Tell him I will give him ten kisses, as I did the other day;the remainder one of my ladies can give him.
  "But we do not like to kiss him" said the ladies.
  "That is nonsense," said the princess; "if I can kiss him, you canalso do it. Remember that I give you food and employment." And thelady had to go down once more.
  "A hundred kisses from the princess," said the swineherd, "oreverybody keeps his own."
  "Place yourselves before me," said the princess then. They didas they were bidden, and the princess kissed him.
  "I wonder what that crowd near the pigsty means!" said theemperor, who had just come out on his balcony. He rubbed his eyesand put his spectacles on.
  "The ladies of the court are up to some mischief, I think. I shallhave to go down and see." He pulled up his shoes, for they were downat the heels, and he was very quick about it. When he had come downinto the courtyard he walked quite softly, and the ladies were sobusily engaged in counting the kisses, that all should be fair, thatthey did not notice the emperor. He raised himself on tiptoe.
  "What does this mean?" he said, when he saw that his daughterwas kissing the swineherd, and then hit their heads with his shoe justas the swineherd received the sixty-eighth kiss.
  "Go out of my sight," said the emperor, for he was very angry; andboth the princess and the swineherd were banished from the empire.There she stood and cried, the swineherd scolded her, and the raincame down in torrents.
  "Alas, unfortunate creature that I am!" said the princess, "I wishI had accepted the prince. Oh, how wretched I am!"
  The swineherd went behind a tree, wiped his face, threw off hispoor attire and stepped forth in his princely garments; he looked sobeautiful that the princess could not help bowing to him.
  "I have now learnt to despise you," he said. "You refused anhonest prince; you did not appreciate the rose and the nightingale;but you did not mind kissing a swineherd for his toys; you have no onebut yourself to blame!"
  And then he returned into his kingdom and left her behind. Shecould now sing at her leisure:
  "A jolly old sow once lived in a sty,
  Three little piggies has she," &c.
  THE END.
  1872
  FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
  THE THISTLE'S EXPERIENCES
  by Hans Christian Andersen
  BELONGING to the lordly manor-house was beautiful, well-keptgarden, with rare trees and flowers; the guests of the proprietordeclared their admiration of it; the people of the neighborhood,from town and country, came on Sundays and holidays, and askedpermission to see the garden; indeed, whole schools used to pay visitsto it.
  Outside the garden, by the palings at the road-side, stood a greatmighty Thistle, which spread out in many directions from the root,so that it might have been called a thistle bush. Nobody looked at it,except the old Ass which drew the milk-maid's cart. This Ass used tostretch out his neck towards the Thistle, and say, "You are beautiful;I should like to eat you!" But his halter was not long enough to lethim reach it and eat it.
  There was great company at the manor-house- some very noble peoplefrom the capital; young pretty girls, and among them a young ladywho came from a long distance. She had come from Scotland, and wasof high birth, and was rich in land and in gold- a bride worthwinning, said more than one of the young gentlemen; and their ladymothers said the same thing.
  The young people amused themselves on the lawn, and played atball; they wandered among the flowers, and each of the young girlsbroke off a flower, and fastened it in a young gentleman's buttonhole.But the young Scotch lady looked round, for a long time, in anundecided way. None of the flowers seemed to suit her taste. Thenher eye glanced across the paling- outside stood the great thistlebush, with the reddish-blue, sturdy flowers; she saw them, she smiled,and asked the son of the house to pluck one for her.
  "It is the flower of Scotland," she said. "It blooms in thescutcheon of my country. Give me yonder flower."
  And he brought the fairest blossom, and pricked his fingers ascompletely as if it had grown on the sharpest rose bush.
  She placed the thistle-flower in the buttonhole of the youngman, and he felt himself highly honored. Each of the other younggentlemen would willingly have given his own beautiful flower tohave worn this one, presented by the fair hand of the Scottish maiden.And if the son of the house felt himself honored, what were thefeelings of the Thistle bush?