Every morning , when he was shaved , he asked if the man saw anything odd about him , and as each fresh barber always replied that the emperor had goat 's ears , he was at once ordered to be put to death . Now after this state of things had lasted a good while , there was hardly a barber left in the town that could shave the emperor , and it came to be the turn of the Master of the Company of Barbers to go up to the palace . But , unluckily , at the very moment that he should have set out , the master fell suddenly ill , and told one of his apprentices that he must go in his stead . 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 have dug it , kneel down and whisper your secret three times into the hole . Then put back the earth and come away . ' The apprentice thought that this seemed the best plan , and that very afternoon went to a meadow outside the town , dug a deep hole , then knelt and whispered to it three times over , ` The Emperor Trojan has goat 's ears . ' And as he said so a great burden seemed to roll off him , and he shovelled the earth carefully back and ran lightly home . Weeks passed away , and there sprang up in the hole an elder tree which had three stems , all as straight as poplars . Some shepherds , tending their flocks near by , noticed the tree growing there , and one of them cut down a stem to make flutes of ; but , directly he began to play , the flute would do nothing but sing : ` The Emperor Trojan has goat 's ears . ' Of course , it was not long before the whole town knew of this wonderful flute and what it said ; and , at last , the news reached the emperor in his palace .
He instantly sent XXXXX the apprentice and said to him : ` What have you been saying about me to all my people ? '
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