Ethel Morton and the Christmas Ship Part 20

Across it pa.s.sed first THE PIPER still piping, and after him a horde of rats. They were pasteboard rats and Helen was drawing them across the scene with strings, but they made a very good illusion of the dancing rats that the poet described;

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats; Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats.

As the crowd in the room watched they uttered exclamations--"See!" "Look at that one!" "How they follow him!" "He's leading them to the river!" "In they go!" "They're drowning!" "Every one of them!"

"Let's ring the bells!"

With faces of delight the townsfolk left the council chamber and from a distance came the m.u.f.fled ringing of bells of joy.

THE MAYOR addressed them as they pa.s.sed out; "Go 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."

THE PIPER entered suddenly. "First, if you please, my thousand guilders!"

FIRST MEMBER OF THE CORPORATION. "A thousand guilders!"

The other members of the Corporation shook their heads in solemn refusal.

THE MAYOR.

"Our business was done at the river's brink; We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, And what's dead can't come to life, I think."

SECOND MEMBER OF THE CORPORATION.

"So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink From the duty of giving you something for drink, And a matter of money to put in your poke--"

THE MAYOR.

"But as for the guilders, what we spoke Of them, as you very well know, was in joke."

FIRST MEMBER.

"Besides, our losses have made us thrifty.

A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!"

THE PIPER [_looking serious, cried_]; "No trifling! I can't wait, beside!

I've promised to visit by dinner time Bagdat, and accept the prime Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in, For having left in the Caliph's kitchen, Of a nest of scorpions no survivor; With him I proved no bargain-driver, With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver!

And folks who put me in a pa.s.sion May find me pipe after another fas.h.i.+on."

THE MAYOR.

"How? D'ye think I brook Being worse treated than a Cook?

Insulted by a lazy ribald With idle pipe and vesture piebald?

You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst, Blow your pipe there till you burst!"

Once more the Piper laid the pipe against his lips and blew the strange, simple tune, and from both sides of the stage there came rus.h.i.+ng in children of all sizes, boys and girls, flaxen-haired and dark-haired, blue-eyed and brown-eyed. They crowded around him and as he slowly pa.s.sed off the stage they followed him, dancing and waving their hands and with never a look behind them.

Once more the window at the back opened and across it went the Piper, still fluting, though now he could not be heard by the audience; and behind him still danced the children, blind to the gestures of the Mayor and Corporation who stretched out their arms, beseeching them to return. Terrified, the city fathers made known by gestures of despair that they feared the Piper was leading the children to the river where they would meet the fate of the rats.

Of a sudden they seemed relieved and the picture showed the throng pa.s.sing out of sight into a cavern on the mountain. Then limped upon the stage a lame boy who had not been able to dance all the way with the children and so was shut out when the mountain opened and swallowed them up. The Corporation crowded around him and heard him say:

LAME BOY.

"It's dull in our town since my playmates left!

I can't forget that I'm bereft Of all the pleasant sights they see, Which the Piper also promised me.

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, Joining the town and just at hand, Where waters gushed and fruit trees grew And flowers put forth a fairer hue, And everything was strange and new; The sparrows were brighter than peac.o.c.ks here, And their dogs outran our fallow deer, And honey bees had lost their stings, And horses were born with eagles' wings; And just as I became a.s.sured My lame foot would be speedily cured, The music stopped and I stood still, And found myself outside the hill, Left alone against my will, To go now limping as before, And never hear of that country more!"

The MAYOR and CORPORATION were grouped around the LAME BOY listening and the citizens at the back leaned forward so as to hear every word. Almost in tears the boy limped from the stage followed slowly by Mayor and Corporation and citizens while Dorothy's clear voice took up the tale.

"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 or 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 when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor, And Piper and dancers were gone forever, They made a decree that lawyers never Should think their records dated duly If, after the day of the month and year, These words did not as well appear, 'And so long after what happened here On the Twenty-second of July, Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:'

And the better in memory to fix The place of the children's last retreat, They called it the Pied Piper's Street-- Where any one playing on pipe or tabor Was sure for the future to lose his labor.

Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern To shock with mirth a street so solemn: But opposite the place of the cavern They wrote the story on a column, And on the great church window painted The same, to make the world acquainted How their children were stolen away, And there it stands to this very day.

And I must not omit to say That in Transylvania there's a tribe Of alien people who ascribe The outlandish ways and dress On which their neighbors lay such stress, To their fathers and mothers having risen Out of some subterraneous prison Into which they were trepanned Long time ago in a mighty band Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land.

But how or why, they don't understand."

At the conclusion of the play, after hearty applause, the audience broke again into the song of the Christmas s.h.i.+p:

Hurrah, hurrah for the Christmas s.h.i.+p As it starts across the sea With its load of gifts and its greater load Of loving sympathy.

Let's wave our hats and clap our hands As we send it on its trip; May many a heart and home be cheered By the gifts in the Christmas s.h.i.+p.

"That's as good a show as if it had been put on by grown-ups," declared a New Yorker who had come out with Doctor Watkins. "It's hard to believe that those kids have done it all themselves."

He spoke to a stranger beside him as they filed out to the music of a merry march played by Mrs. Smith.

"My boy was among them," replied the Rosemont man proudly, "but I don't mind saying I think they're winners!"

That seemed to be every one's opinion. As for the old ladies--the evening was such an event to them that they felt just a trifle uncertain that they had not been transported by some magic means to far away Hamelin town.

"I don't believe I missed a word," said the blind old lady as the horses toiled slowly up the hill to the Home.

"We'll tell you every scene so you'll know how the words fit in,"

promised the old lady in the wheel chair.

"It will be something to talk about when we're knitting," chuckled the lame old lady brightly, and they all hummed gently,

"Hurrah, hurrah for the Christmas s.h.i.+p As it starts across the sea."

CHAPTER XII

JAMES CUTS CORNERS

"VERY creditable, very creditable indeed," repeated Doctor Hanc.o.c.k as he and James stepped into their car to return to Glen Point after packing the old ladies into the wagonette.

Mrs. Hanc.o.c.k and Margaret had gone home by trolley because the doctor had to make a professional call on the way. The moon lighted the road brilliantly and the machine flew along smoothly over the even surface.

"This is about as near flying as a fellow can get and still be only two feet from the earth," said James.

James was quiet and almost too serious for a boy of his age but he had one pa.s.sion that sometimes got the better of the prudence which he inherited from the Scottish ancestor about whom Roger was always joking him.