Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/26

 "He asked for fifty," said the Treasury-Remembrancer, with his mouth pursed up.

"But you offered me a hundred and fifty," said the Piper.

"Fifty is all that's written down," said the Treasury-Remembrancer.

"And you'll have to be reasonable," said the Mayor. "I'll admit that you've done your work pretty well, but piping's all in your day's work, you know, and you can't make us believe that you strike a hundred and fifty good golden gulders every day. No, you can't make us believe that. And what would you do with it? Buy a new breeches for yourself? No, no, the town can't afford to keep you as fine as all that, my good man. Hold out your hat now and I'll give you fifty out of my own private cash box."

"Give me my hundred and fifty gulders and let me go on my way," said the Piper, "for, believe me, there's something in your town I don't relish."

"I beg to make it known to the honorable