(Adapted from Browning’s poem)
_One should stick to his bargain or abide the consequences._
Over in Germany is the town of Hamelin. A long time ago that town
was troubled with rats until it was unendurable. The rats were
in the houses, in the stores, in the churches; they ran over the
streets, and the people were eaten out of house and home. The rats
fought the dogs and killed the cats. They ate all the cheese, they
made nests inside men’s Sunday hats. Oh, it was an awful time the
people had with the rats of the town of Hamelin.
At last the people said: “We will not stand it any longer. What
is our Mayor for if he can’t rid us of rats?” So they went to the
Mayor and said they would send him packing if he did not find some
way to run the rats out of town. The poor Mayor was in a quandary.
He did not know what to do.
Just then came a knock on the door. “Come in,” said the Mayor. In
walked a strange man, tall and thin, with a funny hat on his head,
and with clothes half red and half yellow. His eyes were sharp and
bright. He had a little pipe in his hands upon which he could play
music.
“I am the Pied Piper, Mr. Mayor,” said the strange man, “and I can
rid your town of rats for a thousand coins.”
“Good!” said the Mayor. “Go on! it’s a bargain. Be in a hurry about
it, for the people are already angry with me.”
The Piper went to the door and began to play on his pipe. It was
a strange high tune. All at once the rats began to run out from
everywhere. All kinds of rats, big and little, old and young,
they came running and tumbling and falling over each other. Then
the Piper led them down to the river where every last one of them
jumped in and was drowned. Not a rat was left in all the town of
Hamelin.
“Now for my thousand coins,” said the Piper to the Mayor.
“Oh, come!” said the Mayor. “I did not really mean to pay you all
that money. Here--take ten and be satisfied.”
But the Piper said he wanted his thousand coins and would take no
less. So the Mayor puffed up, and grew red in the face and told the
Piper to be gone.
The Piper then went into the streets and began to play another
very strange tune. All the children pricked up their ears to
listen. The Piper played on. The children began to run out of the
houses and the stores and down the street, shouting and laughing
and dancing after the Piper.
“Stop him! Stop him!” cried the people. But the Piper did not stop
but marched on towards the mountains where a great door opened and
all the children marched in after the Piper. The door then closed
and the people never saw the Piper nor their children any more.
That is what happened because the Mayor would not do as he promised.