too,
The Church's ban was on her.—Either live,
Mewed up forever,—she! to be a nun;
Or keep her life-long wandering with the wind;
The very name of wife stript from her troth.
That was my mother.—And she starved and sang;
And like the wind, she roved and lurked and shuddered
Outside your lighted windows, and fled by,
Storm-hunted, trying to outstrip the snow,
South, south, and homeless as a broken bird,—
Limping and hiding!—And she fled, and laughed,
And kept me warm; and died! To you, a Nothing;
Nothing, forever, oh, you well-housed mothers!
As always, always for the lighted windows
Of all the world, the Dark outside is nothing;
And all that limps and hides there in the dark;
Famishing,—broken,—lost!
  And I have sworn
For her sake and for all, that I will have
Some justice, all so late, for wretched men,
Out of these same smug towns that drive us forth
After the show!—Or scheme to cage us up
Out of the sunlight; like a squirrel's heart
Torn out and drying in the market-place.
My mother! Do you know what mothers are?—
Your children! Do you know them? Ah, not you!
There's not one here but it would follow me,
For all your bleating!

AXEL'S WIFE
  Kuno, come away!

[The children cling to him. He smiles down triumphantly.

PIPER
Oho, Oho! Look you?—You preach—I pipe!
[Reenter the men, with KURT and JACOBUS,
from the Rathaus, murmuring dubiously.
[The PIPER sets down JAN and stands forth, smiling.

JACOBUS
[smoothly]
H'm! My good man, we have faithfully debated
Whether your vision of so great a sum
Might be fulfilled,—as by some miracle.
But no. The moneys we administer
Will not allow it; nor the common weal.
Therefore, for your late service, here you have
Full fifteen guilders,
[Holding forth a purse]
  and a pretty sum
Indeed, for piping!

KURT [ominously] Take them!

JACOBUS
  Either that,
Or, to speak truly, nothing!
[The PIPER is motionless]
Come, come. Nay, count them, if you will.

KURT
  Time goes!

PIPER
Ay. And your oath?

KURT
No more; Enough.

[There is a sound of organ music from the Minster.]

VERONIKA [beseechingly] Ah, Kurt!

KURT
[savagely to the crowd]
What do ye, mewling of this fellow's rights?
He hath none!—Wit ye well, he is a stroller,
A wastrel, and the shadow of a man!
Ye waste the day and dally with the law.
Such have no rights; not in their life nor body!
We are in no wise bound. Nothing is his.
He may not carry arms; nor have redress
For any harm that men should put on him,
Saving to strike a shadow on the wall!
He is a Nothing, by the statute-book;
And, by the book, so let him live or die,
Like to a masterless dog!

[The PIPER stands motionless with head up-raised, not looking at KURT. The people, half-cowed, half-doubting, murmur and draw back. Lights appear in the Minster; the music continues. KURT and JACOBUS lead in the people. JACOBUS picks up the money-purse and takes it with him.

VOICES [laughing, drunkenly] One thousand guilders to a 'masterless dog'! [Others laugh too, pass by, with pity and derision for the PIPER, and echoes of 'MASTERLESS DOG!' Exeunt WOMEN and MEN to the Minster. Only the children are left, dancing round the motionless figure of the PIPER.

CHILDREN
Oh, pipe again! Oh, pipe and make us dance!
Oh, pipe and make us run away from school!
Oh, pipe and make believe we are the mice!

[He looks down at them. He looks up at the houses. Then he signs to them, with his finger on his lips; and begins, very softly, to pipe the Kinder-spell. The old CLAUS and URSULA in the windows seem to doze.

The children stop first, and look at him, fascinated; then they laugh, drowsily, and creep closer,—JAN always near. They crowd around him. He pipes louder, moving backwards, slowly, with magical gestures, towards the little by-streets and the closed doors. The doors open, everywhere.

Out come the children: little ones in night gowns; bigger ones, with playthings, toy animals, dolls. He pipes, gayer and louder. They pour in, right and left. Motion and music fill the air. The PIPER lifts JAN to his shoulder (dropping the little crutch) and marches off, up the street at the rear, piping, in the midst of them all.

Last, out of the Minster come tumbling two little acolytes in red, and after them, PETER the Sacristan. He trips over them in his amazement and terror; and they are gone after the vanishing children before the church-people come out.

The old folks lean from their windows.

OLD URSULA
The bell, the bell! the church bell! They're bewitched!

[Peter rushes to the bell-rope and pulls it. The bell sounds heavily. Reenter, from the church, the citizens by twos and threes and scores.

OLD URSULA
I told ye all,—I told ye!—Devils' bargains!
[The bell]
[KURT, JACOBUS, and the others appear.]

KURT
Peter the Sacristan! Give by the bell.
What means this clangor?

PETER the Sacristan
They're bewitched! bewitched!
[Still pulling and shouting.]

URSULA
They're gone!

KURT
  Thy wits!

OLD CLAUS
They're gone—they're gone—they're gone!

PETER the Sacristan
The children!

URSULA
—With the Piper! They're bewitched!
I told ye so.

OLD CLAUS
  —I saw it with these eyes!
He piped away the children.

[Horror in the crowd. They bring out lanterns and candles.
VERONIKA holds up the forgotten crutch'

VERONIKA
  Jan—my Jan!

KURT [to her] Thy boy! But mine, my three, all fair and straight.—

AXEL'S WIFE
[furiously to him]
'T was 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,