And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin, VI 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, On creatures that do people harm, To match with his coat of the self-same check; And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying As if impatient to be playing Upon this pipe, as low it dangled Over his vesture so old-fangled.) "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 vampire-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. VII Into the street the Piper stept, In his quiet pipe the while; To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, Swam across and lived to carry To Rat-land home his commentary:° Which was, "At the first shrill notes of the pipe, I heard a sound as of scraping tripe, And putting apples, wondrous ripe, Into a cider-press's gripe: And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards, Just as methought it said, 'Come, bore me!' VIII You should have heard the Hamelin people 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 a, "First, if you please, my thousand guilders!" IX A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue; So did the Corporation too. To pay this sum to a wandering fellow With a gypsy coat of red and yellow! "Beside," quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink, "Our business was done at the river's brink; We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, But as for the guilders, what we spoke Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!" X The Piper's face fell, and he cried, Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in, May find me pipe after another fashion." ΧΙ "How?" cried the Mayor, "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 til you burst!" XII 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 (such sweet Soft notes as yet musician's cunning Never gave the enraptured air) There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling Of merry crowds justling° at pitching and hustling; |