Once Upon a Time Storybook [antikvár]

cno rvi^-._____ Once upon a time, a very long time ago, there lived an Emperor who loved to wear new clothes. Every spare wardrobe in his palace was packed from ceiling to floor with gorgeous waistcoats, tunics and capes. The palace carpenters spent much of their time putting up new shelves to hold the thousands of pairs of shoes which the Emperor was always buying. There were red shoes, and blue shoes and yellow shoes and brown shoes. And some had gold buckles and some silver and many had bows. Then there were his hats—all very splendid and gorgeous and most of them decked out with curling feathers and large buckles. Some of these hats the Emperor wore only once for he loved best to wear something which was absolutely and entirely new. In fact the Emperor was so fond of new clothes that he would declare a hat or a cape or a tunic out of fashion if he had been seen wearing it more than twice in one week! If you said that this Emperor had a passion for new clothes you would be quite right. Everybody knew about it. His own people had to pay high taxes so that their Emperor would have enough gold to spend on the silks, and brocades and rich velvets which were sent to him from other countries. And the richest men in the Emperor's empire were those who could design something new in the way of breeches or fancy shirts or gorgeous frilly collars and cravats. Sad to say, the Emperor did not pay much attention to important matters like building new ships or making friends with other countries. He was usually too busy with his new clothes to have time for the Ambassadors and the Foreign Ministers who came to see him. And if anyone wished to find the Emperor in a hurry he would visit the mirrors first. The Emperor was very fond of his mirrors. He had a vast number of them— all over the palace—and he had an army of Mirror-Polishers who spent all their days just cleaning and polishing the Emperor's mirrors. Now the Emperor's love for new clothes and his delight in new and beautiful materials brought a great many merchants to the court. 'We must see the Emperor,' they would say. 'We want to show him a roll of rich blue velvet or a dazzling length of brocade which he will simply adore.' Sometimes the Emperor was pleased with the merchants and sometimes he was not, but he never failed to see them in case he should miss a bargain.