When the youth was taken to the emperor's bedroom, he was asked
why he had come and not his master. The young man replied that
the master was ill, and there was no one but himself who could be
trusted with the honour. The emperor was satisfied with the
answer, and sat down, and let a sheet of fine linen be put round
him. Directly the young barber began his work, he, like the
rest, remarked the goat's ears of the emperor, but when he had
finished and the emperor asked his usual question as to whether
the youth had noticed anything odd about him, the young man
replied calmly, 'No, nothing at all.' This pleased the emperor
so much that he gave him twelve ducats, and said, 'Henceforth you
shall come every day to shave me.'

So when the apprentice returned home, and the master inquired how
he had got on with the emperor, the young man answered, 'Oh, very
well, and he says I am to shave him every day, and he has given
me these twelve ducats'; but he said nothing about the goat's
ears of the emperor.

From this time the apprentice went regularly up to the palace,
receiving each morning twelve ducats in payment. But after a
while, his secret, which he had carefully kept, burnt within him,
and he longed to tell it to somebody. His master saw there was
something on his mind, and asked what it was. The youth replied
that he had been tormenting himself for some months, and should
never feel easy until some one shared his secret.

'Well, trust me,' said the master, 'I will keep it to myself; or,
if you do not like to do that, confess it to your pastor, or go
into some field outside the town and dig a hole, and, after you