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Page 14
"We must be invisible," thought Doris; and indeed they were.
Then the Pied Piper came forward and beckoned them on, and softly they
followed him to the very hill-side, that opened, as Doris knew it
would, and they found themselves in a vast hall. A low rumbling
startled Doris for a moment, but then she knew it was only the
hill-side closing upon them. She seemed to hear a faint cry as the
last sound died, away, and was tempted to run back, for she feared some
child had been hurt; but her companion said,--
"It can't be helped, dear; he _always_ gets left outside, and then he
weeps. You see he is lame, and he cannot keep up with us."
So Doris knew it was the self-same little lad of whom Browning had
written in his story of the Piper.
What a chattering there was, to be sure; and what a crowd was gathered
about the Piper at the farther end of the hall! Every once in a while
all the children would laugh so loudly that the very ceiling shook. It
was such a merry throng.
"Tell me," said Doris to her little neighbor,--"tell me, are you always
so gay here? Do you never quarrel? and have you really lived in this
hillside all this long, long time,--ever since the Piper first came to
Hamelin five hundred years ago?"
"Ja, wohl," replied the girl, nodding her flaxen head. "We are always
so happy; we never quarrel; therefore we are ever young, and what thou
callest five hundred years are as nothing to us. Ah! we are well cared
for here, and the Piper teaches us, and we him; and we play and frolic
and sometimes travel, 'und so geht's.'"
"But what can you teach _him_?" asked Doris, wondering.
"Ah! many things. We teach him to tune his fife to the sounds of our
laughter, so that when he travels he may pipe new songs. Ah! thou
foolish one, thou thoughtest him the _wind_. And we teach him to be as
a little child, and then he keeps young always, and his heart is warm
and glad. And we teach him-- But thou shalt see;" and she nodded
again, and smiled into Doris's wondering eyes.
The hall they were in was long and wide, and hung all about the walls
were the most beautiful pictures, that seemed to shift and change every
moment into something more strange and lovely. And as Doris looked she
seemed to know what the pictures were,--and they were only reflections
of the children's pure souls that shone out of their eyes.
"How beautiful!" she thought.
But the Piper was singing to them now; and as she drew nearer him she
saw he had two little tots in his arms, and was putting them to sleep
on his breast.
So the children were still while the Piper sang his lullaby, and
presently the two little ones began to nod; and the Piper did not move,
but held them to his kind heart until they were fast asleep. Then he
rose and carried them away and laid them down somewhere. Doris could
not see where, but it must have been far enough away to be out of the
sound of their voices; for when he came back he did not lower his
tones, but spoke up quite naturally and laughed gayly as he said,--
"Well, what now, Children? Shall we show the new friend our
manufactory?"
And they were all so anxious to do whatever he proposed that in a
moment they had formed quite a bodyguard about the Pied Piper, and were
following and leading him down the vast hall.
"What is the manufactory?" asked Doris of a boy who happened to be
beside her.
"Wait and thou shalt see!" he replied. "We always are patient until
the Herr Piper is ready to tell us what he wishes; then we listen and
attend."
Doris would have felt that the boy was snubbing her if his eyes had not
been so kind and his voice so sweet. As it was she took it all
pleasantly, and determined to ask no more questions, but to content
herself with as much information as the Piper was willing to bestow
upon her.
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