Right in the way of their sons and daughters!
However he turned from south to west,
And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed,
And after him the children pressed;
Great was the joy in every breast.
"He never can cross that mighty top;
He's forced to let the piping drop,
And we shall see our children stop!"
When, lo! as they reached the mountain's side,
A wondrous portal opened wide,
As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;
And the Piper advanced, and the children followed,
And when all were in to the very last,
The door in the mountain side shut fast.
Did I say, all? No! One was lame,
And could not dance the whole of the way;
And in after years, if you would blame
His sadness, he was used to say,-
"It's dull in our town since my playmates left!
I can't forget that I am bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the Piper also promised me:
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,
And flowers put forth a fairer hue,
And everything was strange and new;
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
And their dogs outran our fallow-deer,
And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles' wings;
And just as I became assured
My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopped and I stood still,
And found myself outside the hill,
Left alone against my will,
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more!"
Alas! alas for Hamelin!
There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says, that Heaven's Gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate
As the needle's eye takes a camel in!
The Mayor sent east, west, north, and south
To offer the Piper by word of mouth,
Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he'd only return the way he went,
And bring the children behind him.
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
And Piper and dancers were gone forever,
They made a decree that lawyers never
Should think their records dated duly,
If, after the day of the month and year
These words did not as well appear,
"And so long after what happened here
On the twenty-second day of July,
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six:"
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children's last retreat,
They called it the Pied Piper's Street-
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor,
Was sure for the future to lose his labor.
Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
To shock with mirth a street so solemn;
But opposite the place of the cavern
They wrote the story on a column,
And on the great church window painted
The same, to make the world acquainted
How their children were stolen away;-
And there it stands to this very day.
And I must not omit to say
That in Transylvania there's a tribe
Of alien people, who ascribe
The outlandish ways and dress
On which their neighbors lay such stress,
To their fathers and mothers having risen
Out of some subterraneous prison
Into which they were trepanned
Long time ago in a mighty band,
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
But how or why, they don't understand.
So Willy, let me and you be wipers
Of scores out with all men,-especially pipers;
And whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.
HELPS TO STUDY
Notes and Questions
River on your map.
Whom did the people blame for
the condition of their city? What threat did they make? What effect did this have upon the Mayor?
Describe the appearance of the
Mayor's strange visitor.
What did the Pied Piper offer
to do?
How did the Mayor and Corpora
tion receive his proposal?
How soon did the notes of the pipe take effect?
Read the report to Rat-land.
What did the Mayor order when
the rats had been destroyed?
Whom had he forgotten?
Read the lines which show why
the Mayor dared dispute the
Piper's claim.
How did the Mayor reward the
Piper for his services?
Compare the sound made by the
gathering of the children with
the noise made by the rats.
Where did the Piper lead the
children?
What lines rhyme in each stanza?
What comparison is made in lines
251, 252 and 253?
KENTUCKY BELLE
CONSTANCE FENIMORE WOOLSON
Constance Fenimore Woolson (1848-1894), an American writer, was born in Clermont, New Hampshire. She was a grandniece of James Fenimore Cooper, the author of "Leather Stocking Tales." With her parents she removed to Cleveland, O., and afterwards to New York City. She died in Venice, Italy.
Summer of 'sixty-three, sir, and Conrad was gone away-
Gone to the country town, sir, to sell our first load of hay:
We lived in the log-house yonder, poor as ever you've seen;
Röschen there was a baby, and I was only nineteen.
Conrad he took the oxen, but he left Kentucky Belle.
How much we thought of Kentuck, I couldn't begin to tell-
Came from the Blue-grass country; my father gave her to me
When I rode North with Conrad, away from the Tennessee.
Conrad lived in Ohio-a German he is, you know—
The house stood in broad corn-fields, stretching on row after row. The old folks made me welcome; they were kind as kind could be ; But I kept longing, longing, for the hills of the Tennessee.
Oh for a sight of water, the shadowed slope of a hill!
Clouds that hang on the summit, a wind that never is still!
But the level land went stretching away to meet the sky-
Never a rise, from north or south, to rest the weary eye!
From east to west, no river to shine out under the moon,
Nothing to make a shadow in the yellow afternoon:
Only the breathless sunshine, as I looked out, all forlorn;
Only the "rustle, rustle," as I walked among the corn.
When I fell sick with pining, we didn't wait any more,
But moved away from the corn-lands, out to this river shore-
The Tuscarawas it's called, sir-off there's a hill, you see-
And now I've grown to like it next best to the Tennessee.
I was at work that morning. Some one came riding like mad
Over the bridge and up the road-Farmer Routh's little lad
Bareback he rode; he had no hat; he hardly stopped to say:
"Morgan's men are coming, Frau; they're galloping on this way.
"I'm sent to warn the neighbors. He isn't a mile behind;
He sweeps up all the horses-every horse that he can find.
Morgan, Morgan the raider, and Morgan's terrible men,
With bowie-knives and pistols, are galloping up the glen!"
The lad rode down the valley, and I stood still at the door;
The baby laughed and prattled, playing with spools on the floor;
Kentuck was out in the pasture; Conrad, my man, was gone.
Near, nearer, Morgan's men were galloping, galloping on!
Sudden I picked up baby, and ran to the pasture-bar.
"Kentuck!" I called “Kentucky!" She knew me ever so far!
I led her down the gully that turns off there to the right,
And tied her to the bushes; her head was just out of sight.
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