The Generous Prince and the Chattering Sparrow
High on a granite column above the town square stood the gilded statue of a Prince. His eyes were cut from polished blue sapphires, and gossamer sheets of gold leaf covered his bronze limbs. From his high perch, he watched the gray smoke rise from the poor weavers' drafty cottages.
A migrating sparrow named Pip rested on the Prince's shoulder, preparing to fly south. When a cold drop fell on Pip's wing, the little bird looked up, astonished to see lead tears coursing down the Prince's gilded cheeks.
'Little bird,' the Prince whispered, 'take the sapphire from my left eye to the seamstress whose child coughs in the cellar room.' Pip gently pried the gem loose with his beak and carried it through the broken cottage window.
Night after night, Pip stripped the Prince's gleaming gold leaf flake by flake to buy flour, firewood, and warm wool for the town's poorest families, while the Prince stood blind in the gathering autumn frosts.
When winter snows whitened the rooftops, Pip's wings grew heavy with frost, but he refused to leave the Prince alone in the freezing wind.
The bare gray statue stood silent in the square, cradling the brave sparrow inside his hollow bronze hand while warm fires flickered across the valley below.
