Pismire

“ The PIPER sounds a few notes; then lifts his hand and listens, smiling.—Uproar in the distance.—A great harking of dogs;—shouts and cheers; then the high, sweet voices of the Children.
The piping is drowned in cries of joy. The sun comes out, still rosy, in a flood of light. The crowd rushes in. Fat burghers hug each other, and laugh and cry. They are all younger, their faces bloom, as by a miracle.
The Children pour in. Some are carried, some run hand-in-hand. Everywhere women embrace their own. KURT has his sons.—CHEAT-THE-DEVIL comes, with a daisy-chain around his neck, all smiles. ”

“ PIPER
Because his deviltry is all a cheat:—
He is no devil,—but a gentle heart!
—Friend Michael here hath played the Devil, betimes,
Because he can so bravely breathe out fire.
He plied the pitchfork so we yelped for mercy,—
He reckoned not the stoutness of his arm!—
But Cheat-the-Devil here,—he would not hurt
Why—Kurt the Syndic—thrusting him in hell.
[Laughter.
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL [unhappily] No, no—I will not hurt him!
PIPER
[soothingly to him]
Merry, boy!
[To the townsfolk]
And,—if ye will have reasons, good,—ye see,—
I want—one thousand guilders. ”

“ PIPER,
Well, would you have a man take root, I ask?
BARBARA
That swallows swords. . . .
PIPER
Is he a comely man?
BARBARA
That swallows swords!—
PIPER
What's manlier to swallow?
Did he but swallow pancakes, were that praise?
Pancakes and sausage, like your Hamelin yokels?
He swallows fire and swords, I say, and more.
And yet this man hath for a whole noon-hour
Guarded you while you slept;—still as a dove,
Distant and kind as shadow; giant-strong
For his enchanted princess,—even you.
BARBARA
So you bewitched me, then.
PIPER [wildly] How do I know?
BARBARA
Where are the children? ”

“ And the Idiot, seeing, rose and sidled towards him, and said: “Poor Grah want pipe—bubble—bubble.” Then a light of childish cunning came into his eyes, and he touched the bullets blunderingly, and continued: “Plenty, plenty b’longs Grah—give poor Grah pipe—plenty, plenty, give you these.”
And Pretty Pierre after a moment replied: “So that’s it, Grah?—you’ve got bullets stowed away? Well, I must have them. It’s a one-sided game in which you get the tricks; but here’s the pipe, Idiot—my only pipe for your dribbling mouth—my last good comrade. ”

“ Like fire-flies! Will-o'-the-wisps!
And make believe we're hiding, all the way,
Till we come out into a sunny land,—
All vines and sunlight, yes, and men that sing!
Far, far away—forever.
[Gives ILSE a bowl to feed the other children]
[JAN pipes a measure of the Kinder-spell, brokenly. The PIPER turns.
So! Thou'lt be
My master, some day. Thou shalt pipe for me.
JAN [piping] Oh, wasn't that one beautiful?—Now you! ”

“ CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
No, growling,—growling dreary psalms
All on a sunny day! Behind the hedges,
I saw them go. They go from Hamelin, now;
And I know why!—
[The PIPER beckons him away from the Children.
The mayor's Barbara
Must go to Rudersheim, to be a Nun!
PIPER
To be a Nun!
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
A penance for them all.
She weeps; but she must go! All they, you see,
Are wroth against him.—He must give his child—
PIPER
A nun!
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
[nodding]
Forever!—She, who smiled at Michael.
Look you, she weeps! They are bad people all;—
Nothing like these. ”

“ Enter ANSELM the priest, with a little acolyte,—the two bearing a large illuminated Gospel-book. ANSELM, eyeing the PIPER gravely, opens the book, which the boy supports on his head and shoulders.
PIPER
Ho, 't is too heavy! Come, you cherub-head,
Here's too much laid upon one guardian angel!
[Beckons another small boy, and sets the book on their two backs.
Well?—well? What now?
[He looks in frank bewilderment at the eager crowd.
CROWD
Read, read!
KURT
He cannot read.
PIPER
[to ANSELM]
Turn—turn—there's nothing there.
[ANSELM turns pages. PIPER looks on blankly]
. . . ”

“ 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. ”

“ The habit of spitting on a coin, for instance, is very common, just as the schoolboy spits on his agate when playing marbles or on his baseball, or the bowler upon his wooden ball before rolling it. In fact, this whole matter of spitting has been in all ages an expression of a deep-rooted popular belief. Among the ancient Greeks and Romans the most common remedy against an envious look was [Pg 30] spitting, hence it was called "despuere malum." Old women would avert the evil eye from their children by spitting three times (observe the odd number) into their bosoms. ”

“ With such a fire it is no use attempting to light a pipe all at once. Your better course now is to drop little bits of paper into the likely places in the fire, and have a spill ready to apply to the one that lights first. It is an anxious moment, for they may merely shrivel up sullenly without catching fire, and in that case some men lose their tempers. Bad to lose your temper over your pipe—
No pipe really ever rivaled the briar in my affections, though I can recall a mad month when I fell in love with two little meerschaums, which I christened Romulus and Remus. ”

“ 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.] ”

“ When mischievously inclined pisky often leads benighted people a sad dance; like Will of the Wisp, he takes them over hedges and ditches, and sometimes round and round the same field, from which they in vain try to find their way home (although they can always see the path close at hand) , until they sit down and turn their stockings the wrong side out, as an old lady, born in the last century, whom I well knew, once told me she had done. To turn a pocket inside out has the same effect. But to quote the words of a late witty Cornish doctor, “Pisky led is often whiskey led.” ”

“ He lets down a water-jar into the well again. The nearness of the hell startles him. He becomes watchful as a wild creature. It sounds nearer and nearer. A woman's voice calls like the wind: 'Jan! Jan!'— The PIPER, tense and cautious, moves softly down into the shrubbery by the well. ”

“ I cald to minde the assertion of some Philosophers, who said the soule was nothing but bloud: then thought I, what a filthie thing were this, if I should let my soule fall and breake his necke into a bason. I had but a pimple rose with heate in that part of the veyne where they vse to pricke, and I fearfully misdeemed it was my soule searching for passage. Fie vppon it, a mans breath to bee let out a backe-doore, what a villanie it is? To dye bleeding is all one as if a man should dye pissing. Good drink makes good bloud, so that pisse is nothing but bloud vnder age. ”

“ Hearken.—You, Michael, on to Rudersheim—
MICHAEL
And leave her here? No, no!
PIPER
Then take the girl.
BARBARA
To Rudersheim? No, never, never!
PIPER
Well . . .
Hearken.—There is the hermit, over the hill.
[Apart, wildly]
But how—suppose she will not marry him?
I will not take her where the children are.
And yet—
[An idea strikes him. To her]
Hark, now;—hark, now, and tell me truly;
Can you spin cloth?
BARBARA [amazed] I? Spin?
PIPER [eagerly] Can you make shoes? ”

“ I get thinking sometimes if the Pied Piper is really dead, or if he may not still be roaming up and down our streets and lanes, but playing now so softly that only the children hear him. Why do the little faces look so grave and solemn when they pause awhile from romping, and stand, deep wrapt, with straining eyes? They only shake their curly heads and dart back laughing to their playmates when we question them. ”

“ Presently, calculating his moment with cold-blooded nicety, Worth touched the Spider on the arm.
"Have a drink?" he suggested good-naturedly. One may with impunity offer liquor to the wretch of the slums: to offer food, even when needed—or, rather, especially when needed—is to insult. ”

“ Let us give another the choice between the imitation and the real. The rightful pill and the cork ball are placed together on the floor of the jar. Will the Spider be able to know the one that belongs to her? The fool is incapable of doing so. She makes a wild rush and seizes haphazard at one time her property, at another my sham product. Whatever is first touched becomes a good capture and is forthwith hung up. ”

“ The proprietor and his two friends at once ceased speaking, and regarded the quartet of sailors with looks of suspicion and surprise.
"Where's that sleepy boy we saw in the cabin, and who ordered us into this devil's hold?" demanded Old Spicer. "Is he going to keep us waiting all night for our grog?"
The proprietor slowly arose to his feet.
"You want grog, do you?" he asked, drawing near their table.
"That's just what we want," answered Old Spicer, emphatically—"rum, mind ye, cap'n, genuine St. Croix rum."
"That's it, shipmate," exclaimed Rouse; "no belly-wash for us." ”

“ Constant spitting is a bad habit in other ways. The saliva is meant to help digest the food. If one gets into the senseless habit of spitting all the time, the saliva is wasted and the digestion hurt. Then, too, it is an uncleanly habit. It makes floors and sidewalks filthy, and people who have been well brought up always have a feeling of disgust when they see any one spit in public places. If one must spit, he should do so in private, where no one need be disgusted by his act. Certainly no one who has regard for decency would ever spit upon the floor of a market. ”

“ Piper, a person employed by an omnibus proprietor to act as a spy on the conductor.
Piper, a broken-winded hack horse.
Pipkin, the stomach,—properly, an earthen round-bottomed pot—Norwich.
Pips, the marks, no matter of what suit, on playing cards. The ace is often called “single PIP.”
Pit, a breast-pocket.
Pitch, a fixed locality where a patterer can hold forth to a gaping multitude for at least some few minutes continuously; “to do a PITCH in the drag,” to perform in the street. An itinerant is said to “make a PITCH” whenever he attempts to do any business.
Pitch, to utter base coin. ”

“ And the whisky was never made that could hurt a piper.” This, too, passed into a proverb—“As fou as a piper”—but however true it may have been in one generation it has nowadays no more than a figurative meaning. Pipers now are as much in the public eye as ever they were, but they are matter-of-fact people, who have their livings to make and their characters to uphold. They are therefore neither over proud, over jealous, nor over jolly. They have fitted themselves into nineteenth century circumstances, and do not care how much the public eye is upon them. ”

“ Three days of rest, your worships, you have had.
I see no signs of famine hereabout.
The rats are gone, even to the nethermost tail:
And I've fulfilled my bargain. Is it granted?
[Murmurs, then cheers of "Ay, Ay, PIPER!" from the crowd.
Thank 'ee.—My thousand guilders, an you please.
JACOBUS
One thou—Come, come! This was no sober bargain.—
No man in reason could—
PIPER
One thousand guilders.
KURT
One thousand rogueries!
JACOBUS [to PIPER] You jest too far.
AXEL
Lucky, if he get aught!—Two hundred traps,
And nine, and thirty! By Saint Willibald,
When was I paid? ”

“ Pip, simple soul, knew nothing and cared less about the gentle art of husband-hunting. He felt himself irresistibly drawn towards this young couple. He abandoned himself to sentimental sympathy, and drove his car or smoked his pipe with his eyes fixed resolutely before him, thinking of Elsie and wondering if his own turn would ever come.
One day, as they were returning from a long afternoon's spin, the car suddenly slowed down to a stop, and with the complete and maddening finality of its kind refused to move another inch. ”

“ Having filled his pipe, he put the surplus tobacco back again, as if his pocket were a drawer. Then, he took a live coal from the fire with the tongs, and lighted his pipe at it, and then turned round on the hearthrug with his back to the fire, and went through his favourite action of holding out both his hands for mine.
"And this," said he, dandling my hands up and down in his, as he puffed at his pipe; "and this is the gentleman what I made! The real genuine One! It does me good fur to look at you, Pip. All I stip'late, is, to stand by and look at you, dear boy!" ”

“ And then he sat down hastily, more disgusted than ever, and smote the air with his fist. "You'd think the nicest, quietest woman that ever lived was a wild beast, the way I act; yes sir, you would!"
Meantime the chance drew nearer. It was not a pleasant looking opportunity. Its eyes, full of dread and dreadful, peeped out from beneath a brush of matted hair; a tough, ropy foam hung from its mouth. If you put as much of that foam as would go on the point of a pin in an open cut, you would have an end that your worst enemy would shudder at. ”

“ If reason rule, pisé will make good and all will be well.
If pisé-building is attempted where the conditions are unsuitable and in defiance of its physical limitations, the misguided enthusiasts responsible must blame only themselves. But it is not self-reproach alone that they will have to suffer, for the author and all true friends of pisé will view their troubles with as much anger as sorrow.
Nothing could be so well calculated to bring discredit on a new movement as the failures of a few enthusiastic incompetents.
91
Sketch of a Pisé House in Course of Erection. ”