Throughout the whole of the night before the morning on which the procession was to take place, the impostors were up and were working by the light of over sixteen candles. The people could see that they were very busy making the Emperor’s new clothes ready. They pretended they were taking the cloth from the loom, cut with huge scissors in the air, sewed with needles without thread, and then said at last, ‘Now the clothes are finished!’ The Emperor came himself with his most distinguished knights, and each impostor held up his arm just as if he were holding something, and said, ‘See! here are the breeches! Here is the coat! Here the cloak!’ and so on. ‘Spun clothes are so comfortable that one would imagine one had nothing on at all; but that is the beauty of it!’ ‘Yes,’ said all the knights, but they could see nothing, for there was nothing there. ‘Will it please your Majesty graciously to take off your clothes,’ said the impostors, ‘then we will put on the new clothes, here before the mirror.’ The Emperor took off all his clothes, and the impostors placed themselves before him as if they were putting on each part of his new clothes which was ready, and the Emperor turned and bent himself in front of the mirror. ‘How beautifully they fit! How well they sit!’ said everybody. ‘What material! What colours! It is a gorgeous suit!’ ‘They are waiting outside with the canopy which your Majesty is wont to have borne over you in the procession,’ announced the Master of the Ceremonies. ‘Look, I am ready,’ said the Emperor. ‘Doesn’t it sit well!’ And he turned himself again to the mirror to see if his finery was on all right. The chamberlains who were used to carry the train put their hands near the floor as if they were lifting up the train; then they did as if they were holding something in the air. They would not have it noticed that they could see nothing. So the Emperor went along in the procession under the splendid canopy, and all the people in the streets and at the windows said, ‘How matchless are the Emperor’s new clothes! That train fastened to his dress, how beautifully it hangs!’ No one wished it to be noticed that he could see nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office, or else very stupid. None of the Emperor’s clothes had met with such approval as these had. ‘But he has nothing on!’ said a little child at last. ‘Just listen to the innocent child!’ said the father, and each one whispered to his neighbour what the child had said. ‘But he has nothing on!’ the whole of the people called out at last. This struck the Emperor, for it seemed to him as if they were right; but he thought to himself, ‘I must go on with the procession now. And the chamberlains walked along still more uprightly, holding up the train which was not there at all. THE GOLDEN CRAB(5) (5) ‘Prinz Krebs,’ from Griechische Mahrchen. Schmidt.