Chapter 5 — Princess September

The story is written by W. Somerset Maugham, as credited at the end of the chapter. The text notes it is 'slightly abridged'.

The Queen said it confused her to have to remember so many names, so the King decided to call the princesses January, February, March and so on (in Siamese), with the youngest named September.

Instead of receiving gifts on his birthday, the King gave them. One year, not having anything else handy, he gave each of his daughters a green parrot in a golden cage.

The parrots could say 'God save the king', and some of them could say 'Pretty Polly' in no less than seven Oriental languages — but they could say nothing else.

The little bird sang a beautiful song all about the lake in the King's garden, the willow trees that looked at themselves in the still water, and the goldfish that glided in and out of the branches reflected in it.

The sisters warned her that the bird flew in and out freely and she could not be sure of keeping it. They said, 'If he comes back… pop him into the cage and keep him there. That's the only way you can be sure of him.' They suggested it was a matter of safety.

The bird could not bear captivity. It told September: 'I want to see the trees and the lake and the green rice growing in the fields.' When she offered to take it out in the cage, the bird replied that the rice-fields, the lake, and the willow trees looked quite different when seen through the bars of a cage. It also said, 'I cannot sing unless I'm free, and if I cannot sing I die.'

She opened the cage door, lifted the bird out, and cried until her tears fell on it. When it opened its eyes, she said: 'Then take your freedom… I love you enough to let you be happy in your own way.' She threw open the window and gently placed the bird on the sill, promising never to put it in a cage again.

Yes. The bird promised: 'I will come because I love you, little Princess… I shall go far away, but I shall always come back and I shall never forget you.' Despite the sisters mocking September and saying the bird would never return, it did come back and sat on her shoulder, ate from her hand, and sang her beautiful songs it had learned while flying through the world.

September kept her window open day and night so the bird could come in whenever it felt inclined, and this was very good for her — she grew extremely beautiful and eventually married the King of Cambodia, carried on a white elephant to his city. Her eight sisters kept their windows shut, grew extremely ugly as well as disagreeable, and when the time came to marry them off, they were given to the King's Councillors with a pound of tea and a Siamese cat.

The central theme is the value of freedom. The bird's words — 'I cannot sing unless I'm free, and if I cannot sing I die' — make clear that a caged creature loses its essential nature. The story also explores how true love means putting another's happiness above one's own desire to possess them.

Yes. The chapter and its content are available free on CBSE PrepMaster — no sign-up or subscription needed.