The wild beasts of the forest came,

Broke from their bughts and faulds the tame, And goved around, charmed and amazed; Even the dull cattle crooned, and gazed, And murmured, and looked with anxious pain For something the mystery to explain. The buzzard came with the throstle-cock, The corby left her houf in the rock; The blackbird alang wi' the eagle flew ; The hind came tripping o'er the dew; The wolf and the kid their raike began; And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran; The hawk and the hern attour them hung, And the merl and the mavis forhooyed their

young;

And all in a peaceful ring were hurled:
It was like an eve in a sinless world!

319

When a month and a day had come and gane,
Kilmeny sought the green-wood wene;
There laid her down on the leaves sae green,
And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen.
But O the words that fell from her mouth
Were words of wonder, and words of truth!
But all the land were in fear and dread,
For they kendna whether she was living or
dead.

It wasna her hame, and she couldna remain;
She left this world of sorrow and pain,
And returned to the land of thought again. 330
1813.
James Hogg.

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN

A CHILD'S STORY

HAMELIN Town 's in Brunswick,
By famous Hanover city;

The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side;

A pleasanter spot you never spied;

But, when begins my ditty,

Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin, was a pity.

Rats!

They fought the dogs and killed the cats,

And bit the babies in the cradles,

And ate the cheeses out of the vats,

And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,

Split open the kegs of salted sprats,

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

20

At last the people in a body

To the Town Hall came flocking:

"'T is clear," cried they, "our Mayor's a noddy;
And as for our Corporation-shocking
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine
For dolts that can't or won't determine
What's best to rid us of our vermin!
You hope, because you 're old and obese,
To find in the furry civic robe ease?
Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking
To find the remedy we 're lacking,

Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!”
At this the Mayor and Corporation
Quaked with a mighty consternation.

An hour they sat in council;

At length the Mayor broke silence:
"For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell,
I wish I were a mile hence!

It's easy to bid one rack one's brain-
I'm sure my poor head aches again,
I've scratched it so, and all in vain.
Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!"

Just as he said this, what should hap
At the chamber-door but a gentle tap?
"Bless us," cried the Mayor, "what 's that?"

(With the Corporation as he sat,.

Looking little though wondrous fat;

Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister

Than a too-long-opened oyster,

Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous For a plate of turtle green and glutinous)

34

"Only a scraping of shoes on the mat?
Anything like the sound of a rat
Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!"

'Come in!"-the Mayor cried, looking bigger: And in did come the strangest figure!

His
queer long coat from heel to head
Was half of yellow and half of red,
And he himself was tall and thin,
With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin,
And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin,
No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin,
But lips where smiles went out and in;
There was no guessing his kith and kin:
And nobody could enough admire
The tall man and his quaint attire.
Quoth one: "It's as my great-grandsire,
Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone,
Had walked this way from his painted tomb-

stone!"

He advanced to the council-table:

54

69

And, "Please your honors," said he, "I'm able,
By means of a secret charm, to draw
All creatures living beneath the sun,
That creep or swim or fly or run,
After me so as you never saw!
And I chiefly use my charm
On creatures that do people harm,
The mole and toad and newt and viper;

And people call me the Pied Piper."
(And here they noticed round his neck

A scarf of red and yellow stripe,

To match with his coat of the self-same check; And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;

And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying As if impatient to be playing

Upon this pipe, as low it dangled

Over his vesture so old-fangled.) "Yet," said he, "poor piper as I am,

In Tartary I freed the Cham,

Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats;

I eased in Asia the Nizam

Of a monstrous brood of vampire-bats:
And as for what your brain bewilders,
If I can rid your town of rats

Will you give me a thousand guilders?" "One? fifty thousand!"-was the exclamation Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.

Into the street the Piper stepped,
Smiling first a little smile,
As if he knew what magic slept

In his quiet pipe the while;

Then, like a musical adept,

To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled,
Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled;
And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered,
You heard as if an army muttered;

97

And the muttering grew to a grumbling;
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling;
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling.