Did I say all? No! One was lame,
And could not dance the whole of the way;
And in after-years, if you would blame
His sadness, he was used to say,
"It's dull in our town since my playmates left! I can't forget that I'm bereft
Of all the pleasant sights they see,
Which the Piper also promised me;
For he led us, he said, to a joyous land,
Joining the town and just at hand,
Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew,
And flowers put forth of a fairer hue,
And every thing was strange and new;
The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here,
And their dogs outran our fallow deer,
And honey-bees had lost their stings,
And horses were born with eagles' wings;
And just as I became assured
My lame foot would be speedily cured,
The music stopped and I stood still,
And found myself outside the Hill,
Left alone against my will.
To go now limping as before,
And never hear of that country more!
There came into many a burgher's pate
A text which says, that Heaven's gate
Opes to the rich at as easy rate
As the needle's eye takes a camel in!
The Mayor sent East, West, North and South,
To offer the Piper by word of mouth,
Wherever it was men's lot to find him,
Silver and gold to his heart's content,
If he'd only return the way he went,
And bring the children behind him.
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavor,
And piper and dancers were gone forever,
They made a decree that lawyers never
Should think their records dated duly
If, after the day of the month and year,
These words did not as well appear,
"And so long after what happened here
On the twenty-second of July,
Thirteen Hundred and Seventy-six :"
And the better in memory to fix
The place of the children's last retreat
They called it the Pied Piper's Street-
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor
Was sure for the future to lose his labor.
Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern
To shock with mirth a street so solemn ;
But opposite the place of the cavern
They wrote the story on a column,
And on the Great Church window painted
The same, to make the world acquainted
How their children were stolen away;
And there it stands to this very day.
And I must not omit to say
That in Transylvania there's a tribe
Of alien people that ascribe
The outlandish ways and dress
On which their neighbors lay such stress
To their fathers and mothers having risen
Out of some subterranean prison
Into which they were trepanned
Long time ago, in a mighty band,
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land,
But how or why, they don't understand.
So, Willy, let you and me be wipers
Of scores out with all men - especially pipers;
And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise.
THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
AT Alexandria's water-gate.
Her lighted Pharos shone.
The Hanging Gardens' magic green
Delighted Babylon.
The great Colossus stretched his limbs
Across the Rhodian straits.
Diana's mighty Temple rose
Within the Ephesian gates.
Halicarnassus held the Tomb
Of haughty king and queen;
The famous mazy Labyrinth
In ancient Crete was seen.
The Pyramid its mighty foot
Plants in Egyptian sands,
And this alone of all the seven,
To-day unruined stands.
HERE the sisters nine we see,
Born of divine Mnemosyne:
Terpsichore in graceful dance,
Melpomene with tragic glance,
Euterpe with the lyric cry,
And Erato with lover's sigh.
Thalia leads the comic throng;
And Polyhymnia, sacred song.
Urania sings of starry hosts;
Calliope her heroes boasts.
Clio, on tablets and on scrolls,
The history of the world enrolls.
Mt. Helicon is their abode ;
The first to name them, Hesiod.
THE Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins,
The Crab who near the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales;
The Scorpion, Archer, and He-Goat,
The man who bears the Watering-pot,
And Fish with glittering tails.
THIRTY days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
Which hath but twenty-eight in fine,
Till leap-year gives it twenty-nine.
TABLE RULES FOR LITTLE FOLKS.
IN silence I must take my seat,
And give God thanks before I eat;
Must for my food in patience wait,
Till I am asked to hand my plate.
I must not scold, nor whine, nor pout,
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