StoryTitle("caps", "The Pied Piper of Hamelin") ?>
PoemStart() ?>
PagePoem(79, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Hamelin Town's in Brunswick,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "By famous Hanover city;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The river Weser, deep and wide,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Washes its wall on the southern side;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A pleasanter spot you never spied;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "But, when begins my ditty,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Almost five hundred years ago,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To see the townsfolk suffer so", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "From vermin, was a pity.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Rats!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They fought the dogs and killed the cats,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bit the babies in the cradles,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ate the cheeses out of the vats,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Split open the kegs of salted sprats,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And even spoiled the women's chats", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "By drowning their speaking", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "With shrieking and squeaking ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In fifty different sharps and flats.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At last the people in a body", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To the Town Hall came flocking:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\" 'T is clear,\" cried they, \"our Mayor's a noddy;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And as for our Corporation— shocking", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To think we buy gowns lined with ermine", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "For dolts that can't or won't determine", "") ?>
PagePoem(80, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What's best to rid us of our vermin! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You hope, because you're old and obese, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To find in the furry civic robe ease?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Rouse up, sirs! Give your brains a racking ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To find the remedy we're lacking,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing!\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At this the Mayor and Corporation ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quaked with a mighty consternation.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "An hour they sat in council;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "At length the Mayor broke silence: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "I wish I were a mile hence!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It's easy to bid one rack one's brain—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I'm sure my poor head aches again,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I've scratched it so, and all in vain. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Just as he said this what should hap ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "At the chamber door but a gentle tap? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Bless us,\" cried the Mayor, \"what 's that?\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(With the Corporation as he sat,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Looking little though wondrous fat; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Than a too-long-opened oyster,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For a plate of turtle green and glutinous) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Only a scraping of shoes on the mat? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Anything like the sound of a rat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!\" ", "") ?>
PagePoem(81, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Come in!\"—the Mayor cried, looking bigger ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And in did come the strangest figure!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His queer long coat from heel to head ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was half of yellow and half of red, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And he himself was tall and thin, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But lips where smiles went out and in; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was no guessing his kith and kin: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And nobody could enough admire ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The tall man and his quaint attire. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Quoth one: \"It's as my great-grandsire, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Had walked this way from his painted tombstone!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He advanced to the council table:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, \"Please your honors,\" said he, \"I'm able, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By means of a secret charm, to draw", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "All creatures living beneath the sun, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "That creep or swim or fly or run, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "After me so as you never saw!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I chiefly use my charm", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On creatures that do people harm,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The mole and toad and newt and viper;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And people call me the Pied Piper.\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(And here they noticed round his neck ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A scarf of red and yellow stripe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To match with his coat of the selfsame check; ", "") ?>
PagePoem(82, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And at the scarf's end hung a pipe;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if impatient to be playing", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Upon this pipe, as low it dangled ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Over his vesture so old-fangled.) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Yet,\" said he, \"poor piper as I am, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "In Tartary I freed the Cham,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " I eased in Asia the Nizam", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " Of a monstrous brood of vampire bats: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " And as for what your brain bewilders, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " If I can rid your town of rats", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Will you give me a thousand guilders?\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " One? fifty thousand!\"—was the exclamation ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Into the street the Piper stepped, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Smiling first a little smile,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if he knew what magic slept ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "In his quiet pipe the while; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Then, like a musical adept,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like a candle flame where salt is sprinkled; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You heard as if an army muttered;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the muttering grew to a grumbling;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. ", "") ?>
PagePoem(83, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Grave old plodders, gay young friskers,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " Families by tens and dozens, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Followed the Piper for their lives. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " From street to street he piped advancing, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " And step for step they followed dancing, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Until they came to the river Weser,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " Wherein all plunged and perished! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Swam across and lived to carry", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " (As he, the manuscript he cherished) ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " To Rat-land home his commentary: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Which was, \"At the first shrill notes of the pipe, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " I heard a sound as of scraping tripe,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And putting apples, wondrous ripe, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Into a cider press's gripe:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a moving away of pickle-tub boards, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a drawing the corks of train-oil flasks, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a breaking the hoops of butter casks: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And it seemed as if a voice", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " (Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " Is breathed) called out, 'O rats, rejoice!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The world is grown to one vast drysaltery!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, ", "") ?>
PagePoem(84, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!' ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And just as a bulky sugar puncheon, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All ready staved, like a great sun shone ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Glorious scarce an inch before me,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Just as methought it said: 'Come, bore me!'", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "—I found the Weser rolling o'er me.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You should have heard the Hamelin people ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Go,\" cried the Mayor, \"and get long poles, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Poke out the nests and block up the holes! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Consult with carpenters and builders,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And leave in our town not even a trace", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the rats!\"—when suddenly, up the face ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the Piper perked in the market place,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With a, \"First, if you please, my thousand guilders!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A thousand guilders! The Mayor looked blue; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So did the Corporation too.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For council dinners made rare havoc", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And half the money would replenish", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To pay this sum to a wandering fellow ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With a gypsy coat of red and yellow! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Beside,\" quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"Our business was done at the river's brink;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "We saw with our eyes the vermin sink,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And what's dead can't come to life, I think.", "") ?>
PagePoem(85, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "From the duty of giving you something for drink, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And a matter of money to put in your poke; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But as for the guilders, what we spoke", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Beside, our losses have made us thrifty.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A thousand guilders! Come, take fifty!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Piper's face fell, and he cried ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"No trifling! I can't wait, beside!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I've promised to visit by dinner time ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Bagdat, and accept the prime", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of the Head Cook's pottage, all he's rich in,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of a nest of scorpions no survivor", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With him I proved no bargain driver, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And folks who put me in a passion", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "May find me pipe after another fashion.\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"How?\" cried the Mayor, \"d' ye think I brook", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Being worse treated than a Cook? ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Insulted by a lazy ribald", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With idle pipe and vesture piebald?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Blow your pipe there till you burst!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Once more he stept into the street ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And to his lips again", "") ?>
PagePoem(86, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And ere he blew three notes (such sweet ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Soft notes as yet musician's cunning", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Never gave the enraptured air)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Little hands clapping and little tongues chattering. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, like fowls in a farmyard when barley is scattering, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Out came the children running.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All the little boys and girls,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The wonderful music with shouting and laughter.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Mayor was dumb, and the Council stood ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if they were changed into blocks of wood, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Unable to move a step, or cry", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To the children merrily skipping by,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "—Could only follow with the eye ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That joyous crowd at the Piper's back. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But how the Mayor was on the rack, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the wretched Council's bosoms beat, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As the Piper turned from the High Street ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To where the Weser rolled its waters", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Right in the way of their sons and daughters! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "However, he turned from south to west,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed, ", "") ?>
PagePoem(87, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And after him the children pressed; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Great was the joy in every breast.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2DQ", "", " \"He never can cross that mighty top! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He's forced to let the piping drop,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " And we shall see our children stop!\" ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A wondrous portal opened wide,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the Piper advanced and the children followed, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And when all were in to the very last,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The door in the mountain-side shut fast, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Did I say, all? No! One was lame,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", " And could not dance the whole of the way; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", " And in after years, if you would blame", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "His sadness, he was used to say,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"It's dull in our town since my playmates left! ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I can't forget that I'm bereft", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of all the pleasant sights they see, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Which the Piper also promised me, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Joining the town and just at hand,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where waters gushed, and fruit trees grew, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And flowers put forth a fairer hue,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And everything was strange and new;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And their dogs outran our fallow deer,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And honey-bees had lost their stings, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And horses were born with eagles' wings: ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And just as I became assured", "") ?>
PagePoem(88, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "My lame foot would be speedily cured, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The music stopped and I stood still, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And found myself outside the hill, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Left alone against my will,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To go now limping as before,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And never hear of that country more!\"", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Alas, alas for Hamelin!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "There came into many a burgher's pate ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "A text which says that heaven's gate ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Opes to the rich at as easy rate", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "As the needle's eye takes a camel in!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Mayor sent east, west, north, and south, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To offer the Piper, by word of mouth, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Whenever it was men's lot to find him, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Silver and gold to his heart's content,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If he'd only return the way he went, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "And bring the children behind him. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But when they saw 't was a lost endeavor, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And Piper and dancers were gone forever, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They made a decree that lawyers never", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Should think their records dated duly ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If, after the day of the month and year, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "These words did not as well appear, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0DQ", "", "\"And so long after what happened here ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the Twenty-second of July, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Thirteen hundred and seventy-six\": ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the better in memory to fix", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The place of the children's last retreat, ", "") ?>
PagePoem(89, "L0", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "They called it, the Pied Piper's Street—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Where any one playing on pipe or tabor ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Was sure for the future to lose his labor. ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "To shock with mirth a street so solemn; ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But opposite the place of the cavern ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "They wrote the story on a column, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And on the great church-window painted ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The same, to make the world acquainted ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How their children were stolen away, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And there it stands to this very day.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I must not omit to say", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That in Transylvania there's a tribe ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of alien people who ascribe", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The outlandish ways and dress", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On which their neighbors lay such stress, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To their fathers and mothers having risen ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Out of some subterraneous prison", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Into which they were trepanned ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Long time ago in a mighty band ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But how or why, they don't understand.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "So, Willy, let me and you be wipers", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of scores out with all men—especially pipers!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise!", "") ?>
PoemAttribution("85", SmallCapsText("—Robert Browning.")) ?>
PoemEnd() ?>