IX.

The wild winds like a sower sows,
The ground with sparkles red,

And the flapping wings of bats and crows,
And the ashes overhead;

And the bellowing deer, and the hissing snake,
What a swirl of terrible sounds they make.

And as the smoke against her drifts,
And the lizard slips close by her
She tells how the little cow uplifts

Her speckled face from the fire.

For she cannot be hindered from looking back,

At the fiery dragon on their track.

XII.

They hear the crackling grass and sedge,
The flames as they whir and rave,

On! on! they are close to the water's edge;
They are there breast deep in the wave,

And lifting their little ones high o'er the tide,
"We're saved, thank God, we're saved," they cried!

The Pied Piper of Hamelin,

Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,

By famous Hanover city;

The river Weser, deep and wide,

Washes its wall on the southern side;

Alice Cary

A pleasanter spot you never spied;

But, when begins my ditty, Almost five hundred years ago, To see the townsfolk suffer so

From vermin, was a pity.

Rats!

They fought the dogs, and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,

And ate the cheeses out of the vats,

And licked the soup from the cook's own ladles,

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,

And even spoiled the women's chats,
By drowning their speaking

With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

At last the people in a body

To the Town Hall came flocking:

""T is clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy;
And as for our Corporation, - shocking
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
For dolts that can't or won't determine

What's best to rid us of our vermin!
You hope, because you're old and obese,
To find in the furry civic robe ease?
Rouse up, Sirs! Give your brains a racking
To find the remedy we're lacking,
Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing !"
At this the Mayor and Corporation
Quaked with a mighty consternation.
An hour they sat in council,

At length the Mayor broke silence;
"For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell;
I wish I were a mile hence!

It's easy to bid one rack one's brain,
I'm sure my poor head aches again,

I've scratched it so, and all in vain.

O for a trap, a trap, a trap!"

Just as he said this, what should hap
At the chamber door, but a gentle tap!
"Bless us," cried the Mayor, "what's that?
Anything like the sound of a rat

Makes my heart go pit a pat!"

"Come in!" the Mayor cried, looking bigger:
And in did come the strangest figure;
His queer, long coat from heels to head
Was half of yellow and half of red;
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light, loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smiles went out and in,
There was no guessing his kith or kin;
And nobody could enough admire
The tall man and his quaint attire;
Quoth one: "It's as my great-grand-sire,

Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,

Had walked this way from his painted tomb stone !"

He advanced to the council-table:

And, "Please your honors," said he, "I'm able,

By means of a secret charm, to draw
All creatures living beneath the sun,
That creep, or swim, or fly, or run,
After me so as you never saw!
And I chiefly use my charm

On creatures that do people harm,

The mole, and toad, and newt, and viper;

And people call me the Pied Piper," "Yet," said he, "poor piper as I am,

In Tartary I freed the Cham

Last June from his huge swarms of gnats;

I eased in Asia the Nizam

Of a monstrous brood of vampyre-bats:
And, as for what your brain bewilders,
If I can rid your town of rats

Will you give me a thousand guilders ?"

"One? fifty thousand !” - was the exclamation Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.

Into the street the Piper stept,

Smiling first a little smile,

As if he knew what magic slept

In his quiet pipe the while;

And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
You heard as if an army muttered;

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling,
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling,
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats,
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats,
Grave old plodders, gray young friskers,
Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins,
Families by tens and dozens,

Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives

Followed the piper for their lives.

From street to street he piped advancing,
And step for step they followed dancing,
Until they came to the river Weser
Wherein all plunged and perished.

You should have heard the Hamelin people
Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple;
"Go," cried the Mayor, "and get long poles!
Poke out the nests and block up the holes!
Consult with carpenters and builders,

And leave in our town not even a trace
Of the rats!"

- when suddenly up the face

Of the Piper perked in the market-place,

With, "first, if you please, my thousand guilders."
A thousand guilders; the Mayor looked blue
And so did the corporation too,

"Beside," quoth the Mayor, with a knowing wink, Our business was done at the river brink,

We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,
And what's dead can't come to life, I think.
A thousand guilders! Come take fifty"

The Piper's face fell, and he cried,

"No trifling! Folks who put me in a passion May find me pipe to another fashion."

Once more he stept into the street;

And to his lips again

Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane;

And ere he blew three notes,

There was a rustling, that seemed like a bustling
Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling,
Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering,
And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering,
Out came the children running.

All the little boys and girls,

With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,

And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,

Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after

The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.

When lo! as they reached the mountain's side,
A wondrous portal opened wide,

As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;

And the Piper advanced and the children followed,
And when all were in to the very last,

The door in the mountain side shut fast,
Alas! alas for Hamelin!

There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says, that Heaven's Gate
Opes to the Rich at as easy rate

As the needle's eye takes a camel in!

The Mayor sent East, West, North and South
To offer the Piper by word of mouth,
Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he'd only return the way he went,

And bring the children behind him.
But soon they saw 't was a lost endeavor,
And Piper and dancers were gone forever.