruby out of the prince’s sword and flew away with it in his beak over the rooftops. He flew in at the window of the woman’s house and found her slumped over her work in a worn-out sleep. The Sparrow laid the jewel down next to her thimble, then he flew gently round the bed, fanning the feverish, sick boy with his wings until he looked much cooler and more comfortable. Then the Sparrow flew back to the Happy Prince and told him what he had done. “It’s strange,” the bird remarked. “I feel a warm glow inside me, even though the weather is so cold.”
“That is because you have done a good deed,” explained the Happy Prince, as the tired little Sparrow closed his eyes.
The next day, the Sparrow flew all over the city bidding goodbye to everyone and everything. “I am leaving tonight for Egypt!” he cried. But when in the evening he came to say farewell to the Happy Prince, he found that the statue was crying once again.
“Far across the city, I can see into an attic where a young man leans over a desk. He is struggling to finish a play for the Director of the Theatre, but he is too cold to write anymore. His fire has died away and he has no money to buy either wood or any food for his supper,” A glistening teat rolled off the end of the Happy Prince’s nose and splashed onto the Sparrow’s head. “Little Sparrow, will you stay with me one more night and be my messenger? Will you pluck out one of my sapphite eyes and take it to him?”
“Dear prince,” said the Sparrow, “I will not pluck out your eye.” and tears gleamed in his own.
“Little Sparrow, please do as I ask,” begged the Happy Prince, and he looked so sad that the Sparrow fluttered up and plucked out one of his sapphire eyes and flew away with it to the young man in the attic. The little Sparrow was very relieved when he returned to nestle at the Happy Prince’s feet, for the air underneath his wings had really become very cold indeed.
The next day, the Sparrow flew down to the harbor and watched all the big ships sailing away to lands where the breezes were warm and the days were long. “I am leaving, too, tonight!” he sang out to everyone he saw. At sunset, the Sparrow flew off to the Happy Prince to say goodbye. “In the square below,” said the Happy Prince, “I can see a little matchgirl whose matches have all spilled into the gutter. She is crying because she can make no money and if she goes home empty-handed, her father will beat her.” The Happy Prince smiled sadly. “Little Sparrow, pluck out my other eye, and take it to the little matchgirl so she can be happy.”
“But then you will be blind!” cried the Sparrow.
“Little Sparrow, please do as I ask,” whispered the Happy Prince, and he looked so sad that the bird did as he wanted.
“Now you can no longer see,” the little Sparrow said, as he fluttered back to the statue. “I will stay with you always.”
“But little Sparrow, protested the Happy Prince, “your friends will be waiting for you on the hazy banks of the River Nile.”
“I will stay with you always and be your eyes,” the Sparrow promised, and he slept between the prince’s feet.
The next day, the Sparrow flew all over the city and told the Happy Prince what he had seen there. “I have seen the rich making merry in their beautiful houses while beggars lie outside their gates,” the Sparrow murmured. “I have seen old people who sit all day on their own, cold and lonely. And I have seen small children tremble in front of bullies. I have seen much suffering and misery.”
“Little Sparrow,” said the prince, “with your beak, peel off the Fine gold that covers me. Fly with leaves of it to all the poor people of my city.
The little Sparrow sighed heavily, but he did what he was told. Then the statue of the Happy Prince was quite dull and grey.
As the faithful bird finally settled down between his friend’s feet the snow began to fall in thick, white flakes. The streets glistened silver with a lining of frost. Icicles hung like shards of glass from the rooftops. And the little Sparrow shivered at the foot of the Happy Prince He tried beating his wings to keep warm, but eventually he knew that he was going to die. The little Sparrow used his last drop of strength to flutter up to the prince’s shoulder. “Goodbye, Happy Prince,” he cried. “I will not see you again.”
The Happy Prince said that, “I am glad you are finally going to where the sun will warm your wings.”
” I am not going to Egypt.” murmured the Sparrow, “I am going to sleep forever.” And he kissed the Happy Prince on the lips and tell down dead at his feet.
That very moment, a strange cracking noise came from within the Happy Prince. It was so loud that the Mayor heard it way down below. He peered up at the statue for the first time in months. “Good lord!” he remarked. “However did the Happy Prince get that shabby? We’ll have to replace him with something else.”
The very next day, workmen pulled down the Happy Prince from his column and threw him into a furnace. They cleared away the dead Sparrow and then put a statue of the Mayor on the column instead. But the Happy Prince knew nothing about all this because his heart had broken. In fact, when the workmen opened the door of the furnace, they saw his cracked lead heart for themselves, because it would not melt away. They threw it onto the same rubbish dump on which the dead Sparrow was lying. And when God asked his angels to bring him the two most precious things in all the city, they took the Happy Prince’s heart and the little Sparrow with them up to heaven.
The End of The Happy Prince story
The Happy Prince story is a very interesting story. I hope you and your children enjoy this beautiful story. If you want to tell more marvelous and amazing stories to your kid then check the website of Amazing Story Home Page. In addition, we also make podcasts and if you want to listen to the links for the same are given below.
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