choosing who should speak, and we were each given a chance to vote, I
had the most ballots. Miss Smith told me I could recite anything I
chose, but to be sure it was 'good,' and that it was not 'beyond me.'
Well, this is n't 'beyond me.' I guess;" and she began:--

"Hamelin Town 's in Brunswick,
By famous Hanover City;
The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its walls on the southern side,--
A pleasanter spot you never spied.
But, when begins my ditty,
Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townfolk suffer so
With vermin was a pity."

For she had chosen Browning's "Pied Piper of Hamelin." That was surely
"good;" and if it was long, why, it was "so interesting." As she went
along she could almost see the rats as they "fought the dogs and killed
the cats." She could almost see the great Mayor tremble as the people
flocked to him and threatened to "send him packing" if he did n't find
some means to rid them of those awful rats. She could almost hear the
Pied Piper's voice as he offered to clear the town of the pests; and it
seemed to her she could hear the music of his pipe as he stepped into
the street and began to play, while the rats from every hole and cranny
followed him to the very banks of the Weser, where they were drowned in
the rolling tide.

It seemed awful that after promising the Piper those fifty thousand
guilders, the Mayor should break his word; and it certainly was
terrible, when the Piper found he had been duped, that he should again