Page 10 - Green Butterfly 1
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“Don’t you know this is Hamelin town?” they said. “What of that?” said we. “Why, Hamelin town is where the Pied Piper came,” they told us; “surely you know about the Pied Piper?” “What about the Pied Piper?” we said. And this is what they told us about him.
It seems that once, long, long ago, that little town was dreadfully troubled with rats. The houses were full of them, the shops were full of them, the churches were full of them; they were everywhere. The people were all but eaten out of house and home. Those rats,
unit
They fought the dogs and killed the cats,
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks’ own ladles, Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men’s Sunday hats, And even spoiled the women’s chats By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats!
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