Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/28

THE CHILDREN watched from the window in the council room. "A nice thing that our children should be gathered around that fellow. Send for the Beadle, and let him take the children away."

But it wasn't the Beadle who took them away. The Piper turned and went down the street and the children went dancing after him. More and more children ran out of the houses and came crowding up the side streets as he went by. Ragged and well-dressed they followed the Piper, and the elders stood by to watch the procession. Over the bridge they went and up toward the mountain that looked over the town. The Beadle had been summoned; he went after the children. Men and women joined him and they went hallooing to them to stop. But the Piper went on and the children went on. Surely they would stop and turn back when they came to the great rock that stood in their path on the mountain. But they did not turn back. The Beadle and the men and women saw the rock move and saw the Piper and the chil-