The Piper Part 8

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 amus.e.m.e.nt. 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 hoa.r.s.e 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.