The Piper - novelonlinefull.com
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[MICHAEL watches, with jealous wistfulness, from the road (left rear).--BARBARA half fearfully sits up, on the bank by the well.
BARBARA Not love? And yet . . . you do not want my pearls?
Then why--
PIPER For why should all be love or money?
Money! Oho,--that mouldy thousand guilders You think of!--But it was your Hamelin friends That loved the guilders, and not I.
BARBARA Then why-- Why did you steal me hence?
PIPER Why did yourself Long to be stolen?
BARBARA [shuddering]
Ah! to be shut up. . .
Forever,--young--alive!
PIPER Alive and singing; Young,--young;--and four thick walls and no more sun, No music, and no wandering, and no life!
Think you, I would not steal ail things alive Out of such doom?--How can I breathe and laugh While there are things in cages?--You are free; And you shall never more go back again.
BARBARA And you, who are you then?
PIPER How do _I_ know?
Moths in the Moon!--Ask me a thing in reason.
BARBARA And 't was not . . . that you loved me.
PIPER Loved thee? No!-- Save but along with squirrels, and bright fish, And bubbling water.
BARBARA Then where shall I go?
PIPER Oh, little bird,--is that your only song?
Go? Everywhere! Here be no walls, no hedges, No tolls, no taxes,--rats nor aldermen!
Go, say you? Round the world, and round again!
[Apart]
--Ah, she was Hamelin-born.
[He watches her]
But there's a man,-- Sky-true, sword-strong, and brave to look upon; One that would thrust his hand in dragon's mouth For your bright sake; one that would face the Devil, Would swallow fire--
BARBARA You would?
PIPER [desperately]
_I_?--No, not I!
Michael,--yon goodman Michael.
BARBARA [bitterly]
A stroller!---oh, nought but a wandering man.
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?
PIPER I'll not tell you that.
You are too much of Hamelin.
BARBARA You bewitched them!
PIPER Yes, so it seems. But how?--Upon my life, 'T is more than I know,--yes, a little more.
[Rapidly: half in earnest and half in whimsy]
Sometimes it works, and sometimes no. There are Some things upon my soul, I cannot do.
[Watching her.]
BARBARA [expectantly]
Not even with thy pipe?
PIPER Not even so.
Some are too hard.--Yet, yet, I love to try: And most, to try with all the hidden charms I have, that I have never counted through.
BARBARA [fascinated]
Where are they?
PIPER [touching his heart]
Here.
BARBARA What are they?
PIPER How do I know?
If I knew all, why should I care to live?
No, no! The game is What-Will-Happen-Next?
BARBARA And what will happen?
PIPER [tantalizingly]
