The Piper | Page 7

thy false bargain, thine; who
would not pay The Piper.--But we pay!
PETER the Sacristan Bewitched, bewitched! The boys ran out--and I
ran after them, And something red did trip me--'t was the Devil. The
Devil!
OLD URSULA Ah, ring on, and crack the bell: Ye'll never have them
back.--I told ye so!
[The bell clangs incessantly]
Curtain

ACT II
SCENE I: Inside 'the Hollow Hill.'
A great, dim-lighted, cavernous place, which shows signs of masonry.
It is part cavern and part cellarage of a ruined, burned-down and
forgotten old monastery in the hills.--The only entrance (at the centre

rear), a ramshackle wooden door, closes against a flight of rocky
steps.--Light comes from an opening in the roof, and from the right,
where a faggot-fire glows under an iron pot.--The scene reaches (right
and left) into dim corners, where sleeping children lie curled up
together like kittens.
By the fire sits the PIPER, on a tree-stump seat, stitching at a bit of red
leather. At his feet is a row of bright-colored small shoes, set two and
two. He looks up now and then, to recount the children, and goes back
to work, with quizzical despair.
Left, sits a group of three forlorn Strollers. One nurses a lame knee; one,
evidently dumb, talks in signs to the others; one is munching bread and
cheese out of a wallet. All have the look of hunted and hungry men.
They speak only in whispers to each other throughout the scene; but
their hoarse laughter breaks out now and then over the bird-like
ignorance of the children.
A shaft of sunlight steals through the hole in the roof. JAN, who lies
nearest the PIPER, wakes up.
JAN Oh!
[The PIPER turns] Oh, I thought. . . I had a dream!
PIPER [softly] Ahe?
JAN I thought. . . 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