Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/23

WHO FOLLOWED THE PIPER Out he went then. Well, the next day, as the clocks of the town were striking noon, the Mayor and the Aldermen stood at the windows of the council room. The Piper came into the market place, right side and left leg yellow, left side and right leg red. He put the pipe to his mouth, and his elbow to the bag, and he played away. Eats were biting each other in the gutters. Up they sat and cocked an ear to the music. Rats were hurrying home with cheese in their mouths or an egg between their paws. They stopped to listen. Then rats came pouring down steps of houses; rats came swarming up steps of cellars; rats came scrambling over walls. Rats by the thousand showed themselves, and they all went hurrying toward where the Pied Piper played.

With his elbow to the bag and the pipe to his mouth the Pied Piper moved off. He went down the street, and as he went the rats followed him, tumbling over each other, squealing and squeaking. Down to the river the Piper went, and squealing and squeaking the rats followed after.