"Go to, then," said the emperor, "and live in the land. The day will come when I shall call you home again, and till then you will learn and prosper."
This the emperor said to his young children, who then went out of the palace straightway, according to the task which they had accepted. They exchanged their royal robes for rags, and left only their signet rings as the mark of their magnificent heritage.
Time passed, and the children journeyed apart from each other. There was joy to be had but sorrow too. In the hard years the only comfort had by some was the reminder embodied by the ring that each possessed, and there were some that pawned their ring in exchange for comforts of a material nature. All learned, some more than others, and all became more than the palace would have made of them.
Time passed, and the emperor called them back. All were embraced. To some he gave royal posts in which they would be proved further. To others he said, with regret heavy in his voice, that he could give a room in his house but no responsibility. "You are ever and ever my children," he told them, "but the ring was a symbol of the office which I had hoped for you to inherit, and I can give no throne to one that would sell it, no matter how high his price."
Follow-up: Wanderers far from home
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