Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/79

 "I can't help telling it, I can't help telling it," the woodpecker cried.

"Tell it, oh, tell the story," said all the children.

"I will tell it," said Picus. Then sitting on a branch above them, he began:

"I was once a prince. Then, above all things I loved hunting and being on horseback. I wore a cloak of scarlet, and at my neck I had a brooch of gold to fasten my cloak. And I was most happy then, for I had for my bride Canens, the daughter of Father Janus who is sitting there. She was beautiful in her form and face, and she was even more beautiful in her voice, for she could charm the birds themselves with her singing.

"Even my present form shows something of what I looked like once. But just imagine me as I rode forth on my fine steed, and with my scarlet cloak and the golden brooch that fastened it! Alas, I looked too fine—it was that that