The Happy Prince is a story by Oscar Wilde. It is a lesson from the book Moments for Grade 9 NCERT English Chapter 5. The Story is about a Happy Prince and a Swallow. The story is Heart touching. The Prince is happy when he was alive and once he was dead, his statue was erected in the center of the city. He notices people suffering in his country and seeks the help of a swallow to help out the needy. The swallow bird stays with him throughout the winter and dies at last in his feet. His statue becomes ugly, so that the counselor asks it to be replaced with his own by placing it in a furnace. The heart of the prince did not melt and it was thrown where the bird was dead. At last, god takes both into his hands.

1. The Happy Prince

2. This is a story about the statue of a Happy
Prince and a little Swallow.
The Happy Prince was a beautiful statue stood
on a tall column high above the city.
The statue was covered with thin leaves of
gold.
He had sapphires for his eyes and a ruby in his
sword.

3. One day a little swallow stayed between the feet
of the Happy Prince.
A large drop of water fell on the swallow when
he got ready to go to sleep.
The swallow learnt that these were the tears
falling from the Happy Prince’s eyes.
The Happy Prince told him about the misery
around him.
The swallow made up his mind to stay there.

4. At first, the Prince asked the swallow to take the ruby from his sword
and give it to the needy seamstress
who had no money to take care of her ailing son.

5. Then the Happy Prince saw a writer. He was suffering from cold and
was hungry. Happy Prince asked the swallow to give one of the
sapphire to the writer. The swallow did not want to pluck out the
sapphire from his eyes, but he obeyed him unwillingly.

6. After that the Happy Prince saw a match girl
and her matches fall into the gutter. At his
command the swallow very unwillingly plucked
out the sapphire from the other eye of the
Happy Prince and now the Prince was totally
blind. the swallow slipped the sapphire into the
palm of the match girl. Then the Happy Prince
allowed the swallow to fly away to Egypt, but
the swallow decided to stay with the blind
Prince forever

7. The swallow reported about the sufferings of the starving people.
At the command of the Happy Prince the swallow took of the golden
leaves from the statue and distributed them among the poor people.

8. Now the statue was dull and grey.
The frost made the swallow colder and colder and he was about
to die.

9. He flew to the Happy Prince who bade
him kiss him on the lips.

10. The swallow fell down die at the
feet of the statue.
Just then Prince’s leaden heart
cracked into two parts because of
hard frost.

11. The next morning, the Mayor
ordered it to be taken down and
melted in a furnace.

12. The broken heart did not melt in the furnace.
It was thrown away on a dust heap where the dead swallow was also lying.

13. God asked the angels to bring the two most precious things in the city.
God praised the angel's choice in bringing him the leaden heart of the
Happy Prince and the dead swallow.

14. Moral
The Happy Prince teaches us that we should
show compassion towards the needy and
help them however we can.

15. By
R. PRANAVARAJ
Grade 9 C