DEVIL
Why, it falls to-day.
I saw two herds of people going by,
To be there well aforetime, for the sight.
And she is going last of all, at noon;
All sparkling, like a Bride.--I heard them tell.

PIPER
No, never, never!--No, it shall not be!
Hist!--

[Steps heard scrambling down the entrance-way.
[Enter MICHAEL in mad haste. They rush upon him with exultation and
relief. He shakes them off, doggedly.

PIPER
So!--You had like to have hanged us.

MICHAEL
--What of that?

PIPER
All for a lily maiden.

MICHAEL
Ah,--thy pipe!
How will it save her?--_Save her_! Tune thy pipe
To compass that!--You do not know--

PIPER
I know.
Tell me no more.--I say it shall not be!
To heel, lad! No, I follow,--none but I!
Go,--go! [MICHAEL rushes out again.
[To CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, pointing to the Children]
Do you bide here and shepherd these.

CHILDREN
Where are you going?--Take us too!--us too!--
Oh, take us with you?--Take us!

PIPER
[distracted]
No, no, no!
You shall be kittens all. And chase your tails,
Till I come back!--So here!

[Catches HANSEL and affixes to his little jacket a long strip of leather
for a tail; then whirls him about.

CHILDREN
Me too!--Me too!

CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
Let me make tails,--let me!
[Seizing shears and leather.]

PIPER
[wildly]
Faith, and you shall.
A master tailor!--Come, here's food for thought.
Think all,--
[To the Strollers]
And hold your tongues, there!--
If a Cat--
If a Cat have--as all men say--Nine Lives,
And if Nine Tailors go to make a Man,
How long, then, shall it take one Man turned Tailor
To keep a Cat in Tails, until she die?
[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL looks subdued; the children whirl about.
But here's no game for Jan.--Stay! Something else.--
[He runs to a wooden coffer, rear, and takes out a long crystal on the
end of a string, with a glance at the shaft of sunlight from the roof.
The Children watch.

Be quiet, now.--Chase not your tails too far,
Till I come home again.

CHILDREN
Come home--come home!

PIPER
And you shall see my--

CHILDREN
Something Beautiful!
Oh, oh, what is it?--Oh, and will it play?
Will it play music?

PIPER
Yes.
[He hangs the crystal in the sun. A Rainbow strikes the wall.
--The best of all!

CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, JAN, CHILDREN
Oh, oh, how beautiful,--how beautiful!

PIPER
And hear it pipe and call, and dance, and sing.
Heja!--And hark you all. You have to mind--
The Rainbow!

[He climbs out