Part 17 (2/2)

I know not; and I care not!

[Apart]

Oh, it is true.--And he a sword-eater!

[The PIPER hauls up the jar, full of water.]

PIPER Michael, your cup.

[MICHAEL gives him a drinking-horn from his belt. The PIPER fills it with water, solemnly, and turns to BARBARA, who is at first defiant, then fascinated.

Maiden, your ears. So:--hearken.

Before you drink of this, is it your will Forever to be gone from Hamelin?

BARBARA I must,--I must.

PIPER Your mother?

BARBARA [piteously]

I have no mother; Nor any father, more. He gave me up.

PIPER That did he!--For a round one thousand guilders!

Weep not, I say. First, loose you, heart and shoes, From Hamelin. Put off now, the dust, the mould, The cobble-stones, the little prying windows; The streets that dream o' _What the Neighbors Say_.

Think you were never born there. Think some Breath Wakened you early--early on one morning, Deep in a Garden (but you knew not whose), Where voices of wild waters bubbling ran, Shaking down music from glad mountain-tops,-- Where the still peaks were burning in the dawn, Like fiery snow,--down into greenest valleys, That do off their blue mist only to show Some deeper blue, some haunt of violets.

No voice you heard, nothing you felt or saw, Save in your heart, the tumult of young birds, A nestful of wet wings and morning-cries, Throbbing for flight! . . .

Then,--for your Soul, new wakened, felt athirst, You turned to where that call of water led, Laughing for truth,--all truth and star-like laughter!

Beautiful water, that will never stay, But runs and laughs and sparkles in the heart, And sends live laughter trickling everywhere, And knows the thousand longings of the Earth!

And as you drank it then, so now, drink here;

[He reaches her the horn. She has listened, motionless, like a thing bewitched, her eyes fixed and wide, as if she were sleep-walking. She drinks. MICHAEL stands near, also motionless. When she speaks, it is in a younger voice, shy, sweet and full of wonder.

And tell me,--tell me, you,--what happened then?

What do you see?

BARBARA Ah!-- [She looks before her with wide, new eyes.]

PIPER Do you see--a--

BARBARA . . .Michael!

PIPER So!--And a good one. And you call him?

BARBARA . . . Michael.

PIPER So.--'Tis a world of wonders, by my faith!-- What is the fairest thing you see but--

BARBARA Michael.

PIPER And is he comely as a man should be?

And strong?--And wears good promise in his eyes, And keeps it with his heart and with his hands?

[She nods like a child]

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