Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/22

THE CHILDREN "To get to business," said the Mayor. "What can you do for us?"

"Banish the rats from your town," said the Piper.

"I have the mind of a prophet," said the Mayor to the Aldermen, "I knew he was going to say that."

"What will be your fee for the serviced' said the Mayor.

"Will you give me fifty gulders?" said the Pied Piper.

It was then that the Treasury-Remembrancer came into the story. He was a thin-lipped man, and he wrote the sum down.

"Fifty gulders!" cried the Mayor. "Man, we'll give you a hundred and fifty!"

But the thin-lipped man who was the Treasury-Remembrancer did not write that sum down.

"Then," said the Pied Piper, "stand at the windows of the council room to-morrow when the clocks are striking noon and you shall see me banish the rats from your good town."