The Piper | Page 7

. . I dreamed. . . somebody wanted me.
PIPER Soho!
JAN [earnestly] I thought. . . Somebody Wanted me.
PIPER How then? [With watchful tenderness.]
JAN I thought I heard Somebody crying.
PIPER Pfui!--What a dream.--Don't make me cry again.
JAN Oh, was it you?--Oh, yes!
PIPER [apart, tensely] No Michael yet!
[JAN begins to laugh softly, in a bewildered way; then grows quite happy and forgetful. While the other children waken, he reaches for the pipe and tries to blow upon it, to the PIPER'S amusement. ILSE and HANSEL, the Butcher's children, wake.
ILSE Oh!
HANSEL --Oh!
PIPER Ahe?
ILSE I thought I had a dream.
PIPER Again?
ILSE . . . It was some lady, calling me.
HANSEL Yes, and a fat man called us to come quick; A fat man, he was crying--about me! That same fat man I dreamt of, yesterday.
PIPER Come, did you ever see a fat man cry, About a little Boy?
[The Strollers are convulsed with hoarse mirth.
HANSEL No,--Never.
ILSE Never! Oh, what a funny dream!
[They giggle together.] [The PIPER silences the Strollers, with a gesture of warning towards the rocky door.
PIPER [to himself] 'T is Hans the Butcher. [To the Children] Well, what did he say?
HANSEL '_Come home, come home, come home_!' But I didn't go. I don't know where. . . Oh, what a funny dream!
ILSE Mine was a bad dream!--Mine was a lovely lady And she was by the river, staring in.
PIPER You were the little gold-fish, none could catch. Oh, what a funny dream! . . . [Apart, anxiously] No Michael yet. [Aloud] Come, bread and broth! Here--not all, three at a time; 'T is simpler. Here, you kittens. Eat awhile; Then--
[RUDI wakes.]
RUDI Oh! I had a dream,--an awful dream!
[The PIPER takes JAN on his knee and feeds him, after ladling out a big bowl of broth from the kettle for the Children, and giving them bread.
PIPER Oh! oh! I had a dream!
CHILDREN Oh, tell it to us!
PIPER I dreamed. . . a Stork. . . had nested in my hat.
CHILDREN Oh!
PIPER And when I woke--
CHILDREN You had--
PIPER _One hundred children_!
CHILDREN Oh, it came true! Oh, oh; it all came true!
THE STROLLERS Ah, ho, ho, ho! [The dumb one rises, stretches, and steals toward the entrance, stopping to slip a blind-patch over one eye. The PIPER goes to him with one stride, seizing him by the shoulder.
PIPER [to him, and the others, apart] Look you.--No Michael _yet_!--And he is gone Full three days now,--three days. If he be caught, Why then,--the little ravens shall be fed! [Groans from the three] Enough that Cheat-the-Devil leaked out too;-- No foot but mine shall quit this fox-hole now! And you,--think praise for once, you have no tongue, And keep these magpies quiet. [Turns away. [To himself] Ah, that girl. The Burgomeister's Barbara! But for her, And moon-struck Michael with his 'one more look'! Where is he now?--And where are we? [Turning back to the Children] So, so.
[The Strollers huddle together, with looks of renewed anxiety and wretchedness.--Their laughter at the Children breaks out forlornly now and then.--The PIPER shepherds the Children, but with watchful eyes and ears toward the entrance always. --His action grows more and more tense.
RUDI [over his broth] Oh, I remember now!--Before I woke. . . Oh, what an awful dream!
ILSE Oh, tell us, Rudi,-- Oh, scare us,--Rudi, scare us!--
RUDI [bursting into tears] . . . _Lump was dead_! Lump, Lump!-- [The Children wail.
PIPER [distracted] Who's Lump?
RUDI Our Dog!
PIPER [shocked and pained] The Dog!--No, no. Heaven save us--I forgot about the dogs!
RUDI He Wanted me;--and I always wasn't there! And people tied him up,--and other people Pretended that he bit.--He never bites! He Wanted me, until it broke his heart, And he was dead!
PIPER [struggling with his emotion] And then he went to heaven, To chase the happy cats up all the trees;-- Little white cats! . . . He wears a golden collar . . . And sometimes--[Aside]--I'd forgot about the dogs! Well, dogs must suffer, so that men grow wise. 'T was ever so.
[He turns to give JAN a piping lesson]
CHILDREN
Oh, what a funny dream! [Suddenly he lifts his hand. They listen, and hear a dim sound of distant chanting, going by on some neighboring road. The PIPER is puzzled; the Strollers are plainly depressed.
JAN What is it?
PIPER People; passing down below, In the dark valley. [He looks at the Children fixedly] Do you want to see them?
CHILDREN Don't let them find us! What an ugly noise.-- No, no--don't let them come!
PIPER Hark ye to me. Some day I'll take you out with me to play; High in the sun,--close to the water-fall . . . . And we will make believe--_We'll make believe We're hiding_! . . .
[The Strollers rock with mirth.]
CHILDREN Yes, yes! Oh, let us make believe!
STROLLERS Oho, ho, ho!--A make-believe!--Ho, ho!
PIPER But, if you're good,--yes, very, very soon I'll