THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN
After me so as you never saw 1
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."
(And here they noticed round his neck
A scarf of red and yellow stripe,
To match with his coat of the self-same cheque ;
And at the scarf's end hung a pipe ;
And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying 10
As if impatient to be playing
Upon this pipe as low it dangled
Over his vesture so old-fangled.)
cc 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 20
Will you give me a thousand guilders ? "
" One ? fifty thousand ! "—was the exclama-
tion
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 ;
Then, like a musical adept.
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled 30
Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled ;
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 ;
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