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 DRAMATIC READER 
 
 OF 
 MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 GARDNER 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PUBUSHING COMPANY 
 
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Class P N^ZJi 
 
 Book >& Z 
 
 Copyright W 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
DRAMATIC READER 
 
 THE LAND 
 OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 A WORLD 
 FOR LITTLE ACTORS 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY GARDNER 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 
 
^\\ 
 
 A' 
 
 
 Copyright, 191 i 
 
 BY 
 
 EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 
 7 
 
 5?CI.A29377i 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The Fairies of Caldon Low 
 
 The Story 9 
 
 The Play 14 
 
 The Birds of Killingworth 
 
 The Story 26 
 
 The Play 33 
 
 The Pied Piper of Hamelin 
 
 The Story . 51 
 
 The Play 60 
 
 The Bishop of Hatto 
 
 The Story 78 
 
 The Play . . 84 
 
 The Star Dollars 
 
 The Story 99 
 
 The Play 103 
 
 The Brown Dwarf of Rugen 
 
 The Story 109 
 
 The Play 115 
 
 The Miller of Dee 
 
 The Story 138 
 
 The Play 143 
 
 The Crow's Children 
 
 The Story .151 
 
 The Play 155 
 
 King Solomon and the Ants 
 
 The Story 161 
 
 - The Play ,,,,•... 164 
 
 3 
 
PREFACE 
 
 It IS not so long ago but that the youngest of our 
 pedagogues can remember when many teachers looked 
 askance at anything savoring of Dramatic Reproduction 
 in the school-room. 
 
 The excuses offered were the weakest of arguments 
 against it, reflecting more upon the teacher's limitations 
 than the proposed new work. 
 
 "My children get so beside themselves. The room is 
 so noisy. I have difficulty in quieting them. There is 
 so much regular work (God save the mark!) to cover, I 
 have no time for frills," and all the most liberal of critics 
 admitted was that she had no deep-rooted prejudice 
 against dramatic reproduction, but professed herself 
 ignorant of ''how to go about it." 
 
 At reproduction in narrative form, in which, too often, 
 pupils are allowed to "but against their ands" in an end- 
 less number of sentences that have no proper connection — 
 at reproduction with crayon, ink wash, scissors, or pencil, 
 the most conservative teacher did not start back; but 
 dramatic reproduction, the one form of reproduction 
 wholly natural to the child was a bird of quite another 
 and fearsome color. 
 
 " Dramatic Reproduction" — as it stands in the "grown- 
 ups" vocabulary — "Let's play, Let's make believe. 
 Let's pretend," as the child expresses it — has won its own 
 way by proving that, if once applied, it will cure many 
 of the worst ills to which the primary reading class is heir. 
 
 S 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 The mechanics may be and should be carefully taught, 
 but that by no means insures a child's being able to read. 
 He may have mastered Ward's excellent " Phonic Manual" 
 from cover to cover. He may amaze by his agility in the 
 word gymnastics and still be but little nearer attaining 
 the power to read. In a word, to interpret for his own 
 and others' pleasure, the thought he gains from the printed 
 page. 
 
 What do we require in a good reader? First, absence 
 of self- consciousness, else how can he enter into another's 
 thought? Second, sympathetic expression as shown in 
 the inflection, suited to bring out the shading of meaning. 
 
 What method more natural to bring about this de- 
 sired ability than the dramatic ? If he is the Pied Piper, 
 playing rats and children to their doom, how can he be 
 bashful, blundering Bennie ? If he is the irate farmer, 
 protesting against the thievery of the birds and crying for 
 their blood, how can he be the boy whose voice never got 
 much beyond his lips before ? 
 
 Admonitions to ''Open your mouth." ''Read a little 
 louder," "Speak more distinctly," "Raise your voice," 
 "Stand erect," "Hold your book properly," and the 
 like, never yet made a reader and never will. 
 
 Taking on the personality of another, as one must in 
 dramatic reproduction, has solved many a seemingly 
 hopeless problem of expression, inflection, voice, etc. 
 
 How would you go about it? The story part of this 
 little volume is like all other readers and may be treated 
 in the i ame way, as each individual teacher elects. 
 
 The dramatic part requires not only reading the part. 
 The child must saturate himself with his particular part. 
 In the case of simpler stories like Msop's Fables, where 
 
PREFACE 7 
 
 each little actor's part is shorter, the drama may be ab- 
 sorbed after a very few *' saturations, '* as one learns a 
 game after a few times playing it. 
 
 With the more difficult stories where each actor's part 
 is longer, the drama may be read and re-read, each one 
 taking his respective part, until after repeated readings 
 and silent study, each one has become so familiar with 
 his part, the story plays itself. 
 
 They tell us there is no Royal Road leading to the Multi- 
 plication Table, which statement our experience leads us 
 to think is true, but there should be a Royal Road to any- 
 thing that is so much a part of the child's life as reading, 
 and this — '^Dramatization "we believe is the name — writ 
 large on the sign post, pointing away from the older and 
 lower road of '^ Everlasting Grind" to the newer and upper 
 road — the King's Highway — leading the child back into a 
 Kingdom that has ever been his own, a kingdom from 
 which he is too often kidnapped by 'Xast-iron, Cut-and- 
 dried Methods" at war with both his needs and nature. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 THE FAIRIES OF CALDON LOW 
 The Story 
 
 Once there lived a little girl called Mary. One 
 summer afternoon her mother missed her, and though 
 she called her many times, and looked everywhere 
 for her little girl, Mary did not come home until the 
 sun was high in the sky the next day. 
 
 When her mother asked her where she had been 
 all this time, Mary said she had climbed to the top 
 of Caldon Hill. 
 
 Her mother wondered what there was to be seen 
 at the top of Caldon Hill, but Mary said she saw 
 the sunshine — the golden sunshine — come down, 
 and the merry winds play together. 
 
 Her mother asked her if she had not been lonely 
 in all those hours of darkness that she had spent on 
 Caldon Hill, but Mary said she heard so many things 
 that she did not feel alone at all. She heard the 
 drops of water as they were made, and heard the 
 ears of com filling. 
 
 All this sounded very strange to Mary's mother, 
 
lO THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 but she smiled at her little girl and said, '^ Since you 
 heard so much you must have seen much as well. 
 Perhaps you even saw the fairies.'' 
 
 ^^Oh, yes!" cried Mary, ^^ndeed I did! A 
 hundred fairies danced last night to the merry music 
 of nine harps!" 
 
 ^'What wonderful things my little girl has seen!" 
 said her mother. ^^Now you must tell me all that 
 happened to pay me for hunting and missing you all 
 through the long night. " 
 
 ^^Let me climb up into your lap, then, mother, and 
 I'll tell you what the fairies said. I'll tell you all the 
 wonderful things I heard." 
 
 So Mary's mother cuddled her little girl close in 
 her arms and Mary began: 
 
 ^'The fairies were all such busy little people. 
 Some played with the water-drops and rolled them 
 down the hill to turn the great wheel for the Miller. 
 They said there had been no water since the first of 
 May, so the poor miller could grind no wheat for the 
 farmers, but as soon as he saw the water in the morn- 
 ing what a busy man he would be. They laughed 
 to themselves to think how the Miller would laugh 
 till he cried when he saw the water rise and turn his 
 wheel once more. 
 
 " But this was not all the fairies did by half. Some 
 caught the little winds that were whistling over the 
 hill, and put them to their mouths, like horns, blowing 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE II 
 
 on them so sharp and shrill. With every blow of the 
 horn the winds went merrily down to where a poor 
 old blind woman Hved. 
 
 ^^She was very poor and raised com to make her 
 living, but this year the com had not grown well at all. 
 Mildew had come upon the stalks and kept them 
 from growing stiff and strong. The fairies sent the 
 winds to blow every speck of mildew from the corn. 
 
 ^^ Though the poor old woman's life was sad and 
 lonely she was merry enough the next morning, when 
 she found every stalk of her com perfectly clean of 
 mildew. But even this was not all the work the 
 fairies did, mother," said Mary cuddling closer. 
 
 '' Still not all they did ? What next ?" her mother 
 smiled. 
 
 '^From somewhere the fairies came with their 
 hands full of brown linseed and threw it all down 
 from the hills into one field that belonged to a poor 
 lame man, who made his living by spinning and 
 weaving for people. 
 
 '^The fairies laughed and shouted to each other, 
 as they threw the seed in handfuls, which they said 
 would be growing in the weaver's field by sunrise. 
 
 "The flax from which the poor old lame man 
 spun his thread had not been growing well at all. 
 It had been pretty dwindling and sickly for many 
 weeks. The weaver's laugh would be long and 
 loud when he saw his field full of flowers. 
 
12 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 "Then the funniest thing happened — so funny 
 that I laughed aloud and frightened every fairy oflf 
 the top of the hill in a twinkling. 
 
 '^ A Brownie, with long whiskers on his chin, spoke 
 up and said that he had spun all the tow he had into 
 a piece of cloth, but he wanted some more tow to 
 spin a little sheet for Mary and an apron for her 
 mother. Do you wonder I laughed?" cried Mary. 
 
 ''That funny, little fellow wanted to make a sheet 
 for my little bed and an apron for you, but I am 
 sorry that I laughed, for every fairy vanished. Not 
 one was left. I was all alone on the top of Caldon 
 Hill. 
 
 ''It was no longer pleasant up there, for the fog 
 rose so thick and cold and gray I could not see any- 
 thing but the stones covered with moss that lay close 
 about me, so I ran home as fast as I could. " 
 
 "You don't suppose you could have dreamed all 
 these wonderful things that the fairies did?" asked 
 Mary's mother, when the little girl's story was 
 finished. 
 
 "Oh, no, mother!" cried Mary. "I know it was 
 not all a dream, for as I came down the hill I heard 
 the jolly miller laugh, and saw his busy wheel go 
 merrily round. Then, too, I peeped into the poor 
 old blind woman's corn field, and saw the stalks of 
 corn, that had been covered with mildew, standing 
 stiff and green. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 3 
 
 (C 
 
 ^I even walked down past the weaver's field 
 before I came home, and, though I did not see the 
 flax high in his garden, I saw him standing at his 
 gate with such a happy look in his eyes. I knew 
 the fairy seeds were growing well. 
 
 "Now I have told you everything I saw and heard, 
 mother," said Mary^ "so will you tuck me away in 
 my little bed, for I am as tired and sleepy as I can be. " 
 
THE FAIRIES OF CALDON LOW 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis PersoTUK 
 Mary 
 
 Mary's Mother 
 The Mhler 
 The Blind Woman 
 Fairies 
 
 The Lame Weaver 
 The Brownie 
 
 Mary I never went as far from home as this 
 before. What will Mother think? But now I am 
 so near the top of the hill, I'll go on and see what 
 there is to be seen and hear what there is to be heard 
 up there. I must remember all I see and hear to 
 tell Mother, for I don't think she ever climbed as 
 high as this. Here I am at last all out of breath. 
 I wonder how our house will look from here. I have 
 often looked up here from our garden and wondered 
 how it would seem to be up so high. Now I know. 
 Oh, I did not know before that the beautiful golden 
 sunshine fell like rain on our little village. It is 
 falling on our house and garden this minute, a lovely, 
 shining shower, Hark! There's a sound I do not 
 14 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 5 
 
 know. It is like merry laughing and sweet singing, 
 like some one whistling, like some one tooting a horn 
 too. Let me listen a moment. Oh, now I know. 
 It is the merry winds at play. Listen! There's 
 another strange sound. Now what is that, I wonder ? 
 Like the babbling of laughing brooks. 
 
 Fairy You'll never be able to guess, for you are 
 a little Earth Child, aren't you? 
 
 Mary Yes, and I do beheve you are a fairy, 
 though I never saw one before; but you look just 
 as I'd expect a fairy to look. Are you ? 
 
 Fairy Yes, and there are a hundred more like 
 me, who will be here in a moment to dance upon the 
 grass in this beautiful silvery moonlight. Before 
 they come, I'll answer any questions you'd Hke to 
 ask about what you have seen or heard from this 
 very high place. 
 
 Mary I was trying to guess — just as you came 
 up — what that could be which sounded like the 
 babbling of laughing brooks. 
 
 Fairy Not far from here is the place where all 
 the drops of water are made for the valley your home 
 is in. That babbling noise you hear is the filling 
 of the drops. 
 
 Mary You'll have to tell me more, good fairy. 
 Since you have been talking, I have heard another 
 strange sound. What can that be? 
 
 Fairy What does it sound like to you? 
 
1 6 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Mary As much like the shelling of peas or beans 
 or corn as anything, though I see no garden near. 
 
 Fairy Not in sight, but not far from here is the 
 place where the ears of com are filled with big, fat 
 yellow kernels. It is a very nice job — this filling 
 the ears of corn — for each kernel must fit exactly 
 into its little white satin bed. 
 
 Mary Oh, Ksten, Ksten! Do you hear that 
 sweet, sweet music? It is so very soft it must be 
 far away. 
 
 Fairy But coming nearer all the time, for it is 
 the music of the nine harps to which the fairies are 
 to dance. 
 
 Mary Oh, see those dear little fairies over there ! 
 They seem as busy as bees in June. With what 
 are they playing ? Can you see ? 
 
 Fairy I know with what they are playing, but 
 let us walk over near them, so you can see for yourself. 
 
 Mary They are playing with waterdrops ! I can 
 hardly believe my eyes! And rolling them down 
 hill, as we would marbles. Why, I wonder? 
 
 Fairy Ask one of them. He'll be glad to tell 
 you. 
 
 Mary I see you are very busy, good fairies, but 
 I cannot see what you are doing. Will you tell me ? 
 Or don't you wish any of the Earth people to 
 know? 
 
 First Fairy It is no secret, little girl. We are 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 7 
 
 trying to help the good Miller out of his troubles. 
 There has been no rain since the first of May, so there 
 has been no water to turn the great wheel. 
 
 Mary And when the great wheel can not turn 
 the Miller can grind no wheat for the farmers. I 
 have heard my Father talking about it. 
 
 Second Fairy So we are rolling these waterdrops 
 down the hill to him. 
 
 Third Fairy When he sees the water rise in the 
 morning, what a busy man he'll be. 
 
 Mary And what a happy man, too, I guess. 
 
 Fourth Fairy How he will laugh when he sees 
 his great wheel turning once more! 
 
 Fifth Fairy Laugh? Indeed he will laugh till 
 he cries. Now, fairies, that is water enough. We 
 have done all we can for the Miller. Who else is 
 there that needs us? 
 
 First Fairy I could hardly wait to finish our 
 work for the Miller to tell you of that poor old blind 
 woman who raises com to make a living. 
 
 Second Fairy Is she ill ? 
 
 First Fairy No; but this year her com has not 
 done at all well. 
 
 Third Fairy Do you know what keeps it from 
 growing ? 
 
 First Fairy Mildew has come upon the stalks 
 and kept them from growing stiff and strong. It 
 must be taken off so the corn can grow. 
 
1 8 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Fourth Fairy What is the best way to take it oflf 
 without hurting the com, I wonder? 
 
 Fijth Fairy The wmd must do it for us. Not 
 a strong enough wind to break the com down, but a 
 wind that will whip the mildew from every stalk 
 and leave it perfectly clean. Then it will have a 
 chance to grow stiff and strong, as it should. 
 
 First Fairy These little winds that come whistling 
 over the hills are the very ones we want. Let us all 
 catch some of them. 
 
 Mary Oh ! Oh ! How that frightened me ! What 
 was it? So sharp and shrill! 
 
 Second Fairy Some of the fairies are putting 
 the winds to their lips and blowing them like horns. 
 Then they set the winds free and they go merrily 
 down to whip the mildew off from that poor old blind 
 woman's sickly com. 
 
 Second Fairy That poor old lady's life is so sad 
 and lonely! We fairies are all so sorry for her and 
 try to help her all we can. 
 
 Mary She'll be merry enough to-morrow moming, 
 I guess, when she finds every stalk with the thick 
 mildew, that kept it from growing, all gone. 
 
 Third Fairy Do any of you know of any one else 
 who needs help that we can give ? 
 
 Mary I know some one who has had a great deal 
 of trouble all summer, but I fear it would take too 
 long to help him. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 9 
 
 Fourth Fairy Tell us about him, little girl. You 
 know we fairies are able to do many things in a short 
 time that Earth people have to take a long time to do. 
 Whom do you know? Let us hear. 
 
 Mary Oh, I'll be so glad if you can do anything 
 for him. He is a poor lame man who makes his 
 living by spinning and weaving for people. He has 
 one large field in which he can raise all the flax he 
 needs for his thread, but for many weeks now the 
 flax has been dwindling and sickly. It has not been 
 doing well at all. Of course, if his flax does not grow 
 he has nothing of which to make thread for his weav- 
 ing. He has no other way to earn any money. 
 
 Second Fairy Oh, ho! Such an easy thing for 
 us to do. Gather handfuls of the brown linseed, 
 all you fairies, and throw it down into that field at 
 the left as fast as you can. More! More! fairies — 
 handfuls of it — until there is not room for another 
 seed ! 
 
 Mary But will it not take many weeks to grow 
 up and ripen? I am afraid the frost will come 
 before it does. 
 
 Third Fairy Ho! Ho! How little she knows 
 of the way we fairies do things. That seed will be 
 growing in the weaver's field before the sun is up 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Mary You don't know how happy the poor lame 
 weaver will be. His laugh will be louder than the 
 
20 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Miller's, for he is so poor. When his flax failed him 
 he had nothing left. 
 
 Fourth Fairy He'll see his field full of strong, 
 healthy plants in full blossom as soon as the sun is 
 up to-morrow, if that will make him happy. 
 
 Brownie I want some more ! I want some more ! 
 I have spun all I have, but it isn't enough. I want 
 some more ! 
 
 {Mary laughs aloud.) 
 
 Fifth Fairy Sh! Sh! If you laugh so loud 
 you'll frighten every fairy off the hill in a twinkling. 
 See them running now. The fairies are afraid of 
 Earth people. We did not know you were one 
 until you laughed. 
 
 Mary I am sorry, but who could help laughing 
 at such a funny little man with such long whiskers 
 on his chin? Of what does he want more, do you 
 suppose ? 
 
 Fifth Fairy What, is it you want. Brownie, and 
 what have you been spinning? 
 
 Brownie I need some more tow. I have spun 
 all I had into a piece of cloth, but I want some 
 more. 
 
 Sixth Fairy What are you going to do with all 
 that cloth. Brownie, if I give you more tow to spin ? 
 
 Brownie I mean to make a sheet for Mary's little 
 bed and a big white apron for her Mother. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 21 
 
 {Mary laughs louder than before. The last of the 
 fairies and the Brownie vanish.) 
 
 Mary Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I have frightened 
 them all away now. I am sorry I laughed, but how 
 could I help it at that funny little fellow? Fancy 
 his making a sheet for me and an apron for Mother. 
 Not a fairy is left. Everyone has gone and I am 
 alone on the top of the hill. I do not find it pleasant 
 up here any longer. I do not like to be alone with 
 no one to talk to, and the fog is rising so thick and 
 cold and gray that I can see nothing except the moss- 
 covered stones that lie very near me. There seems 
 nothing more for me to hear or see, so I'll run 
 home to Mother. Poor Mother! She has been 
 worr)dng, I fear, while I have been having so good 
 a time. 
 
 {Mary starts down hill,) 
 
 Hark! Who is laughing so merrily and — Listen! 
 There it is again. 
 
 (iiZ"a, ha! Ha, ha! is heard in the distance,) 
 
 Mary And what can that roaring be I hear? 
 Oh, now I know. The Miller is so happy over the 
 raindrops the fairies rolled down the hill to turn his 
 great mill wheel, and the roaring I hear is the busy 
 mill wheel as it goes merrily round, grinding the 
 farmer's wheat. Now I'll go round by the poor old 
 
22 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELll^VE 
 
 bKnd woman's cornfield, and see if the winds did 
 their work for her as well as the waterdrops did theirs 
 for the Miller. Yes, to be sure they have, for there 
 stand the very same cornstalks that were covered 
 with mildew only last night, now stiff and green as 
 any com need to be. How happy she must be! 
 I'll go on down past the lame weaver's field. I hope 
 he has fared as well as the Miller and the blind 
 woman, for he needs help even more than they. Oh, 
 the fence is too high for me to see into his field! 
 Now I'll not know whether his flax is growing or not. 
 But — look! Wlio is that, leaning on the gate ? The 
 weaver himself, I do believe. It is the weaver him- 
 self. Though I do not know him well enough to 
 ask about his flax, I'll walk past and I can tell by the 
 way he looks whether the seeds the fairies planted 
 are doing well or no. I never before saw so happy 
 a look in his eyes. He'd not look like that if his seeds 
 were not doing well. Here I am at home once more. 
 It seems as if I had been away a long time. There 
 is Mother at the gate now watching for me. She 
 has been worrying too, I fear. 
 
 Mother Mary, child, where have you been since 
 yesterday afternoon? Don't you know Father and 
 Mother were worried almost to death about you? 
 We feared some harm had befallen our little girl, 
 when it grew dark, and still you did not come. As 
 soon as I missed you, I called you over and over 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 23 
 
 again. Then when Father came home we looked 
 every place we could think of for you. We were 
 hunting you nearly all night and did not sleep a 
 wink. Don't ever stay away so long again, Mary. 
 Now tell Mother where you have been all this 
 time. 
 
 Mary I climbed to the top of Caldon Hill, Mother, 
 and I am sorry I made you and Father worry so 
 much about me. I was having so good a time, I 
 forgot to come home — forgot it was growing 
 late and forgot you would be wondering why I 
 did not come. I'm so sorry, Mother. Will you 
 forgive me? Indeed I did not mean to hurt you 
 and Father so. 
 
 Mother That is Mother's good little girl — my 
 own Mary. I know you will never do it again. 
 But tell Mother what there was to be seen at the 
 top of the hill that made you forget to come home 
 to us, even when it grew dark. I should think 
 Mother's little girl would have been lonely all those 
 long hours, when it was dark. Were you not afraid, 
 all alone, on the top of that high hill? 
 
 Mary Oh, Mother! You hear so many things 
 up there that you do not hear down here. Listening 
 to all those strange sounds kept me from being lonely. 
 I did not feel as if I were alone a moment. 
 
 Mother Has Mother never heard any of these 
 sounds? May Mother hear about them? 
 
24 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Mary Did you ever hear the little drops of water 
 being made, Mother? 
 
 {Mother smiles and shakes her head.) 
 
 Mary I did, and I heard them filling the ears of 
 corn with kernels. 
 
 Mother What a strange sound that must have 
 been! Since you heard much you must have seen 
 much as well. Perhaps my little girl even saw the 
 fairies. 
 
 Mary Oh, yes! Indeed I did, a hundred fairies. 
 
 Mother As many as that? 
 
 Mary A hundred fairies danced last night on 
 the green grass in the moonlight to the sweetest 
 music I ever heard — played on nine harps. 
 
 Mother What wonderful things my little girl 
 has seen! Now, begin at the beginning and tell 
 Mother everything that happened to pay me for 
 hunting and missing you all through the long night. 
 
 Mary Then let me climb into your lap, Mother. 
 Cuddle your Mary close in your arms. 
 
 Mother Mother loves to hold her little girl so. 
 Now we are ready for your story. 
 
 Mary Oh, Mother, I am so tired and sleepy I 
 can't keep my eyes open. I want to tell you every- 
 thing I saw and heard, but I can't hold my head up. 
 
 Mother Of course you can't, Mother's tired 
 little girl. You shall save it all to tell when Father 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 2$ 
 
 comes home to-night. He will want to hear about 
 all these wonderful things you saw, too. Mother 
 will tuck you away in your little white bed and there 
 you may sleep as long as you wish. 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 
 The Story 
 
 The spring of the year had come in the little town 
 of Killingworth. The birds were building their 
 nests, singing as they worked, songs that God had 
 taught them. 
 
 The buds on the branches were swelling and the 
 little streams were running down the hillside, laughing 
 and singing on their way. 
 
 The robin and blue-bird were down in the 
 orchards, singing their merriest tunes. 
 
 The sparrows chirped the only song they knew. 
 
 The hungry crows were off by themselves — a 
 great crowd of them — cawing every minute for 
 something to eat. 
 
 The farmers were out in the fields ploughing and 
 getting the earth ready to plant their crops. They 
 did not welcome the birds as we do, for they thought 
 them the most dreadful of thieves. 
 
 Robins and blue-birds like cherries and strawberries 
 
 \ far too well. 
 
 \ The crows helped themselves to the corn as soon 
 
 as it was planted. 
 
 The farmers were afraid their crops would be 
 26 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE: 27 
 
 spoiled by the birds, so they called a meeting of all 
 the men to decide what was best to do. 
 
 Most of the farmers thought the only thing to do 
 was to offer to pay so much for every dead bird 
 brought them. They had tried to frighten the birds 
 away with scare-crows, but the saucy things perched 
 on his shoulders and even his tattered coat, flapping 
 in the wind, did not alarm them. 
 
 All the town were on their way to this meeting 
 where they should decide what was best to be done 
 with the birds. 
 
 First came the Judge, who lived in the big white 
 house with the red roof and the great pillars. The 
 Judge walked slowly down the street to the new 
 Town Hall, where the meeting was to be held. 
 
 Next came the minister, who cut off the poor daisies' 
 heads with his swinging cane, as he came down the 
 lane. 
 
 He was a good man, I have no doubt, but he was 
 not gentle-hearted. 
 
 He thought it fine sport to kill the beautiful deer 
 that bounded through the woods. There was not 
 enough love in his heart for either man or beast. 
 
 Then, from the school-house on the hill came the 
 teacher, watching the soft, white clouds as he walked 
 on, thinking of many things. 
 
 After the teacher came the Deacon, dressed, as he 
 always was, in a suit of black, with the whitest of 
 
28 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 neckties. The Deacon went slowly, for he was a 
 very large, heavy man. 
 
 The people of the village thought there never was 
 anyone so wise as the Deacon, and that he might 
 never be forgotten they had named a street in town 
 after him. 
 
 All these men of whom I have told you, with the 
 farmers from the country round, came together in 
 the new Town Hall. 
 
 The Judge sat upon the platform and led the meet- 
 ing. Many people spoke, telling what they thought 
 should be done to the birds. 
 
 It seemed as if the birds did not have a friend in all 
 that crowd. 
 
 They all talked as if they were bitter enemies of 
 the poor little birds. 
 
 Man after man got up and told of the dreadful 
 things the birds did. 
 
 When they had all said their say the teacher stood 
 upon his feet to tell what he thought. He trembled 
 and was half afraid to talk before all these people, 
 but he knew what he had to say was the right thing 
 to say, so he spoke out in a clear strong voice. 
 
 He made up his mind that they should neither 
 laugh nor frown him down. 
 
 ^^If you kill the sweet singers of the woods," he 
 began, ''you will be like a wicked king who once 
 drove all of the poets from his kingdom. When 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 29 
 
 people are troubled and sad the birds make sweet 
 music for us, as David, the shepherd boy, once did 
 for Saul, a great king. 
 
 ^^Have you the heart," he asked them, "to kill 
 the thrush who sings from the top of the tallest pine- 
 tree, as soon as it is light ? 
 
 "Or the oriole who swings his nest in the elm-tree ? 
 
 "Or the blue- jay who chatters noisily as he eats? 
 
 "Or the dainty little blue-bird who balances on the 
 top-most branch and fills the neighborhood with 
 sweetest music ? 
 
 "Or the linnet? 
 
 "Or the meadow-lark? 
 
 "Or any that live in nests and have been taught 
 to sing by God Himself? 
 
 "Why are you killing them?" he cried. 
 
 "To save a handful of wheat or rye or barley, that 
 they might scratch up with their busy feet, as they 
 hunt worms after a rain?" 
 
 "To save a few cherries that are not half so sweet 
 as the songs the birds sing, while they feast on them ? 
 
 "Do you never think," asked the teacher, "what 
 wonderful little creatures birds are? 
 
 "Do you never think who made them and who 
 taught them the songs they sing, sweeter than any 
 music we can make? 
 
 "Do you never think of their little homes in the 
 tree-tops as half-way houses on the road to Heaven ? 
 
30 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 ^^ Every morning when the sun peeps through the 
 leaf curtains of the woods, the birds are so happy 
 because another day has followed the dark night, and 
 they can sing again. 
 
 ^' Would you like to think of your woods and or- 
 chards without birds? With none but empty nests 
 in the trees? 
 
 ^^Will the bleating of the sheep and the mooing 
 of the cows make up for the songs you used to hear, 
 when the birds followed the teams home to your 
 doors ? 
 
 ^^ Would you rather hear the insects buzzing in the 
 hay? Is the grasshopper's squeaky voice pleasanter 
 in your ears than the meadow-lark's sweetest songs ? 
 
 ^' You call the birds thieves and say they steal from 
 you all your crops. I tell you the birds are the best 
 policemen you could have on your farms. If they 
 did not kill and eat and drive away grubs and harmful 
 insects all your crops would be destroyed. 
 
 '^Even the crow, that you think the blackest thief 
 of all, crushes the beetle, the slug and the snail that 
 would eat every green thing in your garden. 
 
 "How can I teach your children to be gentle, to 
 help the weak, to love life which God gives, when 
 they know you think it right to do so cruel a thing as 
 this?" 
 
 When the teacher finished speaking, the farmers 
 laughed and nodded, whispering among themselves. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 3 1 
 
 The teacher's pleading for the birds did no good. 
 They decided to kill all the birds and even pay the 
 price for every dead crow brought to the Town Hall. 
 Then came sad and dreadful days when, in the fields 
 and orchards the poor little feathered things fell 
 dead with the blood-stains on their pretty breasts. 
 Some were hurt cruelly, but not killed. 
 
 These crept away out of sight to sufifer and at last 
 to die. Many young birds in the nests whose father 
 and mother were killed, starved to death, for there 
 was no one to bring them food. 
 
 When the hot days of summer came all the birds 
 were dead. 
 
 Down in the orchards hundreds of caterpillars 
 ate the leaves on the trees. In the fields and gardens 
 insects crawled about, eating their fill, until not a 
 green thing was anywhere to be seen. 
 
 Now the birds were gone, there was no one to stop 
 all these bugs and insects that do so much harm to 
 trees and gardens. 
 
 The trees along the streets were so eaten up that 
 the worms often dropped down upon some woman's 
 bonnet or gown, who shook them off with a scream. 
 
 The farmers soon saw that killing the birds had 
 been a very great mistake. They changed the law, 
 but that did little good, for it could not bring the 
 dead birds back to life. 
 
 They could do nothing that fall, but be sorry that 
 
32 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 they had ever thought so cruel a thing was right. 
 The next spring it was ordered that birds should be 
 brought from all the country round in little wicker 
 cages. 
 
 Then a great wagon was trimmed with evergreen 
 branches, on which were hung these wicker cages 
 full of singing birds. 
 
 Down the street came the wagon with its strange 
 load, and then, by order of the Mayor the door of 
 every cage was opened, setting free the little prisoners, 
 who flew at once to the woods or fields or orchard. 
 Each chose the place he loved the best. 
 
 As the birds went, they sang so loudly it seemed 
 as if their little throats would burst. 
 
 Those who hved that day in Killingworth said 
 that sweeter music had never been heard. 
 
 From that day to this, the sunny farms and orchards 
 of Killingworth have been full of singing birds. 
 
THE BIRDS OF KILLINGWORTH 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Persons 
 Schoolmaster 
 Almira 
 Farmers 
 
 Group of Women 
 Mayor 
 Judge 
 Minister 
 Deacon 
 
 Scene I 
 {Schoolmaster and Almira^ walking together.) 
 
 Schoolmaster The spring of the year has come 
 again to our little town of EjUingworth. 
 
 Almira And isn't it a beautiful time of year, when 
 we can watch the birds, building their nests, singing 
 as they work? 
 
 Schoolmaster Why are the birds' songs so much 
 sweeter than any we are able to learn, I wonder? 
 
 Almira Because God taught them the songs they 
 sing, I think. See how the buds on the trees are 
 swelling. They grow larger almost while you watch 
 them. 
 
 33 
 
34 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Schoolmaster And listen ! How the brooks laugh 
 and sing as they run down the hill. Let us walk 
 towards the orchard. We'll find the robins and 
 bluebirds down there, singing their merriest tunes. 
 
 Almira Even the poor little sparrows are trying 
 their best to sing in this great bird chorus. Hear 
 them! Chirping the only song they know. 
 
 Schoolmaster I believe crows must be hungry 
 all the time. See! that great crowd of them off by 
 themselves, cawing every moment for something to eat. 
 
 Almira There are some of the farmers in the 
 fields. Let us go over and have a chat with them. 
 
 Schoolmaster We must not keep them talking 
 long, for their busy time has begun. This is the 
 time to plough and get the earth ready to plant their 
 crops. 
 
 Almira Good afternoon, Farmer Hill. 
 
 {Farmer Hill takes off his hat.) 
 
 Farmer Good Day to you. Miss Almira. It does 
 my old ears good to hear your voice once more. 
 (Bows to Schoolmaster.) 
 
 Almira It is good of you to say that, Farmer Hill, 
 but there are sweeter voices than mine to be heard 
 to-day. We have been taking a long walk, just to 
 Hsten to the birds and see all the tender green things. 
 
 Farmer The tender green things look good to 
 farmers' eyes, too, but the song of birds is not as sweet 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 35 
 
 in our ears as in yours. We do not welcome the 
 birds as you do. 
 
 Schoolmaster But what would a spring be without 
 the birds? 
 
 Farmer We'd have more cherries and strawberries 
 if we had no robins and bluebirds, for the birds like 
 them far too well, and take all they can eat, without 
 so much as saying, ^'By your leave!" We farmers 
 think the birds are the most dreadful thieves we 
 have to look out for. The crows are even worse 
 than the robins and bluebirds — for they help them- 
 selves to the com as soon as it is planted. We farmers 
 had so much stolen last year that we were afraid all 
 our crops would be spoiled. So we have called a 
 meeting at the Town Hall for to-night. All the 
 farmers and townspeople are coming. I suppose 
 you will be there? 
 
 (Schoolmaster nods assent.) 
 
 We shall decide then what is best to do. 
 
 Almira What do you think can be done ? 
 
 Farmer Most of the farmers think there is only 
 one thing to do. 
 
 Schoolmaster And that? 
 
 Farmer Offer to pay so much, a few cents, per- 
 haps, for every dead bird brought to the Town Hall. 
 
 Almira Oh! Horrible! Horrible! What a cruel 
 thing even to think of doing. 
 
36 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Schoolmaster It will not be a good thing for our 
 children — pay them for doing what they have been 
 taught is very wrong to do. 
 
 Farmer It seems as if we had tried every other 
 way we could think of. We have put scare-crows 
 up in the fields to frighten the birds, the most dreadful 
 looking things, too — terrible enough to scare people. 
 
 Almira And weren't the birds afraid of them ? 
 
 Farmer Afraid of them? The saucy things 
 perched on the scare-crows' shoulder. Even his 
 tattered coat, flapping in the wind, did not frighten 
 them. 
 
 Schoolmaster We must not stay longer, for we 
 are keeping you from your work. Good afternoon. 
 
 Almira Good afternoon. Farmer Hill. 
 
 Farmer Good-by, and come again when you are 
 out for a walk. I'll see you at the meeting to-night, 
 I hope. We need all the men we can get, to help us 
 decide how to protect our crops against the thieving 
 birds. 
 
 Schoolmaster I'll come to your meeting, but I'll 
 tell you before hand that I am on the birds' side. 
 
 Farmer Very well, but I am afraid you'll stand 
 alone. 
 
 {All three cry ''Good-hy!^' again,) 
 
 {Almira and Schoolmaster walk off. Farmer Hill 
 
 goes home.) 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 37 
 
 Scene II 
 
 Time: Evening of same day. 
 
 Place: Street corner near Town Hall. 
 
 (Group of women standing on street corner watching 
 
 men walking on other side, on their way to the 
 
 Town Hall.) 
 
 First Woman Where can all these men be going 
 to-night ? 
 
 Second Woman Don't you remember ? A meeting 
 was called in the Town Hall to decide how to keep the 
 birds from stealing everything the farmers can raise. 
 
 Third Woman Oh, to be sure! It looks as if 
 all the men in town were going to be there. 
 
 Fourth Womun And all the farmers from all the 
 country round, from the number of horses tied in 
 front of the Town Hall. 
 
 Fifth Woman How slowly the Judge walks down 
 the street. 
 
 Sixth Woman Where does the Judge live ? 
 
 First Woman In that big white house, with the 
 red roof and the great pillars. 
 
 Second Woman Here comes the Minister down 
 the lane. 
 
 Third Woman He is cutting off all the poor 
 daisies' heads with his swinging cane. 
 
38 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Fourth Woman I suppose he is a very good man, 
 but he is not at all gentle-hearted, as it seems a min- 
 ister ought to be. 
 
 Fijth Woman If he were as gentle-hearted as 
 some, he'd not think it such fine sport, every Fall, to 
 kill the beautiful deer that bound through our woods. 
 
 First Woman I don't think he has love enough 
 in his heart for either man or beast. 
 
 Second Woman The Schoolmaster is going, too. 
 He has just come out of the school-house and started 
 down the hill. 
 
 Third Woman There's a man who would not 
 cut off even the heads of the daisies. He loves them 
 too well. 
 
 Fourth Woman I believe he is watching the clouds 
 now, as he walks. How soft and white they are, 
 to be sure. 
 
 Fifth Woman The Deacon will be late if he does 
 not hurry. 
 
 Sixth Woman Then he'll have to be late, for he 
 is too large and heavy to walk any faster than he 
 always does. 
 
 First Woman Did you ever see the Deacon 
 dressed in anything but a suit of black, with the 
 whitest of neckties? 
 
 Second Woman, Never — since the day the street 
 by the church was named for him. Before that he 
 did not dress in a black suit, except Sundays. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 39 
 
 Third Woman Why was a street named for him ? 
 Is he so very rich ? Or so very good ? 
 
 Fourth Woman The people of the village think 
 there never was any one so wise as the Deacon. They 
 do not wish the children who are growing up to 
 forget him, so they called a street by his name. 
 
 Fijth Woman. The men have all gone into the 
 meeting now. There isn't another one in sight. 
 
 Sixth Woman Yes, we have seen all there is to 
 see. We might as well go home. 
 
 {All walk off, separating as each comes to her own 
 
 house.) 
 
 Scene III 
 
 Time: Directly jollowing the close 0} last scene. 
 Place: Inside of Town Hall, 
 
 (Judge on platform leads meeting,) 
 
 Judge This meeting will please come to order, 
 gentlemen. Fellow citizens, we have met here to- 
 night to hear reports as to the harm the birds do our 
 crops every year, and to decide upon some way to 
 protect ourselves from these thieves, who steal from 
 us every day — from May till September. The 
 meeting is now open to any one who wishes to speak. 
 
40 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 First Farmer Mr. Chairman, my corn is no 
 sooner in the ground than whole flocks of hungry 
 crows swoop down and eat their fill. They leave 
 very little seed to come up. The most hideous scare- 
 crows I can make do not keep them away for more 
 than a few hours. Crows are sharp enough to find 
 out very soon that the scarecrows are not alive, and 
 can do them no harm. Then the saucy things perch 
 on the scarecrow's shoulders, cawing for something 
 more to eat. Of com alone I lose more than half 
 my crop because of these noisy thieves. 
 
 Second Farmer The blackbirds are quite as bad 
 as the crows. I, too, have tried scarecrows, and one 
 day found the birds had been bold enough to build 
 their nest in the breast of his tattered coat. 
 
 Third Farmer The crows and blackbirds are no 
 worse than the robins, bluebirds and dozens of other 
 birds. Nor is com the only thing they steal. They 
 scratch up my wheat and rye and barley almost as 
 fast as I can sow it. 
 
 Fourth Farmer You remember the cherries from 
 my trees are much talked of and called for in the city 
 market. 
 
 Someone Indeed we do remember your cherries! 
 
 Another There are none finer to be had on any 
 tree in any orchard. 
 
 Fourth Farmer So the robins have found, and 
 so I was not able to send more than a third of what 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 4! 
 
 I usually ship to the city. The robins even built 
 their nests in the tree that had the finest and sweetest 
 cherries, so they could feast at their own doorway. 
 What they did not eat they spoiled for any one else 
 by taking a bite and leaving it to decay. 
 
 Fifth Farmer I do not raise cherries for market, 
 but you may have heard of my strawberries. 
 
 Someone. Indeed we have, and eaten them, too. 
 
 One The largest and sweetest I ever tasted. 
 
 One Delicious ! 
 
 Fijth Farmer The robins like my strawberries 
 quite as well as Farmer Brown's cherries, and help 
 themselves quite as freely. Though they can't nest 
 in my strawberry vines, they seem to spend most of 
 their time there feasting on my berries from morning 
 till night. Between what they eat and what they 
 spoil I can not fill more than half my orders from the 
 city. 
 
 Judge You have heard several reports of the 
 harm the birds do our crops. There is no question 
 but what they are the worst kind of thieves, stealing 
 openly and before our very eyes, crops that we'd 
 quickly arrest and jail men and boys for taking. 
 I do not know why we should suffer the birds to steal 
 on and go unpunished. I do not know why we 
 should lose a large part of our crops each year and 
 do nothing to stop it. The question for us to decide 
 is — What shall we do ? 
 
42 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Sixth Farmer There is but one way to stop 
 them and that is, to kill them. 
 
 Seventh Farmer Offer a bounty for birds' heads, 
 as we do for wolves' pelts. 
 
 Eighth Farmer Two cents for every dead bird 
 brought to the Town Hall would soon help our 
 crops. 
 
 Ninth Farmer Put that in the paper, and I promise 
 you there'll be more to take to market this summer. 
 
 Tenth Farmer And more money in our pockets, 
 too, for the birds pay nothing for all they take. 
 
 Schoolmaster I am not so sure of that. I am 
 half afraid to speak before all you people, but the 
 poor birds do not seem to have a friend in all this 
 Hall but me. You have all talked as if you were 
 the bitter enemies of the poor little things. You 
 have told of all the dreadful things the birds do, but 
 you have not told one good thing they do. Are there 
 not some good things to be said of them? Surely 
 the birds are not all bad. You have all had your 
 say. Now, listen to me, for I know the thing I have 
 to say is the right thing to be said. Laugh at me, 
 frown on me, if you will, but listen to me, you shall. 
 
 Judge Go on, Mr. Schoolmaster. I am sure 
 we are always glad to hear from one who is so good 
 a friend to our children. 
 
 Schoolmaster If you carry out your wicked plan, 
 and kill these sweet singers of the woods, you will 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 43 
 
 be like an evil king who once drove all the poets 
 from his kingdom. The birds are our poets and 
 make sweetest music for us when we are troubled 
 and sad. So David, the shepherd boy, once did for 
 Saul, a great king. As soon as it is light the thrushes 
 sing from the top of the tallest pine tree. Have you 
 the heart to kill the little singers ? Think of all you 
 mean to kill. The oriole, who swings his nest in the 
 elm tree ; the blue- jay , who chatters noisily as he eats ; 
 the bluebird, who balances on the topmost bough 
 and fills the neighborhood with sweetest music; the 
 linnet, the meadow-lark; all these and many more, 
 who have been taught to sing by God himself, you 
 would kill. 
 
 And why are you killing them? To save a 
 handful of wheat or rye or barley, that they 
 scratch up with their busy feet as they hunt for worms. 
 The few cherries you would save are not half as sweet 
 as the songs the robins sing while they feast on them. 
 Think, I beg of you, what wonderful creatures birds 
 are! Remember, I pray you, who made them, who 
 taught them the songs they sing, songs so much 
 sweeter than any we can sing. Think of their little 
 homes in the tree-tops like half-way houses on the 
 road to Heaven. If only we could be as happy as 
 the birds are every morning when the sun peeps 
 through the leafy curtains of the woods. Another day 
 has followed the dark night and they can sing again. 
 
44 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Would you like to think of your woods and 
 orchards without birds? Would you like to see 
 none but empty nests in the tree-tops? Will the 
 bleating of sheep and the mooing of cows make up 
 for the songs you used to hear? Would you rather 
 hear the insects buzzing in the hay? Is the grass- 
 hopper's squeaky voice pleasanter in your ears than 
 the meadow-lark's sweet roundelay? You have 
 called all the birds thieves and say they steal your 
 crops. I tell you there are no better policemen to be 
 had on the farm than these same birds. They kill 
 and eat and drive away grubs and harmful insects 
 that would destroy all your crops. The beetle, the 
 slug and the snail would not leave a green thing in 
 your garden, did not the crow, whom you call the 
 blackest of thieves, crush them to death. 
 
 What do you expect me to teach your children ? To 
 be gentle ? To help the weak ? To love life because 
 God gives it ? How can I, when they know you think 
 it right to do so cruel a thing as this ? I can say no 
 more. I thank you for listening. 
 
 {Farmers laugh and whisper among themselves, 
 nudging each other. Then) 
 
 One Sounds well. 
 
 Second Farmer The schoolmaster raises no crops. 
 Third Farmer He does not earn his living that 
 way. If he did, he'd talk very differently. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 45 
 
 Fourth Farmer Then he'd think as we do, that 
 we must protect our crops. 
 
 Fijth Farmer And that there is only one way 
 to do it. 
 
 J^4dge The question of killing the birds to protect 
 our crops has been fully discussed. Those in favor 
 of killing the birds, vote by rising. 
 
 {All but schoolmaster stand.) 
 
 Judge It is carried. The birds shall be killed. 
 
 Sixth Farmer On which birds shall we set a price ? 
 
 Judge The crows, anyway, we'll pay a bounty for. 
 
 Seventh Farmer And kill all the others we catch 
 at their old tricks of thieving. 
 
 Judge If there is no other business before the 
 meeting we are dismissed. 
 
 {All walk out.) 
 
 Scene IV 
 Time: Late in same summer. 
 
 {Almira and Schoolmaster out walking.) 
 
 Schoolmaster This is the same walk we took that 
 beautiful Spring day, when they decided to do 
 that cruel thing, kill the birds. 
 
 Almira Sad and dreadful days have passed since 
 then. 
 
46 THE LAND OL MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Schoolmaster In the fields and orchards where 
 they sang so gaily that day, they lie dead now. See! 
 here is one now under the cherry tree with the blood 
 stains still fresh on his pretty breast. 
 
 Almira At least he suffers no more. Some, I know, 
 were hurt cruelly, but not killed. What do you 
 suppose became of such? 
 
 Schoolmaster Poor little things ! They crept away 
 somewhere out of sight, to suffer and at last to die. 
 
 Almira I have tried to feed as many young birds 
 left orphans in their nest as I could, but I found a 
 nest yesterday with four little ones in it, starved to 
 death. Father and mother had been numbered 
 with the dead and there was none to bring them 
 food. 
 
 Schoolmaster How the poor little things must 
 have wondered and watched and waited when the 
 father and mother bird came no more. 
 
 Almira I have not seen a Uve bird for days. They 
 must all be dead. These hot days of summer seem 
 more unendurable without their sweet music. 
 
 Schoolmaster Have you noticed the trees in the 
 orchards? The hundreds of caterpillars have eaten 
 the leaves until the branches are almost as bare as 
 in winter. 
 
 Almira There is not a green thing to be seen in 
 the gardens, for the insects have crawled about over 
 everything, eating their fill 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 47 
 
 Schoolmaster Now the birds are gone. There 
 is no one to stop these bugs and insects that do so 
 much harm to trees and gardens. The people will 
 see now, perhaps, how much good the birds did in 
 return for the little they took. 
 
 {A scream is heard.) 
 
 Almira Hark! What was that? 
 
 Schoolmaster A woman's scream! That woman 
 across the street. 
 
 Almira Did something hurt her? 
 
 Schoolmaster Oh, now I see what frightened her! 
 She just shook off a worm from her bonnet. The 
 trees are so eaten up by worms they must often drop 
 down on the passers-by and it happened to fall on her. 
 
 {They meet Farmer Hill.) 
 
 Almira Good afternoon, Farmer Hill. We were 
 just looking at your orchards and garden and think- 
 ing they did not look as thrifty, now the birds are dead, 
 as they did when the birds were alive. 
 
 Schoolmaster It was a mistake, wasn't it, killing 
 the birds ? For now bugs and insects have their way 
 and they destroy much more than the birds. 
 
 Farmer Hill Yes, we farmers all see now that 
 killing the birds was one of the greatest and saddest 
 mistakes we ever made. We really had not known 
 how many bugs and insects the birds destroyed. 
 
48 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Bugs and insects that destroy every green thing that 
 grows. We have changed the law and we do not 
 pay for dead birds any more and have also forbidden 
 the shooting of any birds. 
 
 Schoolmaster Changing the law does very little 
 good after all, for it will never bring the dead birds 
 back to life. 
 
 Farmer Hill We can do nothing this fall. 
 
 Almira But be sorry you thought so cruel a thing 
 was right. 
 
 Farmer Hill Next Spring we mean to do some- 
 thing. 
 
 Schoolmaster What is your plan? 
 
 Farmer Hill Ah! That is to be a surprise to 
 all Killingworth next May Day. It will be a day 
 and a night long to be remembered, I hope. 
 
 Almira It's a long while to wait, Farmer Hill. 
 
 Schoolmaster But we'll try to be patient. We 
 must be turning towards home now, for the sun is 
 low in the sky. 
 
 Farmer Hill Good-by, then, to you both. When 
 you come this way again I hope my garden and 
 orchards will be better worth looking at. 
 
 {Schoolmaster and Almira go one way, Farmer Hill 
 
 another.) 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 49 
 
 Scene V 
 
 Time: The next spring. 
 Place: Streets of Killingworth, 
 
 (Townspeople in streets, talking excitedly,) 
 
 First Woman Which way shall we look for them ? 
 
 Secmtd Woman From which direction are they 
 coming ? 
 
 First Man They are coming from the next town 
 to the South, so they will have to come along this 
 road. 
 
 Third Woman How did they ever get so many 
 birds together? 
 
 Second Man A month ago the Mayor of Killing- 
 worth ordered that birds should be brought from 
 all the country round. He had all the birds brought 
 to the next town South of us, so it might be a secret 
 from the Killingworth people until today, when he 
 means to give us this beautiful surprise. 
 
 Fourth Woman Oh, look! There they are now! 
 
 Fifth Woman Yes, here they come. 
 
 Sixth Woman What a great wagon it is and all 
 trimmed with evergreen branches. 
 
 Seventh Woman See all the little wicker cages! 
 Dozens and dozens of them hung on the branches. 
 
 Eighth Woman And every cage full of singing 
 birds. How good it seems to hear them once more ! 
 
50 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Third Man The wagon will go down this street 
 until it reaches the Town Hall. 
 
 Ninth Woman It's almost there now with its 
 strange load. 
 
 Tenth Woman The Mayor is speaking from the 
 steps of the Town Hall. I wish we could hear what 
 he is saying. 
 
 Fourth Man Sh! Hark! Listen! We can hear. 
 
 Mayor Open the door of every cage. Set all the 
 little prisoners free. 
 
 Eleventh Woman Oh, see them go! How glad 
 they are to spread their wings again ! 
 
 Twelfth Woman Some are flying at once to the 
 wood. 
 
 Thirteenth Woman And some to the fields and 
 orchards. I suppose each one will choose the place 
 he loves the best. 
 
 Fourteenth Woman Hark! Hear them sing! It 
 seems as if their little throats must burst. 
 
 Fifteenth Woinan In all my life I have never 
 heard sweeter music than today. 
 
 Sixteenth Woman Hush ! The Mayor is speaking 
 again. 
 
 Mayor None of us, I hope, will soon forget this 
 day, and as long as there is a Killingworth may our 
 sunny farms and orchards ever be full of singing 
 birds! 
 
F. p. 51 
 
 THE PIED PIPER 
 
THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 
 The Story 
 
 This story is about a little town in Germany, far 
 across the sea. All that I am going to tell you hap- 
 pened long years ago. Wherever you went in that 
 little town you climbed hills. 
 
 All the hills led up — up — up to a big mountain. 
 
 No roof was steeper than the side of this mountain. 
 At the foot of the mountain a broad river ran slowly 
 on its way to the sea. 
 
 A long time ago the people of this little town were 
 greatly troubled with rats. 
 
 The town was full of great, big, dreadful rats. 
 There were more rats than people in the town. 
 
 These rats were the boldest things you ever saw. 
 They were afraid of nothing and even fought the 
 dogs the people set upon them. Every cat who tried 
 to catch them they easily killed. Even the poor 
 little babies, sleeping in their cradles, were bitten 
 by these terrible rats. They lived on the best of 
 fare. Whole cheeses disappeared from the vats 
 where they were made. 
 
 Cooks screamed for help when the rats jumped 
 up and licked the soup from the ladles, as they stirred 
 
 51 
 
52 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 it in the kettles. They were so strong that several 
 of them, working together, split open kegs that held 
 salt fish they liked. 
 
 Ladies gave up their parties, because the squealing 
 of the rats was louder than the women's voices, as 
 they tried to visit. The rats were growing in wonder 
 and boldness every day. If something was not done 
 very soon, the people could not stay in the town. 
 
 They would be driven out of their homes by the 
 rats. So all the people went together to the Town 
 Hall to see the Mayor. They told him that they 
 didn't think he, nor those who helped him, knew 
 very much, or they would think of some way to make 
 short work of the rats. 
 
 The people thought they paid the Mayor and his 
 men a good salary for taking care of the town. 
 
 They wanted to know if this was the best they 
 could do. If they couldn't think of some plan to 
 get rid of the rats very soon, the Mayor nor none of 
 his men should be paid any more money. More than 
 that they would drive the Mayor and his men out of 
 town. When the people had said this they all 
 marched out of the Town Hall and left the poor 
 Mayor and his men to think what could be done. 
 
 They didn't know what to do any more than the 
 people did, but they must find a way or be sent 
 packing. So the Mayor sat with his head in his 
 hands, thinking harder than he ever had before in 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 53 
 
 his life. Just then a gentle tap at the door made 
 the Mayor's heart go pitty-pat, because he thought 
 every sound he heard meant more rats. But this 
 noise was only some one scraping his shoes on the 
 mat outside, so the Mayor called to him to come in. 
 
 The strangest visitor you ever saw opened the door. 
 The Mayor had never seen any one so tall and thin. 
 His eyes were blue as the sky and bright as steel, 
 but so small they looked like pin-points. 
 
 The smiles came and went about his lips like 
 flashes of sunlight. The gentlest breeze lifted the 
 light hair that lay loosely about his shoulders. 
 
 But the coat this strange fellow wore made the 
 Mayor open his eyes the widest of all. The long 
 queer cut coat that covered him from his heels to his 
 head was half red and half yellow. Round his neck 
 was a scarf that matched this odd coat. At the end 
 of the scarf hung something like a flute. 
 
 They noticed the man's fingers were straying up 
 and down the flute all the time as though he would 
 like to be playing on it. 
 
 The stranger spoke first, for the Mayor was so 
 astonished he could no nothing but stare at his queer 
 visitor. He said he had heard that the town was over- 
 run with rats. The Mayor nodded sadly that it was. 
 
 The man with the flute offered to rid the town of 
 every rat, as he had other towns of ants and bats 
 and other things that made trouble. 
 
54 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 The Mayor jumped to his feet and asked a dozen 
 questions at once. Who he was? Where he came 
 from? How he was going to do it? And many 
 others, for the Mayor was much excited. 
 
 The stranger said that men called him the Pied 
 Piper, and that he was able to make all things that 
 creep or swim or fly or run follow wherever he chose 
 to lead. He asked the Mayor if he would give him 
 one hundred dollars for clearing the town of rats. 
 
 The Mayor was willing to promise anything — 
 even five thousand dollars — although he did not 
 believe the man could make the rats follow him. 
 Five thousand dollars, even, would be cheap for 
 ridding the town of such a pest, and so the bargain 
 was closed. 
 
 The Piper stepped into the street, smiling a little 
 to himself. He put the flute to his lips and played 
 a strange shrill tune, like nothing any one had heard 
 before. As he played, he walked from street to 
 street, and out of every house and store he passed, 
 the rats came tumbling. 
 
 Big rats and little rats, fat rats and thin ones. 
 Rats that were brown and rats that were black. Rats 
 so old they were gray. Rats that hobbled and rats 
 that frisked gaily along. 
 
 The whole Rat family — fathers, mothers, uncles, 
 cousins, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives — fol- 
 lowed that strange Piper wherever he went. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 55 
 
 He led them up one street and down another, 
 until they came to the bank of the river. Then at 
 the water's very edge the Piper stepped quickly aside 
 and all those rats tumbled head over heels down 
 the bank into the river. 
 
 All but one of those hundreds and hundreds of 
 rats were drowned. Just one old rat was saved, 
 because he was so big and fat he could not sink, so 
 he swam across to the other side of the river and ran 
 as if for his life. He never stopped, until he was 
 miles and miles away from Hamelin Town. 
 
 Many years after the fat old rat came back and 
 told other rats why he and all the Rat family followed 
 the Piper wherever he led them. 
 
 He said that the first sound of the flute made all 
 the rats think they heard the scraping of fish and the 
 pressing of juicy apples for cider. 
 
 As the Piper played on they thought they heard 
 pickle jars uncovered and fruit cans opened. And, 
 as the strange tune went on, they were sure they 
 heard corks drawn from oil casks and butter tubs 
 broken open. 
 
 The flute seemed a voice, whispering in their ears, 
 '^Be glad, O, Rats! There will always be plenty 
 to eat after this. You will never be hungry again. 
 So come, munch your big dinner, and crunch your 
 fine supper and fill yourself full at your luncheon." 
 
 Just as the food seemed near enough to taste, the 
 
56 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 cold waters of the river rolled over the old rat, and 
 only because he was too fat to sink, did he ever live 
 to tell what the flute said to him. 
 
 As soon as all the rats were drowned, the bands 
 played their liveliest tunes and the people rang the bells 
 so hard they rocked the steeples. Cannons were 
 fired and great bonfires were built to celebrate the 
 freeing of the town from rats. 
 
 Suddenly the Piper came to the Mayor, as he 
 stood in the crowded market place, and asked for his 
 hundred dollars. The Mayor and his men looked 
 blue, for that seemed a good deal to pay, now the rats 
 were gone. 
 
 The Mayor knew the dead rats could not come to 
 life, so had no notion of keeping his promise to the 
 Piper. The Mayor blustered that the talk about 
 a hundred dollars was all a joke. 
 
 He offered the Piper something to eat and drink — 
 even a little money — but a hundred dollars for play- 
 ing a little tune like that was indeed a huge joke. 
 The Piper's face grew very stern. He said he did 
 not enjoy that kind of joking. He was in a hurry 
 as he had to be in another city by night, so once more 
 he asked the Mayor for his hundred dollars that he 
 might start on his way. But the Mayor shook his 
 head angrily and said not one dollar would he give the 
 Piper for his music. 
 
 The strange fellow said that this was the last chance 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 57 
 
 the Mayor should have to keep his promise, and, 
 if he did not, the Piper would play another tune, 
 the one he always played when people did not treat 
 him fairly. 
 
 This threw the Mayor into a great rage, and he 
 dared the Piper to do his worst, to play till his old 
 flute burst, for all he cared. Did he think to frighten 
 the Mayor of Hamelin Town? 
 
 Again the Piper put his flute to his lips and began 
 to play another tune, not at all like the tune he played 
 to call the rats. It was soft as the gentlest breeze in 
 summer. It was sweet as the song of birds. It was 
 so strange a tune no words could tell what it was like. 
 
 The Piper had hardly begun to play, when merry 
 crowds of children ran to where he stood and followed 
 after him as he started down the street. The small 
 feet of the Kttle ones pattered along in time with 
 the music. 
 
 The wooden shoes some wore made a great clatter- 
 ing, as they hurried on after the others. Some little 
 hands were clapping for joy. Many busy tongues 
 were chattering like the squirrels in the tree-tops. 
 
 The children gathered about the Piper Kke hens 
 in the farmyard about one who scatters the grain. 
 
 Some had cheeks as red as roses and curls as yellow 
 as gold. Some had eyes as blue as violets and as 
 bright as diamonds. Some had teeth Kke snow- 
 white pearls. 
 
58 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Every child in town was in the train that skipped 
 and tripped and ran merrily after this wonderful 
 music. How they shouted and laughed as they 
 followed the Piper wherever he led them. 
 
 The Mayor and his men stood as if turned to 
 stone. The same music that set the children's feet 
 dancing, chained the feet of the grown-up ones to the 
 ground. 
 
 Not one step could the Mayor, or the fathers and 
 mothers move to bring their children back. 
 
 As they watched, the Piper turned towards the 
 river, and they held their breath for fear their children 
 were to follow the rats into the deep waters; but, 
 no — the Piper turned again towards the mountain. 
 
 Now their joy was great, because they knew neither 
 Piper nor children could ever climb over the top of 
 that high hill, so they hoped very soon to see the 
 little ones stop. 
 
 But when the Piper and his train reached the 
 mountain-side, a wonderful door swung wide open 
 and let him in — the children close at his heels. 
 When the last little one had gone in, the wonderful 
 door swung shut, and neither Piper nor children 
 were ever seen again. 
 
 Not a child was left in the town — all had followed 
 the Piper save one who was lame. He was not able 
 to keep up with the others, so did not reach the 
 mountain, until the wonderful door had closed. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 59 
 
 As long as this little fellow lived, he was always 
 very sad. The town seemed so dull to him, with all 
 his playmates gone. If you asked him why he tried 
 to follow the Piper that day he would tell you what 
 beautiful things the music of the flute promised to 
 all who would come. 
 
 It sang of a land not far away where the ripest 
 and juiciest of fruits grew. Flowers of wonderful 
 colors blossomed in the garden. The sparrows 
 there were bright as peacocks here, and the dogs in 
 that land ran more swiftly than our fleetest deer. 
 
 None need fear the honey bees, for they had no 
 stings. The horses had wings as strong and swift 
 as the eagles. 
 
 The music was sweetest of all to the little lame boy, 
 when it whispered that he would be able to run and 
 play like other boys. But his lame foot carried 
 him too slowly. 
 
 The music stopped as the wonderful door in the 
 mountain side closed, before he could reach there, 
 and he was left alone, the only child in Hamelin 
 Town. 
 
 The Piper's flute was never heard again up and 
 down the streets. The wonderful door in the moun- 
 tain has never opened from that day to this. 
 
 The children never came back to their homes. 
 
 All because of the Mayor's broken promise to the 
 Piper. 
 
THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personoe 
 Traveller 
 Man He Meets 
 Townspeople 
 Pied Piper 
 Mayor and His Men 
 Children 
 Lame Boy 
 Rats 
 
 Scene I 
 
 Traveller How many miles I am from home. I 
 have travelled for many weeks and now I find my- 
 self in this little town of Germany. Hamelin, it is 
 called. {Looks about.) It seems to be a pretty place 
 and I'd like to see more of it — but wherever one goes 
 — one must climb a hill. All the streets seem 
 to lead up to that big mountain. I never saw any 
 roof steeper than the side of that mountain. How 
 slowly the river runs at the foot of the mountain. 
 It seems in no hurry to reach the sea. Here comes 
 some one who lives in the town. I'U tell him what 
 
 a pretty place I think it is and perhaps he will stop 
 60 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 6 1 
 
 and talk to me for a moment. {The two meet.) 
 What a pretty spot you have for your home. 
 
 Man It is a pretty town — to be sure — and 
 all the people who live here love it dearly, but we 
 are afraid that we may have to leave it. 
 
 Traveller And why should you have to leave it? 
 Is there not enough work to be had here ? 
 
 Man Plenty. More than we can do. 
 
 Traveller Then what can it be that would drive 
 you from so pleasant a home? 
 
 Man Rats! We are in great trouble because of 
 the rats — and do not know what to do. 
 
 Traveller Rats? So many as to drive you from 
 the town? 
 
 Man If we can't find some way to kill or drive 
 them away, for the town is full of great, big, dreadful 
 rats. There are more of them than there are people 
 in this town of ours. 
 
 Traveller Where are all your cats and dogs? 
 What are they doing to let the rats run wild ? 
 
 Man These rats are the boldest things I ever 
 saw. They even fight the dogs we set upon them, 
 and they have killed every cat that tried to catch them. 
 
 Traveller Dreadful! And do they come into 
 your houses ? 
 
 Man Indeed they do. Even the poor little 
 babies — sleeping in their cradles — have been bitten 
 by the terrible things. 
 
62 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Traveller How can you keep them out of the 
 pantries ? I should think they'd get into the food. 
 
 Man Get into it? They carry much of it right 
 off. Whole cheeses, big ones too, have been taken 
 from the factory where they were made. One 
 cook was almost frightened to death, when two great 
 rats jumped up and licked the ladle with which she 
 was stirring the soup. She screamed so you could 
 hear her a block away. 
 
 Traveller I never heard anything like it in my 
 life. How strong they must be ! 
 
 Man Strong enough to split open kegs that held 
 salt fish they liked. Several rats must have worked 
 together to do it. 
 
 Traveller How they must frighten the women and 
 children. Some women are even afraid of a little 
 mouse. 
 
 Man The ladies have given up altogether the 
 pleasant little parties they used to have, for they 
 cannot hear themselves above the squealing of the rats. 
 
 Traveller And they grow no less in number? 
 
 Man More and more all the time, and bolder and 
 bigger too. Unless something is done very soon we 
 cannot stay in the town. It is pretty hard to be 
 driven from your home and city by rats. 
 
 Traveller I never would be driven away by them, 
 
 Man But what would you do? 
 
 Traveller Drive them away to be sure. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 63 
 
 Man Yes, but how? That is what we have 
 been trying to do for weeks. 
 
 Traveller It is your Mayor's business and the 
 men who help him — to find a way to free the city 
 of them. Why do you have a Mayor if it is not to 
 keep the city as it should be? Get all of the men 
 of the town together. Go to the Town Hall and tell 
 your Mayor he must do something 
 
 Man I believe you are right. If the town were 
 overrun with thieves, we would expect the Mayor 
 and police to rid the town of them. Why not rats 
 as well? Come. Help me get all the men together 
 at once. Let us lose no time. {The two men go 
 off together.) 
 
 Scene II 
 Place: Mayor's office. 
 
 (Mayor and Men seated at table) 
 
 Mayor (to townsmen who enter room) Good- 
 morning, gentlemen. What can I do for you? 
 
 First Man We have come to ask you and your 
 men to rid our town of this pest of rats. 
 
 Mayor We? What can we do more than you 
 to drive them out ? 
 
 First Man We elected you to take care of the 
 town. That is your business. Is this the best you 
 
64 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 can do? That is what we want to know. We do 
 not think you know your business very well if 
 you cannot find a way at once to make short work 
 of the rats. 
 
 Mayor But, gentlemen, if I knew any way, or 
 could think of any, the rats would have been driven 
 out long ago. You must know that. 
 
 First Man This we know — that unless you 
 do think of some plan very soon that will rid our 
 town of this pest — neither you nor your men shall 
 be paid another cent of our money. 
 
 Mayor But, my good man — What do — 
 
 Man More than that, if you do not drive the 
 rats away we mean to drive you and every one of 
 your men out of the town. 
 
 Mayor But wait! What can — 
 
 First Man Now, that we have said our say, we 
 will leave you to think what can be done. 
 
 {Townspeople all march out, leaving Mayor and his 
 men much perplexed) 
 
 Mayor Do any of you know what we are to do ? 
 
 First Man How should we, any more than those 
 men? 
 
 Mayor But they mean what they say. They will 
 keep their word if we don't find a way. 
 
 Second Man Yes, we must find a way or they 
 will send us packing — that is sure. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 65 
 
 Mayor But what? But how? {Buries his face 
 in his hands ^ sits perfectly still thinking — hears 
 gentle rap at door — speaks in startled tone,) What's 
 that? I am afraid to say, ^^Come in," for it 
 only means more trouble for us. Either more dread- 
 ful things the rats have done or else more men to tell 
 us what we must do. 
 
 {Another gentle rap — scraping of shoes on mat.) 
 Mayor (at last calls) Come in ! 
 
 (Stranger enters and as Mayor stares in astonish- 
 ment at stranger — men comment among themselves 
 an strangefs appearance.) 
 
 First Man The tallest, thinnest man I ever saw. 
 
 Second Man His eyes are as blue as summer 
 skies and as bright as steel. 
 
 Third Man But so small they look like pin 
 points. 
 
 Fourth Man Watch the smiles come and go 
 about his lips. They are like flashes of sunlight. 
 
 Fifth Man There seems to be no breeze in the 
 room — does there? And yet something lifts his 
 light hair, as it hangs about his shoulders. 
 
 Sixth Man The coat, men — the coat he wears. 
 Did you ever see a queerer one? 
 
 Seventh Man Or a longer one, from his head to 
 his heels? 
 
66 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIE\nE 
 
 First Man Do my eyes see aright ? Is it half 
 red and half yellow ? 
 
 Second Man The same as the scarf that is tied 
 about his neck. 
 
 Third Man That seems to be a flute that hangs 
 at the end of his gay scarf. 
 
 Fourth Man See how his fingers stray up and 
 down his flute all the time. 
 
 Fifth Man As if he'd like to be playing on it. 
 But — listen ! The queer fellow is speaking to the 
 Mayor at last. 
 
 Piper They tell me your town is overrun with rats. 
 
 Mayor (nods sadly) What you heard is all too 
 true, Stranger. But why have you come to tell 
 us what we already know only too well ? 
 
 Piper I have rid other towns of rats and bats 
 and ants and all those things which make trouble 
 in a place. I can rid your city of every rat in it — 
 many as there are. 
 
 Mayor (springs to his feet — asks excitedly) Who 
 are you? From where did you come? How are 
 you going to do it ? What is your plan ? For how 
 much will you do it ? When can you begin ? How 
 soon can you begin ? Can you do it at once ? 
 
 Piper Listen, a moment, Your Honor, and V\\ 
 tell you all you wish to know. Men call me the 
 Pied Piper. I am able to make all things that 
 creep or swim, or fly or run, follow me wherever I 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 67 
 
 choose to lead them. If you will pay me one 
 hundred dollars I'll promise to clean your town of 
 rats. 
 
 Mayor A hundred dollars! What is that to be 
 rid of the rats? I am willing to give you almost 
 anything. Five thousand, if you do it, though I 
 do not believe you can do what you promise. I 
 do not believe all those hundreds of rats will follow 
 you. 
 
 Piper Five thousand, did you say, Your Honor? 
 
 Mayor Five thousand was what I said, and even 
 that will be a cheap price to pay for getting rid of 
 such a pest as we have had for weeks. 
 
 Piper It is a bargain then. 
 
 Mayor The five thousand shall be yours the 
 moment the town is rid of every rat in it. 
 
 {Piper steps to door and passes into street^ play- 
 ing shrill tune on his flute. Mayor and his meUy all 
 townspeople rush into street to watch,) 
 
 First Man Look! Look! The rats are surely 
 following — as he said they would. 
 
 Second Man See them! Tumbling out of those 
 houses. 
 
 Third Man And watch them scurry out of those 
 stores. 
 
 Fourth Man It must be his strange music that 
 calls them. 
 
68 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Fifth Man I never knew before that rats liked 
 music. What do you suppose the music sounds 
 like in their ears? 
 
 Sixth Man At the rate they are following it 
 must sound like the scraping of good salt fish — and 
 the pressing of juicy apples for cider. 
 
 Seventh Man No doubt to some the music sounds 
 like the uncovering of pickle jars and fruit cans being 
 opened. 
 
 Eighth Man Or corks drawn from oil casks and 
 butter tubs broken open. 
 
 Ninth Man Perhaps the music sings to them 
 that there will always be plenty to eat after this and 
 that they'll never be hungry again. 
 
 Tenth Man They are running now as though 
 the music bade them munch their big dinner and 
 crunch their fine supper and fill themselves full at 
 their luncheon. 
 
 First Man Did you ever see so many rats ? 
 More coming all the time. 
 
 Second Man All kinds of rats — big ones and 
 little ones, fat ones and thin ones. 
 
 Third Man And so many different colors. Some 
 are brown and some are as black as a coal. The 
 gray ones must be the old ones. 
 
 Fourth Man Yes, some are so old they hobble, 
 while the young ones frisk gaily along. 
 
 Fijth Man That strange piper has the whole 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 69 
 
 Rat Family at his heels — fathers, mothers, uncles, 
 cousins, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives. 
 
 Sixth Man He has been up or down every street 
 in town. Now where will he take them, I wonder? 
 
 Seventh Man To the river! To the bank of 
 the river! He means to drown them of course. 
 
 Eighth Man Yes, see! He has stepped quickly 
 aside when he has gotten them to the water's edge. 
 
 People {shout) Over they go! Every one of them! 
 Down the bank into the river! Hurrah! Hurrah! 
 
 Ninth Man Now the rats are all drowned. At 
 last our town is rid of its pest. Our homes are so we 
 can live in them again. 
 
 Tenth Man Let us have the bands play their 
 liveliest tunes. {Some march about room, drumming 
 and singing to imitate hand.) 
 
 First Man Ring the bells in all the steeples! 
 {Several imitate ding dong of hells,) 
 
 Second Man Louder! Louder! Ring them so 
 hard the steeples rock. 
 
 Third Man Fire the cannon! {Several imitate 
 boom! hoomi oj cannon,) 
 
 Fourth Man Come! Let us build bonfires as 
 high as the houses. We can't do too much to cele- 
 brate the drowning of those dreadful rats. 
 
 Piper {comes up to Mayor and his men — stand- 
 ing together in crowded street) I have kept my prom- 
 ise, Your Honor, and I have come for my hundred 
 
70 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 dollars. I'll not ask the five thousand you prom- 
 ised, because you thought the rats would not 
 follow me. 
 
 {Mayor and men look dubiously at each other,) 
 
 Mayor (to men) It seems a good deal to pay, 
 now the rats are gone. 
 
 First Man The rats are dead. They cannot 
 come back if we do not pay him. 
 
 Second Man Don't pay him. Tell him the hun- 
 dred dollars was a joke. 
 
 Mayor Ha! Ha! So you thought I meant that 
 little joke about the hundred dollars, did you ? Oh, 
 no! That was a joke of mine. Very funny you be- 
 lieved it, wasn't it ? (All laugh loudly except Piper.) 
 But we'll pay you something for your trouble. 
 Go to the hotel and get a good dinner — the best 
 you can order. We'll pay for it and here is a dollar 
 besides, my good fellow. A hundred dollars for 
 playing a litle tune like that! I have paid you well 
 row — with a dinner and a dollar. More than you'd 
 get in most cities I can tell you. 
 
 Piper I do not enjoy your kind of jokes. Your 
 Honor. They do not seem at all funny to me. I 
 am in a hurry to reach another city by nightfall, 
 so do not keep me waiting any longer. Give me 
 my hundred dollars that I may start on my way. 
 
 Mayor (shakes head angrily ^ roars out) A hundred. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 7 1 
 
 dollars? You beggar! Not one dollar more will 
 I give you. Be off with you, before I call the police. 
 
 Piper I will give you one more chance to keep 
 your word to me. Then, if you do not give me my 
 money, I'll play another tune — the one I always 
 play when people do not treat me fairly. For 
 the last time I ask, will you give me my money ? 
 
 Mayor Fellow! I have no money of yours. I 
 owe you no money. I dare you to do your worst. 
 Play — till your old flute bursts, for all I care. Do 
 you think for one moment you can frighten the 
 Mayor of Hamelin Town? 
 
 (Piper, without a word more, puts flute to lips 
 and plays, people stop celebrating to listen.) 
 
 First Man Hark! That queer old Piper is play- 
 ing again. Is he calling more rats? 
 
 Second Man This tune is not at all like the tune 
 that called the rats. 
 
 Third Man No, indeed. This is soft as the 
 gentlest breeze in summer. 
 
 Fourth Man It is sweet as the songs of birds. 
 
 Fifth Man But it is a strange tune. I never 
 heard one like it before. 
 
 Sixth Man See! All the children are running to 
 him! Crowds of them have left their play to go him. 
 
 Seventh Man And look! They are following 
 him, as he starts down the street,. 
 
72 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Eighth Man What a pattering their little feet 
 make, as they keep time to the music ! 
 
 Ninth Man What a great clattering their wooden 
 shoes make, as they hurry along! 
 
 Tenth Man They all seem very happy about 
 something, for they are clapping their hands for joy. 
 
 First Man How busily their little tongues are 
 chattering, like the squirrels in the treetops. 
 
 Second Man They are gathering about the Piper, 
 like hens in the farmyard about the one who feeds 
 them. 
 
 Third Man How pretty the children of Hamelin 
 are! Roses are no redder than their cheeks! Gold 
 is no brighter than their curls. 
 
 Fourth Man I believe children of Hamelin are 
 the prettiest in the world, for their eyes are as blue 
 as the summer skies and as bright as diamonds. 
 
 Fijth Man How they show their teeth, like 
 snow-white pearls, when they laugh so merrily! 
 
 Sixth Man I begin to be worried at our children 
 following this strange Piper. Don't you think we 
 should call them back, Your Honor? 
 
 Mayor Some one should certainly call them 
 back — for they are getting farther and farther from 
 home all the time and who knows where the strange 
 fellow with his queer music will lead them ? 
 
 Seventh Man Every child in town is in the odd 
 procession that follows at this piper's heels. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 73 
 
 Mayor Come, then, my men! Let us all go 
 quickly after them and bring them home before 
 harm befalls them. 
 
 {All cry) We are bewitched ! Alas! Alas! The 
 piper has bewitched us. 
 
 Eighth Man We are all rooted to the ground. 
 
 Ninth Man We must stand like men of stone 
 while this piper steals our children before our very 
 eyes. 
 
 {All cry) The river! The river! He is turn- 
 ing towards the river! 
 
 Mayor Can no one do anything? Our children 
 will be drowned in the deep waters as the rats were 
 a moment ago. 
 
 {All cry) He is turning again! Oh joy! He is 
 turning away from the river. 
 
 Mayor And going towards the mountain. 
 
 First Man Our children are safe, for neither 
 piper nor they can ever climb over the top of that. 
 
 Second Man We need not worry any more. We'll 
 soon see our little folks stop and then turn back 
 home, when they find they can go no further. 
 
 {All cry) But what is that we see? Can we 
 believe our eyes ? 
 
 Mayor The side of the mountain is opening. 
 
 First Man Surely that wonderful door was never 
 there before. 
 
 Second Man It is swinging wide open to let him 
 
74 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 in. I hope he will go in and never be able to get 
 out again. 
 
 Third Man He's gone in, but 
 
 {All cry) Our children! Our pretty babes are 
 going in too. We'll never see them again! 
 
 First Man There goes the last one now. 
 
 {All cry) What shall we do? The door is 
 swinging shut! 
 
 Mayor Now it is closed. I fear, forever, and the 
 Fathers and Mothers of Hamelin Town will never 
 see their little ones again. 
 
 Fourth Man What a sad town ours will be! 
 
 Fijth Man The saddest one in all the world — 
 a town that has no children in it. 
 
 {All cry) How can we ever live without them? 
 Oh, our children ! Come back to us ! 
 
 Mayor Let the bells in all the steeples be tolled 
 for the rest of this sad day. Let the bands play their 
 funeral music. Let us all go into the churches and 
 pray for ourselves and our little ones who have gone 
 we know not where, who are lost to us forever. 
 j Fijth Man {angrily) This dreadful thing that 
 I has happened is all your fault, Your Honor. 
 I Sixth Man It would never have happened if 
 you had not broken your promise to the piper. 
 
 Seventh Man If you had paid the fellow he would 
 have gone off — and we should, nqt now be crying for 
 Qur lost, children,. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-T3ELIEVE 75 
 
 Mayor What you say is true, my people. I 
 should have kept my promise. It was very wrong 
 to break it. I should have paid the hundred dol- 
 lars that was his and let him go his way, but how 
 could I know he was able to do this horrible thing 
 if I did not give him his money? Five of my own 
 little ones followed the Piper into the mountain. 
 
 Sixth Man His Honor would never mean to 
 harm a child. 
 
 Seventh Man No, we all know he loves them 
 dearly. 
 
 Eighth Man Every one knows that all the chil- 
 dren are his friends, but who is this, coming towards 
 us? 
 
 {All cry) A child! O, joy! A child! 
 
 Ninth Man Where are the rest ? 
 
 {All cry) It is little lame Hans who lives near the 
 church. 
 
 {Hans comes up^ looking very sad,) 
 
 Hans All my little friends are gone, I am the 
 only child in Hamehn Town who did not pass through 
 the wonderful door. I tried hard to get there 
 before it closed, but I could not keep up with the 
 others, and fell so far behind they did not even see 
 me coming. 
 
 Mayor Tell us, my little man, why did you and 
 all your little friends leave your homes and Fathers 
 
^6 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 and Mothers who love you, to follow this Piper 
 whom you never saw before to-day? 
 
 Hans The music the Piper played on his flute 
 promised such beautiful things to all who would 
 follow him. 
 
 Mayor What were some of the beautiful things 
 the music promised you ? 
 
 Hans It told of a land so near we could easily 
 walk to it, where the ripest and juiciest fruits grew 
 and every child could have all he could eat. There 
 were flowers too — of most wonderful colors, blos- 
 soming in these gardens. The sparrows that hopped 
 about in the gardens were as gaily colored as any 
 peacock you ever saw. The dogs that one could have 
 for pets could run more swiftly than our fleetest deer. 
 There were honey bees, buzzing about every flower, 
 but we need not fear them, for not one had a sting. 
 The horses in this wonderful country had wings as 
 strong and swift as the eagles, but the music was 
 sweetest of all to me when it whispered that once I 
 reached this land I would be strong and well as 
 other boys, able to run and play with them, but {sadly) 
 my lame foot carried me too slowly. The children 
 all passed through the wonderful door in the moun- 
 tain side and it closed while I was yet a long way off. 
 How lonely and dull I shall be all my life with all 
 my playmates gone {walks away). 
 
 Mayor The only child in Hamelin Town! for 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 77 
 
 I do not think we shall ever again hear the music of 
 the strange Piper in our streets, I fear the wonderful 
 door in the mountain side will never open again. 
 Our eyes will never again look upon our children's 
 faces. Come, my poor people, let us go to our 
 sad and lonely homes, for the night is coming on. 
 As long as I live, I have this to remember. Had I 
 not broken my promise to the Piper, all might have 
 been well with our children. 
 
THE BISHOP HATTO 
 The Story 
 
 Long ago before any one remembers, in a country 
 far across the sea, the people were starving. All 
 summer long the rain had come down in torrents, 
 day after day. 
 
 All through the autumn it was no better. The 
 fields were soaked with the rain. The corn could 
 not grow nor ripen, when all the soil was so very 
 wet. 
 
 Most of it rotted in the ground and the few stalks 
 that lived had not ripened when winter came. 
 
 The fields that always before had been full of 
 waving corn, were a sorry sight this year, but a sadder 
 sight were the poor people, who, now the com had 
 died, had nothing to eat. 
 
 Men, women and children were dying of hunger 
 every day. 
 
 There was but one man in all the country round 
 who had any com and that was Bishop Hatto. 
 
 He was a very rich man, who had great bams 
 filled with corn that he had saved from last year's 
 crop. 
 
 Besides his barn so full of grain, he owned one or 
 
 7S 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 79 
 
 two palaces, and across the river a strong tower with 
 high walls. 
 
 Every day the poor people who were starving came 
 in crowds to Bishop Hatto's door, begging for the 
 corn he did not need, nor did not sell, but hoarded 
 away in his great bams, as all the neighborhood 
 knew. 
 
 But to every one's pleading, the Bishop turned a 
 deaf ear, and all were sent away empty-handed. 
 
 Not so much as a peck measure of com would 
 this hard-hearted old Bishop give to save his neigh- 
 bors' lives. 
 
 So great was the surprise one day, when the Bishop 
 sent word through all the country-side, that, if those 
 in need of food would come to his great bam at a 
 certain time they might all have food enough to last 
 them through the winter. 
 
 The poor people almost cried for joy. They were 
 so glad to think their troubles were over. They 
 came from far and near; men, women and children, 
 old men who could hardly walk, babies who could 
 hardly toddle, not a person was left in the houses 
 for miles around. 
 
 Everybody had gone to Bishop Hatto's great bam 
 to help carry home the com. 
 
 The Bishop waited until the bam was so full it 
 could hold no more. 
 
 There was not even standing room for another one. 
 
8o THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 The people were packed in like so many sheep. 
 Then Bishop Hatto, who stood outside, ordered 
 the doors fastened and himself set fire to the great 
 bam, burning it to the ground. 
 
 The poor people shrieked and screamed and prayed 
 when they found they were prisoners and must burn 
 to death. The cruel Bishop said, as he stood by, 
 and watched the flames leap higher and higher, ^'It 
 makes a fine bonfire." ^^The country will thank 
 me for getting rid of all those people, for the times 
 are hard. Food is scarce. They are like so many 
 rats eating up the com." 
 
 When the great bam was only a heap of ashes the 
 Bishop went back to his palace and sat down to 
 supper, so happy and light-hearted a man, you would 
 never think he had just burned hundreds of poor 
 people to death. 
 
 How could he sleep so sweetly as he did that night, 
 when he had just done so cruel and terrible a deed, 
 but that was the last night's rest that Bishop Hatto 
 ever had, for in the morning as he came into his 
 great hall a most dreadful sight met his eyes. He 
 tumed white and cold as marble and trembled so he 
 could hardly stand, when he saw what had hap- 
 pened in the night. 
 
 A large picture of himself that hung against the 
 wall had been eaten out of its frame by rats. 
 
 The Bishop was so terrified he could not move. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 8 1 
 
 but stood there looking at the place where his pic- 
 ture had been, when a man from his farm came run- 
 ning in. 
 
 His face was as white as the Bishop's own, though 
 he did not know about the picture. 
 
 As soon as he could get his breath he cried, *^0 
 Bishop! when I opened the granaries this morning, 
 I found the rats had eaten all your corn, not so 
 much as a grain is left." 
 
 The Bishop was to sell this com the very next day, 
 for hundreds of dollars, so it was a great loss to him. 
 This man had hardly finished telling his bad news, 
 when another came running in as pale as a ghost and 
 cried, ^^ You must fly. Bishop, fly for your life. Ten 
 thousand rats are coming this way. I am afraid it 
 is to punish you for what you did yesterday. Where 
 can you hide ? 
 
 The Bishop thought a moment. 
 
 ^^My tower on the river Rhine is the safest place 
 in all Germany. I'll go there. Once I am inside 
 its high walls nothing can get to me, for the shores 
 are too steep for anyone to climb, and the river 
 too swift and deep for anyone to swim," said the 
 Bishop, as shaking with fear he hurried away. In 
 a very little while he had crossed the river and 
 reached his strong tower, where he barred all the 
 gates, so that no one could get within the high walls. 
 
 Then, tired from his fright and his hurry, and feel- 
 
82 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 ing himself safe at last, he lay down and closed his 
 eyes for a little nap. A scream close to his ears 
 made him jump to his feet. There, on his pillow, 
 sat a cat, her two eyes blazing like coals of fire. 
 
 The Bishop was not so frightened when he found 
 it was only the cat, but he listened and looked to 
 see why she screamed. Something was making her 
 wild with fear and her screams were terrible to 
 hear. 
 
 What the Bishop saw at last made his heart stand 
 still and he, too, could have screamed with a fear 
 greater than the cat's. He could see through the 
 window that a perfect army of rats were on the way, 
 thousands of them. 
 
 They had swam the river he had thought too deep 
 and swift for any one to swim. 
 
 They had climbed the banks he had thought too 
 steep for anyone to scale, and now, as he watched, 
 they were crawling through every hole and window 
 in the wall. There was no way for the Bishop to 
 escape, no way to save his life. He went down 
 on his knees and prayed as he had not prayed in 
 many a year. 
 
 But, loud as he prayed, he could hear the sawing 
 of the rat's teeth, as they gnawed, sounding nearer 
 and nearer every second. 
 
 The next moment they came in through the win- 
 dows by thousands. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 83 
 
 Some poured in through the doors. Others came 
 even through the thick walls. 
 
 Then all at once every rat in the room made 
 straight for the Bishop. 
 
 They came down from the ceiling and up from the 
 floor. If the Bishop turned to the right or the left, 
 the rats were on either hand. 
 
 From behind and before, from within and without, 
 they came in droves. 
 
 They were over his head. They were under his 
 feet. They were everywhere. Their sharp teeth 
 were still sharper from being whetted against the 
 stones as they came through the wall, so they made 
 short work of picking the Bishop's bones, and that 
 was the last of Bishop Hatto. 
 
 Thus was he punished for the cruel deed he did 
 that day, when he burned the poor people, like rats 
 in his great bam. 
 
THE BISHOP HATTO 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personce 
 Village People 
 Bishop Hatto 
 Servants of Bishop Hatto 
 Traveller 
 
 Soldiers of Bishop Hatto 
 The Rats 
 
 Scene I 
 
 Traveller {to men hurrying along road towards 
 palace) Can you tell me what is going on at that 
 palace? Why are the people coming from every 
 direction and crowding about that one palace? Is 
 a feast being held there and all these people the guests 
 who are bidden? Who lives there, do you know? 
 
 First Man {laughs bitterly) A feast ? As far from 
 that as anything can be. Guests? Beggars, rather, 
 praying for bread to keep them and their families 
 from starving. 
 
 Second Man We, too, are on our way there, but 
 little good it will do us, I fear. 
 
 Third Man Bishop Hatto lives in that palace 
 
 and a hard, cruel tyrant he is. Little cares he, if 
 
 84 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 85 
 
 all the f)eople in all the country round starve to 
 death. 
 
 Traveller And is there danger of your dying of 
 hunger? I have always heard the soil in this part of 
 the country was so rich, you raised more than you 
 needed every year, that you sent a great deal to 
 market. Why is it you are without food this year ? 
 
 Fourth Man All summer long the rain has come 
 down in torrents. Day after day it has been one 
 steady pour, pour, pour! 
 
 Fifth Man And all through the autumn it has 
 been no better. The fields are soaked with rains. 
 
 First Man We depend upon the com for our 
 living in this part of the country and the com has had 
 no chance to grow. It has been drowned out. It 
 could not ripen, when all the soil is so very wet. 
 
 Second Man Very little of our com came up at 
 all. Most of it has rotted in the ground. 
 
 Third Man The few stalks that did come up 
 and have managed to live show no signs of ripening 
 and winter is almost here. 
 
 Traveller I was here once before, a few years 
 ago, and I well remember what a pretty sight your 
 fields of com were, bending and bowing and waving 
 in the wind. 
 
 Fourth Man Our fields are anything but a 
 pretty sight this year — a sorry sight indeed ! 
 
 Fifth Man But a sorrier sight are our poor 
 
86 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 people who, now the com has failed, have nothing to 
 eat. 
 
 First Man Not a day passes but we hear of some 
 of our men, women and children dying of hunger. 
 
 Traveller Has no one any corn that he has stored 
 away, that you could buy and pay for when better 
 times come again? Has no one saved any corn 
 from last year's harvest? 
 
 Second Man Few of us save any com from one 
 year to the next, for we always sell all we can spare, 
 but there is one man and only one who has plenty 
 of com to keep us all from starving. 
 
 Traveller He must be a very rich man to be able 
 to store away his corn from year to year. Does he 
 live in that palace towards which the crowds of 
 people are going? 
 
 Third Man Yes, Bishop Hatto is his name. 
 Those great bams you see back of his palace are 
 filled to the roof with corn he saved from last year's 
 crop. 
 
 Fourth Man But those barns filled with grain 
 are not all his riches. He owns one or two other 
 palaces besides the one he Hves in, quite as grand as 
 that one, too. 
 
 Fifth Man Nor have you told all his wealth 
 now. You have forgotten the strong tower with 
 high walls that he built across the river. 
 
 Traveller Is to-day the first time the people have 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 87 
 
 begged the Bishop to sell or give his hoarded corn 
 to them? 
 
 First Man The first time? Indeed it is not. 
 Every day for weeks, ever since the weather has been 
 growing cold, they come in crowds to Bishop Hatto's 
 door, begging for the com that will keep their families 
 from starving. 
 
 Traveller Let us join the crowds and see if they 
 are having any better luck to-day. Perhaps his 
 hard heart has softened at last. 
 
 (Traveller and five men move close to palace gate.) 
 
 One (cries) Give us the com that we may keep 
 our wives and babies alive. 
 
 Another Give us the com that we may fill our 
 children's mouths, agape like hungry birds, and still 
 their cries. 
 
 Another Give us the corn you do not need. 
 
 Another You do not sell the corn to anyone, so 
 it cannot be that you are in need of the money. 
 
 Another If you'll not give it to us to keep us 
 from starving, then sell it to us at your highest price 
 and let us pay you with next season's crop. 
 
 Another What good is the com doing you? 
 You but hoard it away in your great bams, as all 
 your neighbors know. Would you not rather give 
 it to save your neighbors' lives? 
 
 Another Come out, Bishop Hatto, come out and 
 
88 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 face us. Coward! Don't you dare stand before the 
 hungry people your com might save? Come out, 
 we say, or we'll drag you out! At least be man 
 enough to come out and tell us you will not give us 
 help! 
 
 Bishop {indoors) You had better save your breath 
 than waste it in pleading with me, for I hear you 
 not. My ear is deaf to all your prayers. It is noth- 
 ing to me, whether you eat or starve. I have more 
 than enough for myself and my household. I care 
 not at all whether you live or die. My bams are 
 full of com, as you say, but none of it shall be poured 
 into your baskets. I send you away, every man of 
 you, empty-handed as you came. The grain is my 
 own. I can do what I please with my own, save it 
 or sell it. Not so much as a peck measure will I sell. 
 Not so much as a quart measure will I give away. 
 Not so much as a pint measure even if it were to save 
 all your lives. Now go, every man, woman and child 
 of you. Out of my sight this moment! Out of my 
 gate, before I order my soldiers to fire on you, to drive 
 you away! 
 
 {Crowds disperse hurriedly for fear of soldiers being 
 ordered to fire upon them.) 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 89 
 
 Scene n 
 
 Time: Several days later. 
 
 Place: On the road near Bishop^ s great barn. 
 
 {Road filled with people, young and old, all camping 
 baskets, hurrying on foot or in wagons towards palace.) 
 
 Traveller (meets men with whom he talked before.) 
 I can't believe that all these people I see hurr5dng 
 along the road are going again to Bishop Hatto's 
 after his cruel speech of a few days ago. Surely you 
 can't be going there again! It will do you no good 
 and may do you great harm, for he threatened last 
 time, you know, to order his soldiers to fire upon 
 you. 
 
 First Man We are as surprised to be going 
 there again as you are to see us, but we have been 
 invited this time, so he'll hardly order his soldiers 
 to shoot us, I think. 
 
 Traveller Invited? After all he said that other 
 day? And is he going to sell you some com at last ? 
 
 Second Man Give it to us! Isn't that the great- 
 est surprise of all? Enough com to last us through 
 the winter! 
 
 Third Man Yesterday the Bishop sent his sol- 
 diers far and near through all the country side, to 
 tell the people that, if any were in need of food, to 
 come to his great bams to-day at three o'clock. 
 
QO THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Traveller I should think the people would be 
 afraid it was too good to be true, or else that they 
 could not believe their own ears. 
 
 Fourth Man Most of the people cried as hard as 
 they could for joy. 
 
 Fifth Man Others laughed until they cried. 
 We were so glad to think our troubles were over. 
 
 Sixth Man Winter only just begun and no food 
 to be had for our families is pretty big trouble. But 
 look! The road is black with the people. They 
 are coming from far and near. 
 
 Traveller It is not only the men who are going. 
 Women and children as well, I see, are in the 
 strange procession. 
 
 First Man Oh, yes, everybody is on the way. 
 Old men that can only hobble, babies who can 
 hardly toddle. Everybody is on the way. 
 
 Second Man I don't believe a person is left in 
 any house for miles around, do you ? 
 
 Third Man No, for everybody who is able to 
 walk at all went along to help carry home the grain. 
 It will take bushels and bushels of com to feed all 
 these people all winter. And it will take a great 
 many hands to carry it all home. 
 
 Fourth Man Here we are at last! The bam is 
 so crowded now, shall we stand outside ? 
 
 Bishop {stands just outside ham) No standing 
 outside allowed, my men, Push right on into the 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEV£ Qi 
 
 bam if you want your share of the grain. Plenty of 
 room yet. Crowd up, over in that comer. Stand 
 closer in the centre. Those who can't get in can 
 have no com. Pack in! Move up! Stand as close 
 as you make your sheep sometimes (says in whisper 
 to soldier) Is the bam full now? 
 
 Soldier It can hold no more, my lord. 
 
 Bishop Do you see any more on the way ? 
 
 Soldier Not a person is in sight on the road, my 
 lord. There is not even standing room for another 
 one, if there were. 
 
 Bishop Then fasten all the doors, every one of 
 them. Do not leave a single door unlocked. 
 
 Soldier It is done, my lord. 
 
 Bishop Every door barred? You are sure? 
 
 Soldier Every one, my lord. 
 
 Bishop Then the time has come to light my 
 great fire. I myself will set fire to the bam, full of 
 com to the roof, full of people to the doors. 
 
 {People in barn shriek, scream, etc.) 
 
 Bishop Hear the women and children scream! 
 Hear the men curse! It will do them little good. 
 Some are shrieking prayers, but that will not unlock 
 the doors nor put out the flames. What a pretty 
 sight it is, as the flames leap higher and higher! It 
 makes the finest of bonfires. Let the rats bum. 
 The country will thank me, I know, for getting rid of 
 
92 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 all of them, for times are hard, food is scarce. They 
 were like so many rats, eating up the good corn. 
 Now the country is rid of them, for my great bam full 
 to the roof with grain and full to the door with 
 people is now only a handful of ashes. Now I can 
 go back to my palace and eat my supper a happier, 
 lighter-hearted man than I have been since these 
 beggars first began to cry for my com. Then when 
 I have had my good supper, I'll go to bed and sleep 
 more sweetly than I have any night since these 
 crowds of people came thronging to my door, beg- 
 ging for com, that their families might not starve. 
 Now, none of them will ever be hungry again, for I 
 have sent them where they will need no food. 
 
 (Walks towards palace as he talks. Enters it 
 and doses door as he finishes his speaking,) 
 
 Scene III 
 
 Time: Next morning. 
 Place: Bishop's palace.. 
 
 {Bishop himself coming down the stairs.) 
 
 Servant What is it, my lord? You are white 
 and cold as marble. Are you ill, my lord ? Speak 
 to me and tell me what I can do to help you. You 
 are trembling so you can hardly stand. Can't you 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 93 
 
 tell me what is the trouble that I may do something 
 to help you ? 
 
 Bishop {points with shaking -fingers) Look ! My 
 picture! The rats! 
 
 Servant My lord! Can it be they have done 
 that? Eaten that great picture out of its frame? 
 Not a shred of canvas left? I did not know there 
 was a rat in the house. I never saw any except in 
 the bams. Do you suppose the fire of yesterday has 
 driven the rats from the bam to the house? But 
 who comes here? A messenger! His face is as 
 white as your own, my lord. 
 
 Second Servant {comes running in, out of breath, 
 gasping) My lord! I opened the other bams 
 this moming, where the most of the com is stored. 
 It is all gone, my lord, not so much as a grain is 
 left. The rats have eaten it all in a single night. 
 
 Bishop The rats again! They have eaten hun- 
 dreds of dollars then, for I was to have sold it all this 
 very day. It is a very great loss to me. 
 
 First Servant Look! My lord, another mes- 
 senger! A bearer of bad news too, for he is pale as 
 a ghost. 
 
 Third Servant {runs in breathlessly, shouts) Fly! 
 My lord. Fly! At once for your life. You must 
 fly, my lord, if you would live. Ten thousand rats 
 are coming this way to devour you. I fear the rats 
 are sent to pimish you for what you did to those poor 
 
94 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 people yesterday. Where can you hide? Is there 
 not some place? 
 
 Bishop {sits silently^ thinking a moment) My 
 tower! I'll go at once to my tower on the River 
 Rhine. There is no safer place in all Germany. 
 Once there I can laugh at the rats, for they will try in 
 vain to get at me there. Once inside those high 
 walls, nothing can get to me. The shores are too 
 steep for any one to climb. The river is too deep 
 and swift for any one to swim. In all Germany 
 there is no better place to hide myself. 
 
 Servant Then lose no time, my lord. Start at 
 once, for the rats are traveUing rapidly. 
 
 Bishop I'll hurry away. Once I have crossed 
 the river I am safe {walks hurriedly away). 
 
 First Servant He talks bravely of being .safe in 
 his strong tower, but — did you see — he is shaking 
 with fear. 
 
 Second Servant Yes, but if he is once inside those 
 strong walls, I do not see that he has anything to 
 fear, for nothing can get through those thick walls, 
 if they succeeded in climbing those steep banks. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 95 
 
 Scene IV 
 
 Time: A short time later in same day. 
 Place: Inside the strong tower. 
 
 Bishop At last, I am safe in my strong tower. 
 The river is crossed and these thick walls are be- 
 tween me and all the rats in the world. I have 
 barred all the gates and neither man nor beast can get 
 within these high walls. I find myself very tired, 
 and no wonder, I was hardly awake this morning 
 before I began to hear bad news. My own picture 
 that I saw for myself eaten by those dreadful rats. 
 Then while I was still gazing at that in horror, the 
 first messenger came with news that the rats had 
 eaten up all my com, which meant a loss of hun- 
 dreds of dollars to me. The first messenger had 
 hardly gotten his breath before a second, pale as a 
 ghost, begged me to fly for my life, so it is no wonder 
 between my fright and my hurry that I find myself 
 very tired. There is no reason, now that I am safe 
 from it all, that I should not lie down and have a 
 nap. 
 
 {Bishop lies down upon a couch, closes eyes, 
 cat creeps upon Bishop^s pillow, from which she 
 looks out of window and suddenly gives terrible 
 scream, right in Bishops s ear.) 
 
 Bishop (springs to feet, hands over ears) A more 
 
96 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 hideous scream I never heard, right in my ear, too! 
 Enough to frighten a man to death, sound asleep as I 
 was, though I am not so badly frightened now that 
 I know it was only the cat. There she sits on my 
 pillow now and so still you might think her carved 
 out of stone, but for her eyes. They are blazing like 
 two coals of fire. 
 
 {Cat screams again and again.) 
 
 O Puss! Pussy! Your screams are terrible to hear. 
 I must see what it is that is making you scream. 
 
 {Cat screams again and again.) 
 
 There! There! Pussy, you have had too much 
 meat perhaps and are having a fit. 
 
 {Cat screams again and again.) 
 
 Be quiet. Pussy! Nothing can harm you here. 
 No Bowsers can get you here. 
 
 {Bishop starts as he sees at last what puss has 
 been seeing) 
 
 Oh! Oh! What a terrible sight! My heart stands 
 still with terror. I could scream with a greater fear 
 than yours, poor Puss. A perfect army of rats 
 have tracked me here and are on their way to my 
 hiding place. Thousands upon thousands of them! 
 But when they come to the deep, swift river, they will 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 97 
 
 have to turn back. It is well for me I hurried as I 
 did. If those rats had caught me outside of these 
 walls, they would have made short work of me. 
 Oh! Oh! Do my eyes see aright? I can't be- 
 lieve it! But yes, they are — they are swimming the 
 river that I thought too deep and swift for any one 
 to swim. They'll be drowned, all of them, I need 
 not fear. They'll never reach this shore alive. 
 Oh! Oh! What hope is left me now? They are 
 swarming up out of the river. Only the steep banks 
 now between me and those terrible rats. Surely 
 they cannot scale those banks that are almost straight 
 up and down, with never a foothold for the small- 
 est foot in their smooth rocky sides. Rats may be 
 able to swim deep, swift rivers, but those steep banks 
 will turn them back. No one can scale those. Oh! 
 My eyes! My eyes! Are you telling me true? I 
 see them scaling the steep walk, by leaps and boimds, 
 and coming through these thick walls at every hole 
 and window and crack and crevice. My last hope 
 is gone. There is no way to escape. I have come 
 to the end. I must die. I'll try to pray, as I have 
 not prayed in many a year. {Bows head a moment,) 
 How can a man pray when the saw of the rats' teeth, 
 as they gnaw, sounds nearer and nearer every second ? 
 
 {Bishop screams and dashes frantically about 
 room, to escape, if possible.) 
 
98 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Through the windows, hundreds of them. Through 
 the doors, thousands of them are pouring. Through 
 the thick walls, others are coming. They are coming 
 for me. Now, every rat in the room is making straight 
 for me. Down from the ceiling, up from the floor, 
 if I turn to the right, they are there, or the left, there 
 are as many. From behind and before, from 
 within and without they come in droves. It is no 
 use. I can struggle against them no longer. They 
 are over my head, under my feet. They are every- 
 where, everywhere. I am almost gone. Their 
 teeth are as sharp as knives. Gnawing through the 
 stone walls was the best of files for sharpening their 
 teeth. They'll make short work picking my bones. 
 I am dying, dying, for the cruel deed I did yesterday. 
 This is my punishment for burning those poor 
 people like rats in a trap. I pay with my life for my 
 wicked deed. I pay with my life for all the lives 
 I took. It is the end. 
 
THE STAR DOLLARS 
 The Story 
 
 There was once a little girl left all alone in the 
 world. She had no brothers nor sisters and both her 
 father and mother were dead. All the clothes she 
 had were those she wore. All the food she had was 
 a little bread some one had given her. 
 
 Poor little girl! She had none of the things a 
 child needs. Mother love and father care she could 
 never have again. She had no one to make a home 
 for her. 
 
 There was no money to give her even food and 
 clothes. Poor little girl! She was indeed alone. 
 
 But she said over the prayer her mother had taught 
 her and started out into the world. She still carried 
 the piece of bread in her hand. She did not know 
 where she was going. 
 
 Perhaps something would show her the way. 
 Perhaps something would turn her feet into the 
 right path. She had not gone far when she met a 
 poor man. He was so very old he was much bent. 
 He was thin, as though he had never had plenty to eat. 
 
 He saw the little girl's bit of bread and begged for 
 some of it, because he was so hungry. The little 
 
 99 
 
lOO THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 girl gave him the whole piece at once and went on. 
 She had gone but a little way when she met a child. 
 The little fellow had nothing on his head, though 
 the day was very cold. 
 
 He told the little girl that his head was aching with 
 the cold. He begged her for something with which 
 to cover it. 
 
 The little girl had nothing but her hood. She 
 took that off from her own head and put it on his 
 little aching head. When she had gone a little 
 farther she met another child. This one had no 
 coat. The biting wind went right through the poor 
 thin dress she wore. The child would soon freeze 
 to death. 
 
 The little girl took off her own warm jacket and 
 wrapped it round the freezing child. 
 
 At the next turn of the road she came upon another 
 child. This one's dress was so tattered and torn it 
 was all but falling off from her. 
 
 The little girl had parted with her bread. Then 
 her hood, next her coat. She had nothing left to 
 give, she thought, except her dress. Even this she 
 took off and put on the child whose dress was 
 tattered and torn. 
 
 By this time it had grown dark, for night had 
 fallen. The little girl found herself in a forest, but 
 she was not afraid. It was warmer among the trees 
 than in the road, 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE lOl 
 
 She was looking about to find a safe, warm place 
 to sleep when she met another child. This poor 
 little thing had no clothes and its flesh was blue with 
 the cold. He was shivering so that he could hardly 
 stand. 
 
 Poor little one! He was crying too, as if his heart 
 would break. He was not much more than a baby. 
 
 She could not bear to see him suffer so. And yet 
 she had nothing left to give, except her little flannel 
 shirt. Everything else had gone. The bread to 
 the old man, thin and bent, her hood to the child 
 with the aching head, her coat to the child who had 
 none, her dress to the one who was tattered and 
 torn. The little one's crying hurt her too much. 
 
 The woods were dark. The trees would shelter 
 her. She could surely find some snug, warm place 
 to sleep. Off came the little flannel shirt, and as 
 quickly it was drawn over the poor little fellow's 
 body, blue with cold. 
 
 Before the little girl slept, she always said her 
 evening prayer. So to-night she looked up into the 
 sky as she said the prayer her mother had taught 
 her. 
 
 She thought she had never seen the stars so bright 
 and beautiful. As she looked, the stars began to 
 fall in showers at her feet. The ground was covered 
 with them, round and bright and shining. But they 
 were not stars at all now. They were bright silver 
 
lO^ THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 dollars that could buy food and clothes for the little 
 girl. 
 
 There was enough money to take good care of 
 her all the rest of her life. 
 
 But that was not all. Among the silver dollars was 
 the finest of little silk shirts. This was sent to take 
 the place of the one she had just taken off to cover 
 the poor child who had no clothes. 
 
 She put on this pretty little white shirt that came 
 straight from the sky. 
 
 Then she began to gather the silver dollars that 
 lay thick on the ground. 
 
 There were more than she would need the rest of 
 her life. The little girl need never be cold, nor 
 hungry, nor naked again. 
 
THE STAR DOLLARS 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personam 
 Little Girl 
 Old Man 
 Four Little Children 
 
 Little Girl Now that father and mother are both 
 dead, I am all alone in the world. I must think what 
 is best for me to do. How I wish I had some brothers 
 or sisters, so there'd be some one to love me. Let 
 me think what I have. The clothes I have on and 
 this piece of bread a kind lady gave me, because 
 she thought I looked hungry. I have no home and 
 no money, so I must start out into the world to see 
 what I can do to get food and clothes and shelter 
 for myself. (Walks off,) I do not know which road 
 to take, but perhaps something will show me the 
 way. (She meets a poor old man, bent and thin.) 
 
 Old Man Oh, little girl, what wouldn't I give 
 for a bite of the bread you carry. It is days since I 
 have tasted food. I am dying of hunger. 
 
 Little Girl Poor old man ! I am so sorry for you ! 
 Take it all. You need it more than I, for I am young 
 and strong and can earn some more some way. 
 
 103 
 
I04 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Old Man Blessings on you, child! May you 
 never know what it is to be hungry as I am! 
 
 {They separate. Girl walks on. Meets a child ^ 
 hare-headed^ crying bitterly.) 
 
 Little Girl Poor little man! Why are you cry- 
 ing? 
 
 Child Oh, my head aches so hard with the cold! 
 
 Girl I should think it would this bitter day. Why 
 did you come out without your cap? 
 
 Child Because I have none, but cap or no cap, I 
 was made to go on this errand. 
 
 Girl {takes off hood and puts it on child^s head) 
 Take my hood then. 
 
 Child But what will you do then? Your head 
 will ache with cold as mine did. 
 
 Girl No, my hair is thick and long. I shall not 
 feel the cold as you did with your short hair. 
 
 {They separate. Girl meets another child crying, 
 coatless.) 
 
 Little Girl Oh, little one, why did you come out 
 without your coat this cold day ? This biting wind 
 must go right through the thin dress you wear. You 
 will freeze to death without your coat this cold day. 
 
 Child If I only had a coat, but I have none, not 
 so much as a cape or a shawl, and yet I was sent to 
 do this errand. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 105 
 
 {Little Girl takes off her own warm coat, wraps 
 it round freezing child.) 
 
 Child You must not do this. I can not let you, 
 for then you will be as cold as I. 
 
 Girl No, you must take it, for my dress is not 
 thin like yours. It will keep out the cold better 
 than yours did. 
 
 {They separate. Girl walks mi.) 
 
 Girl {to herself.) My bread went to the old man 
 who was hungry, my hood to the little fellow who 
 had no cap, now my coat to the poor child who 
 was almost frozen. {Laughs.) I have nothing left 
 to give anyone now, but my dress, and that I can 
 hardly spare as I did the other things. 
 
 {Little Girl meets another child whose dress is all 
 tattered and torn, almost falling off from her, child 
 is crying bitterly.) 
 
 Little Girl O child! have you no other dress 
 that is not so ragged? The wind must get in at 
 every hole. 
 
 Child I have none better and none worse, for 
 this is the only dress I have in the world. 
 
 Girl {to herself) I thought a moment ago that I 
 could not spare my dress, but now I remember my 
 shirt is very warm and will protect me from the cold 
 
I06 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 much better than this ragged dress does this poor 
 child. {Takes off dress, throws it over child^s head, 
 who cries,) 
 
 Child Then what will you do if you give me your 
 dress ? Have you another at home ? 
 
 Girl No, but I have a good warm shirt, and you 
 have not even that. 
 
 Child Thank you, then, I must hurry home, for 
 it is fast growing dark. 
 
 (They separate. Little girl wanders on.) 
 
 Little Girl I wish I had a home to go to at 
 night. I think I'll go into this forest, it must surely 
 be warmer among the trees than in the road. I 
 shall not be afraid in the forest. Nothing can harm 
 me. (Looks about.) Let me find the warmest nest 
 I can among the trees. (Comes upon another child 
 who has no clothes,) 
 
 Little Girl O you poor little one! Can it be 
 that you have no clothes? Your flesh is blue with 
 the cold, and you are shivering so you can hardly 
 stand. Poor baby! for you are little more than 
 that. Don't cry so! I cannot bear to see you suffer 
 so. Tell me, have you no warm clothes this bitter 
 night. 
 
 Child (shakes his head) I crept in among the 
 trees, because it was a little warmer. The wind 
 does not cut quite so cruelly in the forest. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 107 
 
 Girl (to herself) It hurts me so to hear him cry 
 and know how cruelly the wind must cut his tender 
 flesh. It is very dark here in the woods. The 
 trees will shelter me. I can surely find some warm 
 nest, where I can cuddle down to sleep. 
 
 (Takes off shirt and draws it quickly over the poor 
 little fellow^s shivering body. Child walks away. 
 Girl stands still,) 
 
 Girl My mother taught me always before I slept 
 to say my prayers, so I will say them now. (Looking 
 into the sky,) How bright and beautiful the stars 
 are to-night ! I think I never saw them shine so like 
 diamonds as they do to-night. Oh, look! (Rais- 
 ing her voice excitedly,) Can it be? Do I see 
 aright? The stars are falling, coming down to 
 earth in showers! They are falling at my very 
 feet! The ground is covered with them as with 
 snow, round and bright and shining. (Picks one 
 up.) Why! They are not stars at all! They are 
 bright silver dollars ! Can it be they are all for me ? 
 Sent me from the sky to buy food and clothes ? And 
 still they come ! (Gathering handfuls,) This surely 
 must be enough money to take good care of me the 
 rest of my life. Oh! Oh! What can this be, 
 falling down among the silver dollars? A little 
 shirt! (Picking it up.) But not at all like the one 
 I gave away. This is such a pretty one, so soft and 
 
lo8 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 white and all of silk. It must have been sent to take 
 the place of the one I took off to put on that poor 
 baby who had none. I'll put it right on — this 
 pretty white shirt that came straight down from the 
 sky to me. Now I must gather up all these siver 
 dollars that lie so thick upon the ground. There 
 must be more here than I shall need all the rest of 
 my life. Just think! I need never be cold nor 
 hungry nor naked again! 
 
THE BROWN DWARF OF RUGEN 
 The Story 
 
 A long time ago, in a pretty little town by the sea, 
 lived a boy and girl. 
 
 All day long and every day they were always to- 
 gether. Sometimes they played on the beach in the 
 sand that glistened like silver in the sunlight. 
 
 Often they waded out into the sea and let the great 
 waves chase them back to shore. 
 
 As soon as the flowers were in bloom, you could 
 see this little lad and lass down in the meadows, filling 
 their baskets with the sweet spring blossoms. 
 
 The boy was strong and straight as a farmer's 
 boy should be. The girl was as pretty a maid as 
 you ever saw. 
 
 Her curls were yellow as gold and her eyes were 
 as blue as the sky. 
 
 Her father, the miller, thought there never was a 
 
 child quite so sweet as his little daughter. When 
 
 this lad and lass lived the world was still so young 
 
 it was full of dwarfs and elves and trolls. They 
 
 are the little brown-faced people who have no 
 
 souls. 
 
 For every man and woman who walk through the 
 
 109 
 
no THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 town in the air and sunshine, there was a troll living 
 under the ground. 
 
 For every boy and girl playing in the fields, there 
 was an elf living down below where the sun and 
 air never came. 
 
 One morning the miller's little daughter wandered 
 so far away from her playmate that she found her- 
 self among the nine hills, the playground of the elves 
 and goblins. That very day, men working in the 
 fields said they had heard strange voices in the air. 
 Some heard small horns blown by unseen lips. 
 When night fell and still the Miller's daughter had 
 not come home, everyone started out to hunt for her. 
 
 They went through all the fields and woods, call- 
 ing her name at every step, but no one found any 
 trace of her. 
 
 Some went east and some went west, but none 
 brought back the lost girl to her father. The old 
 women of the village shook their gray heads and said 
 the lass had been stolen by the brown dwarfs and 
 was down among the elves and trolls, so the Miller 
 had prayers said in the church, and the bell tolled 
 for his little daughter who came not again. 
 
 Five years her father lived a sad and lonely life 
 without her, and then her old playmate, John, now 
 almost a man, said, ^' I am going to find my little 
 comrade, or at least find out whether she is alive or 
 dead." 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE III 
 
 So he went first to the nine hills, where Elizabeth 
 had last been seen that day now so long ago. 
 
 He watched there at night, until the brown dwarfs 
 came singing to dance in the moonlight. 
 
 As they were making merry the leader of the trolls 
 tossed his red cap into the air. 
 
 Quick as a flash, John caught it and put it upon his 
 own head. 
 
 The troll knelt at his feet and cried bitterly for his cap. 
 
 ^' Oh, give it back to me !" he wailed. '' My magic 
 cap. It will not fit your great head." 
 
 John shook his head. 
 
 "No," he said. "The dwarf who throws away 
 his magic cap must do something for the one who 
 finds it to pay for it. Five years ago you stole 
 my pretty EHzabeth and hid her in the earth." 
 
 John's voice grew very stern. 
 
 "I will give back your magic cap if you will open 
 your doors underground and let me take Elizabeth 
 home with me." 
 
 But the brown dwarf cried, "She will not come. 
 She is one of us now. She is mine, or will be, for 
 to-morrow she is to be my bride. Even now the great 
 cake is baked for the feast. 
 
 "Hold your tongue!" roared John, "and may the 
 evil spirit get you! Quick! Open the glass door 
 in this hill that leads to your bad world, or I'll 
 make you wish you had ! 
 
112 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 The dwarf was too frightened to do anything 
 but obey, so John and he went down the long stair- 
 way that leads to this strange sunless country. 
 
 John could hardly believe his eyes. 
 
 He saw such wonderful sights: The streets of 
 golden sand and palaces of precious stones made him 
 almost forget the errand on which he had come. 
 
 The long dark passages led him into a great dining 
 room, in which were tables loaded with good things 
 to eat. 
 
 A young girl came to wait upon him as soon as he 
 seated himself at one of the tables. 
 
 One look at the blue-eyed maiden told John she 
 was no troll. One with so fair a face did not belong 
 to the ugly trolls. 
 
 She looked so pale and sad John wondered if she 
 had ever smiled in all her life. 
 
 When she spoke to him, John fell to wondering 
 if he had ever before heard that low, sweet voice. 
 Whom did he know that had golden-brown hair like 
 this maiden's? 
 
 He looked again and then it all came to him. 
 He knew it was his long-lost comrade, whom he had 
 missed for years. 
 
 '^O Elizabeth!" he cried, and caught her in his 
 arms. Don't you know me ? See ! I am your old 
 playmate, John, the farmer's son. 
 
 Elizabeth gave one long look, then threw her arms 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE II3 
 
 about his neck and burst into tears, sobbing as though 
 her heart would break. 
 
 ^'Oh, take me away!" she cried. '^Take me away 
 from this dreadful place and from these goblin folks ! 
 If I could only wander again with you through the 
 green fields, hunting the sweet smelling flowers; if I 
 could only feel again the soft wind fan my cheek 
 and hear the gentle patter of the rain upon the roof. 
 What wouldn't I give to hear again the singing of 
 the birds or the rustling of the leaves in the wind ? 
 Even the lowing of a cow, or the bleating of a 
 sheep would be music in my ears. And oh! if I 
 could sit once more beside the door, upon my 
 Father's knee — and hear the church bells ring." 
 
 Elizabeth's old playmate kissed away the tears 
 from her pale cheeks and the sad smile from her 
 lips, which made the brown dwarf very angry. 
 
 He groaned aloud, tearing his tangled hair and 
 grinding his long teeth in his rage. At last John 
 turned to him and said, '^This beautiful girl has 
 worked for you in this terrible place five long years^ 
 while all her friends thought her dead. She is going 
 to be well paid by you for all you have made her 
 suffer. Go quickly and bring her the most beautiful 
 gems you have in all your rich store. When you 
 have let us both up again through the gate of glass, 
 I'll give you your cap." 
 
 There was nothing left for the brown dwarf to do 
 
114 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 but obey, so grumbling all the while, he filled John's 
 pockets and Elizabeth's apron with the precious 
 stones. 
 
 Then they left this dreadful sunless country and 
 passed up through the gate of glass, until their feet 
 once more touched the soft, green grass and the warm 
 sunshine brought the roses back to Elizabeth's pale 
 cheeks. 
 
 The brown dwarf stretched up his crooked, claw- 
 like fingers for his red cap, which John had tossed 
 down to him, and the glass gate closed. As John 
 and EHzabeth walked home through the meadows 
 hand in hand, they thought the sunshine had never 
 before been so bright. They knew the birds had 
 never sung so sweet a song, nor the waves of the sea 
 made softer music on the shore. 
 
 John led EHzabeth to her father's door, and when 
 the Miller held his daughter safe again in his arms 
 the bells rang out their merriest tune and the village 
 folk were almost wild with joy. 
 
 Very soon after this John and Elizabeth were 
 married in the church, and lived happily all their 
 lives in a fine great house that John had built. 
 
 No other little girls of the village were ever again 
 stolen by the goblins, as EHzabeth had been, for in 
 the nine hills John put up a great cross of stone over 
 the glass gate through which the elves used to come 
 up to dance in the moonlight. 
 
THE BROAVN DWARF OF RUGEN 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personm 
 
 John — a farmer's son 
 
 LiZBETH — the miller's daughter 
 
 The Mhler 
 
 Workmen 
 
 Townspeople 
 
 The Leader of the Dwarfs 
 
 John (yodelling for Lizheth), 
 
 Lizbeth {heard yodelling in distance comes into 
 sight.) 
 
 John Where have you been all this time ? Didn't 
 you hear me calling you this long while ? 
 
 Lizheth No, I answered as soon as I heard you. 
 I drove part way to the mill with Father. Then he 
 put me down and I ran back as fast as I could to 
 play with you. Papa likes to have me go part way 
 with him. He says it is a long drive to take all alone 
 every day. 
 
 John Where shall we go to play to-day? Shall 
 we go out into the fields for wild flowers? Those 
 warm days must have brought many out. 
 
 Lizheth After a while we'll see how many flowers 
 
 115 
 
Il6 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 we can find to carry home, but let's run down to the 
 beach now and play in the sand. Wouldn't you 
 rather do that than anything else? 
 
 John Yes, playing in the sand is always great 
 fun, and I love the smell of the sea, too, don't you ? 
 
 Lizheth Indeed I do! and don't you like to hear 
 the boom of the surf, as the great waves break on the 
 shore ? 
 
 John Yes and how like live things the waves 
 seem chasing each other to land. It looks as if they 
 were running a race to see which would reach the 
 beach first. 
 
 Lizbeth Here comes a big wave now. 
 
 John The one behind it is larger. Let's go as 
 close to the water's edge as we dare and then run 
 back when we see a big wave coming. 
 
 {Children go cautiously to watefs edge many times 
 run back shouting and screaming,) 
 
 John Oh! Oh! The waves are chasing us. 
 
 Lizbeth We're playing tag with the sea, aren't we ? 
 
 John Yes and it's more fun than with boys and 
 girls. Run! Quick, Lizbeth! or they'll have you. 
 
 Lizbeth That one abnost drenched me. My hair 
 is wet with the spray. I'm all out of breath. Let's 
 play in the sand awhile. 
 
 John How like silver the sand looks this morn- 
 ing. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE II 7 
 
 Lizheth It is the sun that makes it glisten so. Lie 
 down, John, and I'll bury you in it. 
 
 {John lies down, Lizbeth heaps sand upon him. 
 Both laughing and shouting gaily.) 
 
 Lizbeth (sings in chanting fashion) Now you are 
 buried you must be good, must be good. 
 
 (John suddenly springs up, throwing off sand,) 
 
 John Now let me bury you, Lizbeth. Lie down. 
 
 {Lizbeth obeys, John throws sand all over her,) 
 
 Lizbeth {screams) My eyes! Oh, my eyes, John! 
 The sand is getting in them. 
 
 John You must shut your eyes as tight as you can. 
 
 Lizbeth {wails) I can't shut them tight enough, 
 but what the sand gets in them. And my ears, 
 too. Oh, John ! stop and let me get up. 
 
 John That's just like a girl. Very well. Jump 
 up and we'll dig canals. 
 
 {Lizbeth jumps up and both dig quietly for awhile 
 using pail and spade,) 
 
 John I'll dig all the sand from this place and you 
 carry it over there in your pail. 
 
 Lizbeth And make a fort of it, shall I ? 
 
 John Yes, and a wall on this side of the canal. 
 
 Lizbeth Is that the canal you are digging now, 
 John? 
 
Il8 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 John No, this is a big lake I am making. You 
 dig a small bay the other side of this strip of 
 land. 
 
 Lizheth Oh, now I see where you are going to dig 
 the canal! 
 
 John You see there must be some way for the 
 boats to get from the big lake into the bay. 
 
 Lizheth So we'll cut the canal through this strip 
 of land, won't we, to join the lake and bay? 
 
 John Now let's get some chips for boats and see 
 if they can go from the lake through our canal into 
 the bay. 
 
 {They sail chips.) 
 
 Lizheth {clapping hands gleefully, jumping up and 
 down) Yes! Yes! They do. Now the boat has 
 landed at the city on the bay. Don't let's dig canals 
 any longer, John. 
 
 John What shall we do then ? 
 
 Lizheth Let's go down in the meadow and hunt 
 for wild flowers. 
 
 John Very well, we will, and see if we can get 
 our pails full before it is time to go home. 
 
 {Both run hand in hand to meadow, as they near it 
 Lizheth cries) 
 
 Lizheth A violet ! A violet ! I spy the first violet 
 {picks it). 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE II9 
 
 John Jack-in-the-pulpit for my pail — three of 
 them close together. 
 
 Lizheth Dear little hepaticas! I do believe you 
 are the prettiest of all. 
 
 John Ho! Ho! Look, Lizbeth! Dutchman's 
 breeches. 
 
 Lizheth I was hunting for marsh marigolds and 
 almost stepped on this little dog tooth violet. It 
 never holds its head up, does it? 
 
 John Oh! it is much too early for cowslips, 
 Lizbeth. Many of the early spring flowers are gone 
 before they come. We better be going home, Liz- 
 beth. It must be growing late. See, all those work- 
 men on their way home to supper. 
 
 (Both run out into road and join workmen^ many 
 of whom they know.) 
 
 First Man Hello, little ones! What have you 
 been doing all day ? 
 
 John Hunting wild flowers in the field. 
 
 Lizheth And see how many we found {holding 
 pail up for him to see), 
 
 Secmid Man A whole pailful! I didn't think 
 there were so many in blossom. 
 
 Third Man It must have taken you hours to 
 find so many. 
 
 John Only a few moments. We've been down 
 on the beach most of the day. 
 
I20 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Fourth Man And what do you little people find 
 to do down there ? Sail your boats ? 
 
 Lizheth Sometimes, but we like better to play 
 tag with the waves. 
 
 John And bury each other in the sand. 
 
 Fifth Man {to companions) Hadn't we better tell 
 the children never to go as far away from home 
 as the Nine Hills? 
 
 First Man Yes, I think we ought. It might not 
 be safe for a little maid with curls like gold and eyes 
 as blue as the sky to go as far as the Nine Hills. 
 
 Second Man Nor for a lad as strong and straight as 
 John. We must warn them to keep away from there. 
 
 Third Man Listen, children. Do you ever go 
 as far away from home as the Nine Hills ? 
 
 John Isn't that where the elves and goblins play 
 at midnight and dance in the moonlight ? 
 
 Third Man Yes, it is said to be their playground 
 and to-day while we were at work near there, we 
 heard strange voices in the air. 
 
 Fourth Man And we heard small horns blown 
 by lips we could not see. 
 
 Lizheth And do you think it could have been the 
 elves and goblins? 
 
 Fourth Man Who else could it have been in that 
 spot. 
 
 John How are dwarfs and elves that people talk 
 so much about, different from us? Do you know? 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 121 
 
 Fifth Man They are the little brown-faced people 
 who have no souls as Lizbeth and you and I have. 
 
 Lizbeth Are there as many of them as there are of 
 us? 
 
 Sixth Man Exactly the same number; no more, 
 no less. For every man and woman who walks 
 through our town in the fresh air and sunshine there 
 is a troll living under the ground. 
 
 John And are there trolls for all the little girls 
 and boys, too? 
 
 First Man Yes, for every little lad and lass 
 playing in the sunshine there is an elf living deep 
 down in the earth. 
 
 Lizbeth Ugh! How dark it must be down there! 
 I'd not like to be an elf. 
 
 Second Man I don't believe you would. Just 
 think of it! The sun and air never come to the 
 home of the trolls and elves. 
 
 Lizbeth Oh! I see Papa coming. I'll run to meet 
 him and get a ride. Good-night, John. Good-night, 
 everybody. 
 
 {Lizbeth runs on ahead.) 
 
 Third Man The Miller thinks there never was 
 a child quite as sweet as his Lizbeth. 
 
 Fourth Man It would break his heart if anything 
 happened to her. 
 
 John This is where I live. Good-night and 
 
122 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 thank you for telling us about the queer little brown- 
 faced people, who have no souls. 
 
 Men Good-night, lad. 
 
 First Man And remember, don't go as far away 
 from home to play as the Nine Hills. 
 
 {All separate.) 
 
 Scene II 
 
 Time: The next night. 
 Place: The village street, 
 
 {People walking up and down, talking excitedly, 
 John wanders aimlessly about, crying bitterly,) 
 
 First Person Isn't this a dreadful thing that has 
 happened to our little Lizbeth? 
 
 Second Person Almost night now and she has 
 not been seen since morning. 
 
 Third Person Poor John! Poor boy! He has 
 cried himself sick. 
 
 Fourth Person Lizbeth and he were the best of 
 chums. 
 
 Fifth Person And always had such good times 
 together. Haven't you seen Lizbeth at all to-day, 
 John? 
 
 {John shakes head, still sobbing bitterly,) 
 Sixth Person When did you see her last, John? 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 23 
 
 John Yesterday. We had been playing together 
 all day and as we were coming home at supper time 
 she saw her father and ran to meet him and get a 
 ride. That was the last I saw of her, running to meet 
 her father. 
 
 Seventh Person The woman who keeps house 
 for the Miller says that Lizbeth started out early 
 this morning to find John and then they were going 
 to some new place they had heard of, to play, but she 
 did not say where it was. 
 
 Eighth Person Hark! What is that? 
 
 (^'Lizbeth! Lizbeth! LizbethP^ is heard repeatedly 
 in the distance.) 
 
 First Person Oh! all the men of Rugen have gone 
 out to hunt for the poor little lost girl. They are 
 all through the woods and fields, calling her name 
 at every step. Listen! You can hear them again. 
 They must be coming back. 
 
 (''Lizbeth! Lizbeth! Lizbeth!^ ^ is heard coming 
 nearer all the time) 
 
 Second Person Some went east, some went west; 
 others north and south. 
 
 {Large groups of men come in sight,) 
 
 Women {cry) No news? No word? Have you 
 no trace of our little lost girl? 
 
124 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 (Men shake heads sadly,) 
 
 First Man We have nothing to tell her poor 
 Father. 
 
 Second Man We have not brought him his little 
 lost girl, nor have we brought any word of her. 
 
 Woman Poor man! Poor man! His heart will 
 surely break. 
 
 Second Woman How is he ever going to live with- 
 out her? 
 
 (Group of very old women of the village come along.) 
 
 First Old Woman We know you have not found 
 our little Lizbeth. We can tell by your faces. You 
 would not look like that if you had good news of her. 
 
 First Man No, we found no trace of the poor 
 little one. 
 
 Second Woman None will ever find our Lizbeth. 
 
 (Men and women crowd about the Second Old 
 Woman.) 
 
 Second Man Why do you say so? What do 
 you think has happened to her? Do you think she 
 is dead? 
 
 Second Old Woman She had better be dead, 
 hadn't she, than stolen by the Trolls ? 
 
 Third Man You really think our Lizbeth has 
 Ijcen stolen by the little brown-faced people ? 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 25 
 
 Fourth Man I never heard of their stealing our 
 children. 
 
 Second Woman Yes, once before did this same 
 thing happen to a child of Riigen. It was even be- 
 fore my day. My mother was a child herself then, 
 and never forgot how her little playmate was snatched 
 from them. 
 
 Fourth Man Then you believe our Lizbeth is 
 down among the elves and trolls this minute, shut 
 away from the fresh air and sunshine forever? 
 
 Second Old Woman We shall never know whether 
 my words be true or not, but as for myself, I 
 know what has befallen our poor little Lizbeth. 
 
 Fourth Man Hark! {A bell is heard,) 
 
 Third Woman What can that bell mean ? That 
 they have found her? 
 
 Fifth Man It would not toll as for the dead, if 
 they had found her. 
 
 Third Old Woman The Miller ordered prayers 
 to be said in the church for his little daughter who 
 comes not again, and the sexton is tolling the bell 
 while they are being said. 
 
 Sixth Man The poor Miller! This is a sorry 
 day for him. 
 
 Seventh Man No doubt he'd gladly give all his 
 money if it would bring back his little daughter. 
 
 First Man What a sad, lonely life he will lead 
 without the one who filled all his days with sunshine, 
 
126 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Second Man And how empty his big house will 
 seem without Lizbeth in it. She was always here, 
 there and everywhere, busy as a bee. 
 
 Third Man Since we can do nothing for the 
 Miller, I suppose we might as well go to our homes. 
 
 {All separate.) 
 
 Scene III 
 
 Time: Five years later. 
 Place: Miller^ s Home. 
 
 {Miller sits disconsolately^ resting head on hand. 
 John enters room.) 
 
 John Good-day, O Miller of Rugen. Do you 
 remember me ? 
 
 Miller {rising^ puts hand affectionately on John^s 
 shoulder) Remember you, my boy? I^izbeth's old 
 playmate, her best of chums? Remember you? 
 Indeed I do, and think of you more often than of 
 anyone in town, because my Lizbeth loved you. 
 
 John I have grown so tall. There are many who 
 do not know me now. They are still expecting to 
 see the little boy I used to be. 
 
 Miller And you almost a man ! But I can see, 
 as if it were but yesterday, Lizbeth and you hand in 
 hand, off for the beach or the meadows. Those 
 were happy days, Boy, 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 27 
 
 John The happiest of all our lives, but we shall 
 see some more happy days before we die. 
 
 Miller {shakes head sadly) You may, I hope. 
 You ought, for you are young, but now Lizbeth has 
 gone, I have no one to bring me happiness. 
 
 John Then we must try to bring Lizbeth and with 
 her will come happiness. 
 
 Miller Bring Lizbeth back? Are you mad, 
 Boy? She has been dead these five years. 
 
 John You do not know that she is dead, nor do I, 
 nor does any one, for none saw her lying dead. 
 
 Miller Then why would she not come to us she 
 loved, if she still lives ? 
 
 John How can she if she is held a prisoner under- 
 ground by the Trolls ? 
 
 Miller And you beheve that old woman's tale ? 
 
 John I do not know whether I do or not, but I 
 came to tell you that I am going to find my old play- 
 mate, or at least find out whether she be dead, as 
 you think, or alive and a prisoner, as all the old 
 women of Riigen think. 
 
 Miller I can see no way for you to find out, my 
 boy, but a father's heart is glad and thankful that 
 you are going to try to get word of her we both 
 loved. If I were a younger man, you should not go 
 alone. 
 
 John Then wish me success, good Miller, and I'll 
 be off. 
 
128 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Miller Indeed I do wish you success! I shall 
 sit here in my chair where you found me, and pray for 
 you until you come again. 
 
 John Good-by. 
 
 Miller Good-by and God bless you, my dear 
 boy — my Lizbeth's good comrade ! 
 
 (They shake hands and John goes out.) 
 
 Scene IV 
 
 Time: Midnight of that same evening. 
 Place: The Nine Hills. 
 
 John (hidden in some bushes says to himself) The 
 last that was seen of Lizbeth she was coming towards 
 this playground of the Trolls. I suppose what those 
 workmen said, of hearing strange sounds all that 
 day as they worked, made her think she'd come and 
 hear them, too, or perhaps even catch sight of a 
 Troll. There they come now, the little brown-faced 
 things. 
 
 (Groups of Trolls come into sight, singing and danc- 
 ing and making merry.) 
 
 John That must be the leader who wears the red 
 cap, and that same red cap is a magical one, IVe 
 heard. I'll watch my chance, snatch it away from 
 him, and see what happens. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 12g 
 
 {The leader tosses cap into air. Quick as a flashy 
 John "jumps from hiding place and catching it, puts 
 it on his own head. Troll kneels at John^s feet and 
 cries bitterly.) 
 
 Troll My cap! My cap! Oh, give it back to 
 me! I pray you, give it back to me! My magic 
 cap ! It is of no use to you. It will not fit your great 
 head. I beseech you, give it back to me! 
 
 John (shakes head) No, I shall not give it back 
 to you for all your pleadings. The Dwarf who 
 throws away his magic cap must do something for 
 the one who finds it. You must pay well for your 
 cap if you wish it back. 
 
 Dwarf Wliat is it you want me to do ? Tell me 
 quickly how you wish me to pay for it that I may get 
 it again. 
 
 John Five years ago you stole my pretty Liz- 
 beth and hid her away in your dark home, under the 
 ground. Now, I will give you back your magic cap, 
 if you will open the door to your underground home 
 and let me take Lizbeth back to her Father. No 
 other way will you ever get your cap from me. 
 
 Dwarf Lizbeth would not come with you now. 
 You could not coax her, for she is one of us. She 
 is mine alone, or will be, for to-morrow Lizbeth is to 
 be my bride. Even now the great cake is baked for 
 the wedding feast. 
 
130 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 John (roars out very angrily) Hold your tongue! 
 And may the evil spirit get you! Quick! Open the 
 glass door in this hill that leads to your bad world 1 
 
 {Both stand silent.) 
 
 John (in threatening tone and slowly) Open that 
 door, I say, or I '11 make you wish you had. 
 
 Dwarf If I must then, come. (Opens door in hill. 
 Both go down stairs.) 
 
 John (to himself) Does this long stairway lead 
 to his strange, sunless country, I wonder? Is he 
 taking me there or into some dungeon where he will 
 make me his prisoner? No. This must be the 
 Land of the Dwarfs. I can hardly believe my eyes. 
 The streets are all of golden sand, just as the story 
 books tell us. What makes those great palaces 
 sparkle and glow I wonder ? If my eyes tell me the 
 truth they are made of precious stones. (To Dwarf.) 
 Where does this long, dark passage lead me ? 
 
 Dwarf Follow it and you'll come to the dining 
 room, where you may have all the good things you 
 can eat. I must leave you now for a little, but call 
 for anything you'd like to eat and it will be brought 
 to you. 
 
 John (enters dining room and seats himself at 
 table, says to himself) I never in all my life saw 
 so much to eat at one time, so many tables and 
 everyone loaded with good things. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 131 
 
 {John looks long at girl, who comes up to take his 
 order.) 
 
 Girl If you'll give me your order, I'll bring you 
 what you wish. 
 
 John (continues to look at her, suddenly says) 
 You are no Troll! 
 
 Girl What makes you think I am not ? 
 
 John No one with eyes as blue as yours and face 
 as fair, ever belonged to the ugly Trolls. I do not 
 like to see one so beautiful looking so pale and sad. 
 
 Girl 1 have enough to make me look pale and 
 sad. I have nothing to make me look rosy and happy. 
 
 John Did you ever smile and were you ever 
 happy in all your Hfe, I wonder? 
 
 Girl There were few who laughed more merrily 
 or lived happier days than I did once. 
 
 John It seems as if I must have heard your voice 
 before somewhere. 
 
 Girl How could that be ? 
 
 John Or else I have known some one else who 
 speaks in the sweet, low voice you use. And your 
 hair, too — who is it I know that has just such golden 
 brown hair as yours ? 
 
 (John thinks earnestly, looking at girl, who stands 
 silent by table, then suddenly gives a great cry of joy) 
 
 John O Lizbeth! Lizbeth! Now it all comes to 
 
132 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 me. My long-lost comrade {catches her in his arms). 
 Don't you know me, Lizbeth? See! I am your 
 old playmate. Don't you know me? Your best 
 chum, John, the farmer's son. 
 
 (Lizbeth looks long at John, then throws arms 
 about his neck, bursts into tears, sobbing as if her heart 
 would break,) 
 
 Lizbeth O John! take me away! Take me 
 away! If you love me, take me away from this 
 dreadful place and these goblin folk! Remember 
 how we used to love each other, and take me away! 
 
 John Dear Lizbeth, that is what I came to do. 
 To find you, if I could, and take you back to the 
 village that still mourns for you, though five long 
 years have passed. 
 
 Lizbeth If I could only wander again with you, 
 John, through the green fields, hunting the sweet 
 smelling flowers, that I have not seen for all these 
 years, how happy I would be! 
 
 John And so you shall, Lizbeth, now that I 
 have found you, for I shall never leave this place 
 until I take you with me. 
 
 Lizbeth If I could only feel again the soft wind 
 fan my cheek, and hear again the gentle patter of 
 the rain upon the roof. 
 
 John So you shall, dear; very soon, under your 
 Father's roof. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 33 
 
 Lizheth What wouldn't I give to hear again the 
 singing of birds, or the rustling of leaves in the wind ? 
 
 John My poor Lizbeth! I begin to see some- 
 thing of all you have missed these years we have 
 been mourning you, for sun, nor wind, nor rain, nor 
 song of bird, nor breath of flowers is never known in 
 this strange dreary land. 
 
 Lizheth Even the mooing of cows, as they go 
 through the lanes at milking time, or the bleating of 
 sheep, would be music to my ears. 
 
 John You shall soon have again all you have 
 lost, dear Lizbeth, except the five lost years that 
 cannot be recalled. 
 
 Lizbeth And oh! most of all, John, do I long to 
 sit once more beside my Father's door cuddled close 
 in his arms and hear the church bells ring. 
 
 John Even that, too, Lizbeth, shall you do. 
 Your Father is waiting for you and the church 
 bells, that tolled so sad a measure when you were 
 taken from us, will ring a merry chime to welcome 
 you. So let me kiss away the tears from those pale 
 cheeks and that sad smile from your sweet lips. 
 Hark! What was that ? I hear some one groaning, 
 Lizbeth. 
 
 Lizbeth Yes, see, it is the Brown Dwarf. When 
 he is very angry he always groans aloud that way, 
 and tears his tangled hair and grinds his long teeth. 
 
 John Brown Dwarf, listen to me. This beauti- 
 
134 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 ful girl has worked for you in this terrible place five 
 long years, while all her friends thought her dead. 
 She is going to be well paid by you for all you have 
 made her suffer. Go quickly, Brown Dwarf, and 
 bring her the most beautiful gems you have in all 
 your rich store. Then, when you have let us both 
 up again, through the gate of glass, I'll give you your 
 magic cap, which I still have. 
 
 Brown Dwarf (grumbling) Nothing else for me 
 to do. I must get back my magic cap at any price. 
 
 (Grumbles and ^nutters, as he fills John^s pockets 
 with precious stones) 
 
 Brown Dwarf May there be holes in every pocket 
 that the stones will sHp through and be lost. 
 
 John (laughs) Not a hole will you find in all 
 my pockets. Brown Dwarf. I have too good a 
 mother for that. Every stone you give me will reach 
 home safely, you may be sure. There, my pockets 
 will hold no more. Now, Lizbeth, make a bag of 
 your apron, for you'll need it no more. The Miller's 
 daughter will not be a waitress when she reaches 
 her Father's home. 
 
 Brown Dwarf May the cloth be tender and the 
 stones so heavy that it tears and your treasure is lost 
 on the way. 
 
 Lizbeth Have no fear. Brown Dwarf. This is a 
 new apron of the stoutest cloth. Every stone you 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 35 
 
 pour into it shall be emptied out on my Father's 
 table. 
 
 John Now, Lizbeth, we are ready to leave this 
 dreadful, sunless country. Pass us up through the 
 glass gate, Brown Dwarf. 
 
 {Brown Dwarf shows them the way upstairs.) 
 
 John There! Our feet once more touch the 
 soft, green grass. The rest is easy now. Do you 
 feel the warm sunshine, Lizbeth? It is even now 
 bringing the pink roses back to your pale cheeks. 
 
 Brown Dwarf My cap! My cap! You prom- 
 ised me my cap if I would let you through the glass 
 gate. My cap! My cap! Give me my magic 
 cap! 
 
 Lizbeth Toss it to him quickly, John, that we 
 need not see his crooked, claw-like fingers, stretch- 
 ing up for it. 
 
 John Oh, yes! I was so glad to get you above 
 ground once more, I had forgotten his cap. Here, 
 Brown Dwarf, look sharp! I'll toss it to you. 
 
 Lizbeth Did he catch it ? 
 
 John Yes and closed the glass gate. Now for 
 home, Lizbeth, the shortest way, through the meadows. 
 
 Lizbeth Surely, John, the sunshine was never 
 as bright as this before. 
 
 John Poor Lizbeth! It is because you have 
 not seen it for so long. 
 
136 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Lizheth But the birds, John, did their song ever 
 before sound half so sweet? 
 
 John No, but I was never before in all my life 
 so happy. Maybe that is it. 
 
 Lizheth Hark! What is that other softer music 
 I hear? It seems to come from a distance. Ah! 
 now I know — the waves on the shore, John — the 
 shore that used to look hke silver in the sunshine. 
 
 John We are almost home, Lizbeth. Does the 
 old house look the same to you? 
 
 Lizheth {runs on ahead) There sits my Father 
 in the door as of old. I can hardly wait to get to 
 him. My feet carry me all too slowly. {Cries as she 
 throws hersetf upon Father,) Father! Father! Take 
 your Lizbeth! Hold me close! 
 
 Miller {cries) Lizbeth! My little daughter! Can 
 it be after all these lonely years that I hold you to me 
 once more ? My arms have been so empty. Can it 
 be they hold my Lizbeth at last ? {To John.) The 
 bells! We must have them ring their merriest 
 chimes, because our Lizbeth, whom we mourned as 
 dead, has come back to us. Yes, the bells shall 
 ring right merrily — the same bells that tolled so 
 sadly for you, my daughter — and our friends and 
 neighbors must be told the good news at once, John. 
 The whole village will be wild with joy. 
 
 John {takes Lizheth^ s hand. Both stand he fore 
 Miller) Now I have found her, O Miller of Rugen, is 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 137 
 
 she not mine? Will you not give me your Lizbeth 
 for my wife ? 
 
 Miller I cannot say, ^^No," to you John, nor do 
 I wish to, for you will make my Lizbeth the best 
 of husbands. Very soon we'll have a grand wedding 
 for you in the church and all the village shall see 
 you married. 
 
 John I mean to build a fine home for Lizbeth 
 and me where we'll live happily all our days. And 
 then, in the Nine Hills, I mean to build a great 
 cross of stone over the glass gate through which the 
 goblins come to dance in the moonlight. I do not 
 mean that any more of our children shall be stolen 
 by the Dwarfs and suffer as our Lizbeth has 
 suffered. 
 
THE MILLER OF DEE 
 
 The Story 
 
 There once lived a miller who had three children. 
 One beautiful night he thought he would take them 
 all for a ride. 
 
 They had no carriage, but the Miller mounted 
 his big, bay horse, Dobbin, and pulled the children 
 up behind him. The moon was high in the sky 
 and it was long past the little folks' bedtime, but the 
 Miller thought it was too fine a night to spend 
 sleeping. 
 
 As Dobbin trotted out through the barn gate one 
 of the children cried, ^^O Father, doesn't the moon 
 look like a golden boat to-night?" 
 
 "Yes," said the Miller, "and the sky is blue 
 enough to be the sea on which it floats." 
 
 Very soon they came to the toll gate, where an 
 old man Hved in a little house and took the toll from 
 travellers as they passed through. 
 
 "Good-evening, O Miller of Dee! Where are you 
 
 going so late at night ?" asked the old man, coughing 
 
 and sneezing as he always had, since the children 
 
 could remember. 
 
 The Miller paid his toll, whipped up his horse and 
 i.s8 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 39 
 
 rode on as though he had not heard the old man's 
 question. 
 
 This made the old man very angry and he told 
 himself the Miller could not be out so late on any 
 good errand. 
 
 ''It must be either fear or shame that kept him 
 from answering so harmless a question as that." 
 The old man had not been able to walk far in many 
 a day, but he thought he must follow the Miller 
 and find out where he was going, since he would 
 not tell. 
 
 The moon was still high in the blue sky when the 
 old man started out after the Miller. 
 
 The poor old man's breath came so short, that he 
 fell to coughing and wheezing, bending almost double 
 as he tried to hurry on. 
 
 He passed a milkmaid standing at the farmyard 
 gate, who asked him, as he had asked the Miller, where 
 he was going. 
 
 The old man, like the Miller, did not answer her 
 question by so much as a word. To be sure, he had 
 no breath to spare for talking. 
 
 He had little enough breath with which to chase 
 after the Miller of Dee. 
 
 The milkmaid grew angry, as the old toll man 
 had done, when her question was not answered. 
 
 ''Since he'll not tell me where he is going," the 
 milkmaid said, "I'll follow him and find out for 
 
140 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 myself; so she started out, not stopping even to put 
 her pail of milk in the house. 
 
 She had not gone far when she passed the minister's 
 house. 
 
 There under an old oak tree sat the minister him- 
 self, reading. 
 
 He looked up from the book in his hand to ask the 
 milkmaid where she was carrying her pail of milk, 
 but she was in so great a hurry that she could not 
 stop to answer. 
 
 The minister feared there was something wrong 
 about her going, since she would not even say where 
 she was bound. 
 
 Surely as a minister of the village it was his duty 
 to know, and how could he know, unless he followed 
 her, which he did at once. 
 
 They made quite a procession on the road, each 
 following the other, the Miller, the old man, the milk- 
 maid and now the minister. 
 
 The minister's wife, seeing him go out of the yard 
 and not wishing to be left behind, made still another 
 who followed the Miller of Dee that day. 
 
 The sexton who took care of the church, seeing 
 both the minister and his wife go, joined the proces- 
 sion. 
 
 The policeman seeing the sexton start off thought 
 there must be trouble somewhere that he ought to 
 know about, so he came next in line. Two ragged 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 14I 
 
 boys, half afraid of the poKceman, ran as close 
 at his heels as they dared, to see who was going to be 
 arrested. 
 
 Bringing up the rear of this queer procession was 
 a little black dog with only one eye, who trotted 
 along because one of the ragged boys was his little 
 master. 
 
 There was no bright moon high in the blue sky 
 now. The clouds had gathered. The wind blew 
 a gale and the rain fell in such torrents that the river 
 of Dee was rising. 
 
 It was a wild night to be so far from home. 
 
 The Miller thought so, too, as he made his horse 
 wade across the river and climb the hill to find a 
 shorter way home. 
 
 After him, wherever he went, like boys playing 
 '^Follow the leader," the strange procession came. 
 
 Just as the clock struck twelve the Miller rode 
 into his own yard and jumping down from old 
 Dobbin, lifted his three children to the ground. 
 
 As he turned to go into his house, whom should 
 he see coming into the gate, but those who had fol- 
 lowed him on his ride that night. The pouring rain 
 had splashed and spattered them from head to foot. 
 
 They were as muddy and wet and bedraggled 
 as people well could be, and so tired they could hardly 
 put one foot before the other. 
 
 When they had crawled up the hill to where the 
 
142 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Miller stood the minister frowned at him and said, 
 as cross as could be, ^'What do you mean, man, 
 by doing as you have done to-night?" 
 
 The Miller of Dee smiled a little and then he said, 
 ^^It was a nice, cool night for a ride, so I took my 
 three children with me on old Dobbin, as I have done 
 many a time before." 
 
 For a moment no one said anything. 
 
 Then the Miller asked, '^I would like to know, 
 my friends, why so many of you followed me all the 
 way?" 
 
 Every one in that strange procession, from the old 
 man to the little black dog with only one eye, looked 
 first at each other and then at the Miller. 
 
 It was plain to be seen no one knew what to say, 
 but at last the minister spoke. 
 
 ^'The night was so fine we were out for a walk," 
 and all the rest cried, ^' Yes, a nice, cool walk." 
 
 The Miller of Dee laughed softly to himself, as 
 he went into his house, while the strange procession 
 straggled back down the hill in the pouring rain. 
 
THE MILLER OF DEE 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Persons 
 The Mhler 
 
 Three Chhdren of the Miller 
 Old Tollman 
 Mhkmaid 
 Minister 
 Minister's Wife 
 Sexton 
 Policeman 
 Two Ragged Boys 
 One Eyed Dog 
 Dobbin — the old bay horse. 
 
 Miller This is too beautiful a night to go to bed, 
 children. 
 
 First Child We think so, too, Father. What 
 shall we do ? Sit in the garden ? 
 
 Miller How would you all Uke to go for a ride ? 
 
 Second Child Oh, so much, Father, but how 
 could we? We have no carriage. 
 
 Miller We have our big bay horse, Dobbin. I'll 
 mount him and pull you all up behind me. 
 
 Third Child Oh, Goody! Goody! What fun 
 we'll have! 
 
 143 
 
144 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Miller Then come to the barn with me and let 
 us start as soon as we can; for the moon is high in 
 the sky. 
 
 First Child It is long past our bedtime now, 
 isn't it, Father? We'll be up very late to-night. 
 
 Miller Yes, I know you will, but it is too fine a 
 night to spend sleeping. 
 
 {Miller mounts and pulls each child upon Dobbin^ s 
 back. Each child gives a little shriek as she jumps.) 
 
 Miller Now are we all ready? 
 
 First Child All ready. Father. 
 
 Miller Remember to keep fast hold of each 
 other. Don't let go for a moment, or you may 
 fall oflf. 
 
 Second Child Oh, Father, see the moon! Doesn't 
 it look like a golden boat to-night ? 
 
 Miller So it does and the sky is blue enough to be 
 the sea on which it floats. Now we are coming to the 
 toll gate. 
 
 Third Child Does that old man have to stay here 
 all the time and take the toll. Father ? 
 
 Miller Yes. He lives in that little house by the 
 gate and takes the toll from every traveller who 
 passes through. 
 
 First Child Does he always have a cold. Father? 
 He coughs and sneezes as he is doing now every time 
 I have seen him since I can remember. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 45 
 
 Miller Sh! Sh! We are so near, he may hear 
 you. Perhaps it is because he is so very old. 
 
 {Miller drops toll in old man^s hand and whips 
 up horse,) 
 
 Old Man Good-evening, O Miller of Dee! 
 Where may you be going so late at night ? {Ajter a 
 pause.) He rides on as if he had not heard me. 
 {Louder.) Where are you going, O Miller of Dee? 
 Still he does not answer me. We'll see whether 
 you will or not, O Miller of Dee, for you have made 
 me very angry and now I am sure you are not out on 
 any good errand so late. He must be either afraid 
 or ashamed not to answer so simple a question as 
 that. I have not walked more than a block in many 
 a day, but I think I ought to follow that Miller, if I 
 can, and find out where he is going, since he will 
 not tell. O my! O my! My breath is so short! 
 This walking makes me cough so hard. And how 
 I wheeze, but I must hurry on. 
 
 Milkmaid {standing by gate) O Tollman old! 
 I did not suppose you were able to walk as far as 
 this and up hill too. Where are you going so late ? 
 {After a pause.) Well, you are not very polite, old 
 man. Can't answer a civil question. To be sure, 
 the poor old fellow has not much breath to spare for 
 talking, but it makes me angry not to be answered 
 at all; but I'll find out where you are going, old man, 
 
146 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 for I'll follow you and see for myself since you will 
 not tell me. I'll not stop to put my pail of milk in 
 the house. I'll carry it with me that I may lose no 
 time. 
 
 Minister {reading under tree in his own yard) It 
 is very late to be delivering milk. I wonder where 
 the milkmaid can be going with it this time of night. 
 (To milkmaid,) What brings you out so late, my 
 pretty milkmaid? Is someone ill to whom you are 
 carrying milk? Are you in too great a hurry, even 
 to answer me ? There is something all wrong about 
 this, or she'd be willing to tell where she is going. 
 I believe it is my duty as her minister to find out 
 about this. But how can I unless I follow her ? That 
 is exactly what I'll do and at once. 
 
 Minister's Wife comes out of house into yard) I 
 thought my husband was reading under the tree. 
 I saw him but a moment ago. Where can he have 
 gone? How strange that he did not come tell me 
 he had a call to make! Ah! There he is, up the 
 road, almost running. I'll follow and try to catch 
 up with him, for I don't like to be left alone in the 
 house as late as this. 
 
 Sexton Who is sick, or dying, or perhaps 
 dead, I wonder? Both the minister and his wife 
 are going up the road as fast as their feet will 
 carry them. I must follow them and see who is 
 in trouble. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 147 
 
 Policeman What sends all these people out on 
 the road at this late hour, I wonder. And all going 
 the same way, and all in a great hurry. I saw the 
 minister start out as if he were in great haste, then 
 his wife and now the sexton. They must have had 
 word of an accident somewhere. They may need 
 me. How do I know but it is something I ought 
 to attend to ? If I hurry, I may be able to catch up 
 with them and find out. 
 
 First Boy Look! There's a cop! running along 
 the road like a deer. I'll bet he is chasing a thief. 
 Let's hurry after him and see him arrest someone. 
 
 Second Boy Come on ! Maybe there's a fight ! 
 
 First Boy Or a fire! 
 
 Second Boy Run faster, can't you? Perhaps 
 there's a runaway. 
 
 First Boy And maybe someone was killed. 
 
 One-eyed dag I'll have to trot along as fast as I 
 can, for the boy with the red cap is my little master 
 and I always go wherever he does, though what all 
 this queer procession means, I don't know, nor 
 where they are all going, nor why they are hurrying 
 so, but then I am only a dog. Perhaps my little 
 master knows why we are following all the rest. 
 
 {Millefs Children speak) 
 
 First Child Where is our bright moon now, 
 Father? 
 
148 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Second Child It was high up in the blue sky 
 when we started. 
 
 Third Child Where's it gone, Father? It was 
 so pretty. 
 
 Miller Thick, dark clouds have covered it, so 
 we cannot see it. I am afraid there is going to be a 
 big storm long before we can get home. 
 
 First Child How the wind blows. Father! 
 
 Miller Yes, a perfect gale. 
 
 Second Child Here comes the rain. We'll get 
 very wet, won't we. Father? 
 
 Miller It is coming down in such torrents the 
 River of Dee will rise and we'll have a hard time get- 
 ting home. I am sorry now we came so far, for it is 
 a wild night to travel. Dobbin, you'll have to wade 
 the river whether you like it or not. Hold fast to 
 each other, and to Father, children. Now, Dob- 
 bin, you must climb this hill, for it will take us a 
 much shorter way home. 
 
 First Child Father, there are so many people 
 following close behind us. 
 
 Miller One or two, you mean, child, not many 
 this wild night, for few travel this road even in the 
 daytime. 
 
 Second Child Yes, Father, Sister did see many 
 people. I looked just now and saw them, too. 
 
 Third Child Where can they be going ? To our 
 house, Father? 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 49 
 
 Miller No, no, child, but here we are at home 
 and glad I am to get you back safely, though you 
 are all as wet as drowned rats. 
 
 {Miller jumps his children down from Dobbin^s 
 back.) 
 
 First Child Oh, look, Father! All those people 
 Sister saw following us are turning in the gate. 
 
 Miller Never mind. I'll stay here to meet them. 
 You run to Mother and get dry clothes. I'll see 
 what the people want of us. 
 
 (Miller watching people come slowly up hilly says 
 to himself) 
 
 Miller They are splashed and spattered from 
 head to foot, even worse than we were. They are 
 as wet and bedraggled as people well can be. And 
 so tired they can hardly put one foot before the 
 other. What can it be that has brought them so 
 far in this pouring rain? (To people as they come 
 nearer) What can I do for you, Friends ? 
 
 Minister (frowns on Miller ^ speaking angrily) 
 You can tell us this, then. What do you mean 
 by doing as you have done to-night? 
 
 Miller It was a nice cool night for a ride, before 
 the storm came up, too fine a night to sleep, so I 
 took my three children for a ride on old Dobbin's 
 back, as I have done many a time before. 
 
150 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 {Long pause. All silent.) 
 
 Miller Now I too would like to know something. 
 Why have so many of you followed me all the way ? 
 
 {Long silence. Each looks at the other and then 
 at Miller^ not knowing what to say.) 
 
 Minister The night was fine, as you said, and we 
 were out for a walk. 
 
 All {in chorus) Yes, a nice, cool walk. 
 
 Miller {laughs long and loud) Good-night, my 
 friends, you have a nice, wet walk before you, in the 
 pouring rain. I bid you good-night, my friends. 
 
 {Miller goes into house. Procession straggles hack 
 the way they came.) 
 
.vr^-^- 
 
THE CROW'S CHILDREN 
 
 The Story 
 
 One day in early fall a hunter carrying his gun was 
 walking through a field whistling a merry tune. 
 
 On the topmost branch of a dead tree sat the 
 blackest of black crows, who called out to the hunter: 
 
 ^^I know you have started out with your gun to 
 kill all the birds who steal your corn and I don't 
 blame you one bit. I would, too, if I were a farmer 
 and raised corn, but don't you dare hurt any of my 
 family." 
 
 The hunter stood still near the dead tree, till the 
 crow had finished, then he said : 
 
 '^The only birds I am after are those that are 
 eating up my crops. If your young ones are thieves, 
 I promise you my gun will stop their stealing once 
 and for all." 
 
 The Crow ruffled her black feathers as if she did 
 not like what the hunter said. 
 
 '^It is very plain to be seen that you do not know 
 
 my children at all. There are no better youngsters 
 
 than mine in all the world. There isn't one among 
 
 them all that would steal so much as a grain of your 
 
 com or any other man's." 
 
 151 
 
152 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 ''Very good/' said the hunter, ''but how am I to 
 know which birds are yours? Have they beautiful 
 black satin coats like yours ? " 
 
 "Oh, dear, no!" screamed the crow. "My chil- 
 dren are much better looking birds than I am. Black 
 satin coats, indeed! though that is a very nice way 
 to speak of my sad colored feathers. They are the 
 whitest birds that ever flew — as white as the snow, 
 when first it falls, as pure as the lily. 
 
 "I cannot fail to know them now, Mother Crow," 
 said the hunter. 
 
 "I'll remember to spare all the snow-white birds I 
 see, for they do not steal my corn, you say." 
 
 "Not a grain! Not one grain!" cawed the crow, 
 while the hunter went on his way, whistling a merry 
 tune. 
 
 Bang! Bang! All day long the Crow heard his 
 gun in the woods, but she did not worry in the least, 
 for hadn't she told the hunter exactly how her beauti- 
 ful birds looked? And hadn't he promised not to 
 kill the snow-white things? Why need she worry 
 indeed? But there was the Hawk, her neighbor, 
 whose children were all such dreadful thieves. 
 When night came the hawk might find few of 
 her strong-winged birds would ever come home 
 again. 
 
 And there was her other neighbor, too, that saucy 
 blackbird, who might not whistle so merry a tune 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 153 
 
 when she found that many of her bold children had 
 stolen their last grain of corn. 
 
 Mother Crow was feeling almost sorry for her 
 neighbors and the trouble their wicked youngesters 
 brought them, when she saw the hunter coming home 
 from his day in the woods. 
 
 The poor Crow almost fell from her perch on the 
 topmost branch of the dead tree, when she saw what 
 was hanging down his back. She had to look the 
 second, and even the third time, before she could be- 
 lieve her eyes, but it was only too true. 
 
 A string of dead crows as long as his arm was what 
 the poor Mother saw. 
 
 Her children, her pretty birds, her good young- 
 sters that never stole so much as a grain of com, all 
 dead. 
 
 ''Alas! Alas!" cried the Crow. ''What in the 
 world have you done? 
 
 "This morning you promised to spare my pretty 
 birds. This evening you have killed them, every 
 one!" 
 
 "Your birds?" said the hunter, looking as puzzled 
 as could be. " How can they be your birds ? I found 
 these ugly birds stuffing themselves in my cornfield 
 and you told me that your children would not steal 
 so much as one grain. These birds I killed are 
 as black and homely as any that ever flew. You 
 said I'd be sure to know yours, because they were 
 
154 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 as white as snow, when first it falls. How can it 
 be, then, that I have killed your birds?" 
 
 The Mother Crow was so angry she screamed at 
 the hunter. ^^You are the stupidest man I ever 
 knew! Go away! Go away! I say. Get out of 
 my sight! No one but a Mother knows how good 
 and fair her children are." 
 
 ^^Oh, now, I see! I see!" said the hunter. ^'But 
 I can't see quite as you do, however hard I try, for it 
 is only a Mother who can love her children so well 
 that black looks white to her." 
 
THE CROW'S CHILDREN 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personce 
 Hunter 
 Mother Crow 
 
 Crow (on topmost branch of dead tree) Who is 
 this comes walking through the field so early ? Not 
 Fanner Gray, I know, for he never whistles so merry 
 a tune as that. He must be a hunter, for I see he is 
 carrying a gun. But what would he find to hunt 
 about here unless it were the thieving birds that 
 steal all the farmer's com. That must be what he 
 is going to do. (Calls to hunter,) I know you have 
 started out with your gun to kill all the thieving 
 birds that steal your com and I don't blame you one 
 bit. It is exactly what I'd do myself, if I were a 
 farmer and raised com for market. But, Mr. Hunter, 
 don't you dare hurt so much as a feather of any of 
 my family. 
 
 Hunter The only birds I am after, the only 
 birds at which my gun shall be aimed, are those 
 that are eating up my crops faster than I can raise 
 them. If your young ones are thieves, I promise 
 you my gun will stop their stealing once and for 
 
 155 
 
156 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 all. They'll never live to scratch up another grain 
 of corn. 
 
 Crow Your words do not please me, Mr. Hunter. 
 It is very plain to be seen that you do not know my 
 children at all. There are no better youngsters than 
 mine in all the world. I like not to hear them called 
 thieves, for there is not one among them who would 
 steal so much as a grain of your corn or any other 
 man's. 
 
 Hunter Very good, I'm glad to hear so good a 
 report of any birds, but how am I to know which 
 birds are yours? Have they beautiful black satin 
 coats like yours? 
 
 Crow Oh, dear, no ! Oh, dear, no ! Indeed they 
 have not! If you call my old black coat beautiful 
 you should see theirs. If you admire mine, I do not 
 know what you will say, when you see theirs My 
 children are all much better looking birds than I 
 am. Black satin coats indeed! Though that is a 
 very nice way to speak of my sad colored feathers. 
 My children are the whitest birds that ever flew, 
 as white as the snow when first it falls, as pure as 
 the Hly. 
 
 Hunter Well, then, I cannot fail to know them, 
 now. Mother Crow, if I but use my eyes. I'll not 
 forget to spare all the snow-white birds I see, for 
 they are your children, and do not steal my corn, 
 you say. 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 57 
 
 Crow Not a grain! Not one grain of your corn 
 or any other farmer's com. 
 
 Hunter Very well. Mother Crow. Now I must 
 be on my way again, for I have a long day's work 
 before me, to catch and kill, before the sun sets; 
 all the bold thieving birds that have been helping 
 themselves to my com, every day since it was planted. 
 
 Scene II 
 
 Time: Late in afternoon of same day. 
 Place: Same tree where crow was sitting in morning. 
 Crow still seated on topmost bough. 
 
 Crow There it goes again ! Bang! Bang! Bang! 
 All day long I have heard that hunter's gun in the 
 woods. If I had not told the hunter exactly how 
 my beautiful children look, I'd worry every time I 
 heard his gun, for fear he had shot some of them by 
 mistake. But now, I do not have an anxious mo- 
 ment, when I hear his gun banging in the woods, 
 for he promised me not to kill any of my snow-white 
 darlings. But I can't help feeling sorry for my 
 neighbor, the Hawk. Her children are all such 
 dreadful thieves. The hunter will surely catch 
 some of them stealing his com, for they do it from 
 morning till night. So I am afraid when night 
 comes the poor Mother Hawk will find that few of 
 
158 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 her strong-winged birds will ever come home to 
 her again. 
 
 Then there is that other neighbor of mine, the 
 blackbird. Though she has been very saucy and 
 rude to me more than once, I can't help feeling sad 
 for her. Whistle that merry tune as long as you 
 can, poor Mother Blackbird. Your tune will not 
 be so gay when night comes, I fear. The farmers 
 all say there are no thieves in the fields any bolder 
 than her children, when night comes, and it is time 
 for her to call her brood home, she'll find many of 
 her young ones will not answer, will never again come 
 at her call, nor will they ever steal again. They 
 have stolen and eaten their last grain of com, many 
 of her children, I fear. My poor neighbors! How 
 sorry I am for you ! How fortunate a Mother is 
 to have children Kke mine ! How happy and thank- 
 ful I ought to be. Wicked children can bring so 
 much trouble to their Mothers {screams). Oh! Oh! 
 It can not be! I almost fell from my high perch at 
 what I thought I saw, but I must be mistaken. It 
 can not be true. My eyes must deceive me. It is 
 the hunter, the very same hunter with whom I was 
 talking this morning. Of that I am sure, and — 
 hanging down his back — oh, no, no, it cannot be! 
 I will not believe it. Let me look again, the second 
 time. My old eyes may not be very bright to-day. 
 I'll not believe this dreadful thing until I look th^ 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 159 
 
 third time. The air to-day is not very clear for 
 seeing things at a distance. Oh, my pretty, pretty 
 children ! It is only too true. Mother's snow-white 
 birds all dead. My good youngsters, who never 
 stole so much as a grain of corn, killed, instead of 
 those bold, thieving birds who do nothing but steal 
 from morning till night. What can it all mean? 
 {Shrieks at hunter,) Alas! Alas! What dreadful 
 thing is this you have done ? What terrible mistake 
 have you made? Or are you a bad, wicked man 
 whose promise is good for nothing? Only this 
 morning under this same tree, you promised to spare 
 my pretty birds. This evening you have killed my 
 beautiful children, every one. 
 
 Hunter Your birds? I do not understand you. 
 Of what birds are you speaking ? 
 
 Crow Of my beautiful birds, to be sure, that 
 you promised not to kill, and then shot at them all day. 
 
 Hunter How can these be your birds. Mother 
 Crow ? I found these ugly fellows, stuffing themselves 
 in my cornfields, so I felt sure they could not be yours, 
 for you told me your birds would not steal so much 
 as a grain of com. These birds on my back are as 
 black and ugly as any that ever flew, so I was sure 
 they could not be yours, for you said yours were as 
 white as the snow when first it falls — as pure as 
 the lily. How, how can it possibly be that I have 
 killed your children. Mother Crow ? 
 
l6o THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 Crow You are the stupidest man that ever lived, 
 the dullest man that ever was bom, the dumbest 
 thing I ever knew! Go away! Go away! I say. 
 Out of my sight before I tear your eyes out with my 
 claws, your blind eyes that cannot tell black from 
 white. Oh, you cruel man! You wicked man! You 
 have broken my heart! My beautiful children! 
 My pretty birds! No one but your Mother knew 
 how good and fair you were. 
 
 Hunter Oh, now I see at last! I see, but I 
 can't see quite as you do, however hard I try. There 
 is no one but a Mother who can love her children so 
 well that black looks white as the snow when first 
 it falls, as pure as the lily to her. 
 
 Crow Out of my sight, I say, you blind man! 
 Out of my sight, before I scratch out your eyes that 
 can't tell one color from another! Oh, my pretty 
 snow-white birds! My good children! How can 
 Mother ever live without you! 
 
KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 
 The Story 
 
 Once there lived a great king whose name was 
 Solomon. His people thought him the wisest man 
 in all the world. Not far from King Solomon's 
 country lived a Queen, called the Queen of Sheba. 
 
 She had heard Solomon called the richest as well 
 as the wisest of Kings. 
 
 So the Queen of Sheba came to pay King Solomon 
 a visit that she might see whether all the wonderful 
 things she had heard of him were true. 
 
 One day King Solomon with all his soldiers rode 
 out of the city with the Queen of Sheba that she 
 might see the beautiful country before she went 
 back to her home. 
 
 She was a very proud Queen and always dressed in 
 robes of purple and gold. She rode at the king's side 
 and sat her beautiful horse as well as the king did his. 
 
 The Queen of Sheba had heard that King Solo- 
 mon knew the language which all the birds and 
 animals and insects spoke. 
 
 People said he was so wise he understood every- 
 thing that was said by all the creatures that lived 
 upon the earth. 
 
 i6i 
 
1 62 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 The great and small, those that walked and those 
 that swam, those that flew and those that crawled, 
 spoke a language that King Solomon knew. 
 
 As this wise King and proud Queen rode on that 
 day, with a long line of soldiers following, their path 
 led across an ant hill. 
 
 King Solomon heard the small Ant folk say: 
 ^^Here comes that king men say is so wise and good 
 and just. How can he be, when he means to crush us 
 and our homes in the dust? He does not seem to 
 see that he will ride over us, but perhaps he would 
 not care if he did. 
 
 The great king, who had been listening to all the 
 Ant folk said, told the Queen of Sheba what he had 
 heard them say. 
 
 The Queen's eyes opened wide with surprise that 
 he was able to understand what these little black 
 bugs said. 
 
 ^^O king!" she whispered. ^'They should be 
 happy even to be stepped upon by one so wise and 
 great as you. How do these crawling things dare 
 speak against you whom God gave a crown, against 
 you, to whom even Kings bend the knee." 
 
 ^'No," said King Solomon, shaking his head very 
 slowly. ''The v/ise and strong should take care 
 of the weak. That is the right way," and, as he 
 spoke, he turned his horse sharply aside. 
 
 All the long line of soldiers saw what their King 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 1 63 
 
 had done, and, though they did not know why, they 
 all did the same. Every rider turned his horse 
 sharply aside, when he came to the ant hill, so neither 
 the ants nor their home were harmed in the least. 
 
 The Queen of Sheba bent her proud head. 
 
 ^^O King!" she said, ^' now I know why people 
 call you good and wise and just. No wonder this 
 country, is a happy one, when its naler listens more 
 carefully to the troubles of his poor people than all 
 the flattering things the rich may say to him. 
 
KING SOLOMON AND THE ANTS 
 
 The Play 
 
 Dramatis Personce 
 Queen of Sheba 
 King Solomon 
 Soldier 
 
 Ants 
 
 Soldier I bring greetings to the great King Solo- 
 mon from the Queen of Sheba, who is even now on 
 her way to pay a visit to her neighbor-king. 
 
 Solomon Of the beauty of your Queen I have 
 often heard. It is good news indeed, and a very 
 great honor that she is about to pay us a visit. I, 
 myself, with my soldiers, will go forth to meet and 
 welcome her. Soldiers ! To horse ! Eveiy man of 
 you ! and bring to me my milk-white steed with its 
 crimson trappings, for the best and the finest we have 
 in our kingdom will be none to good in which to wel- 
 come this beautiful Queen. 
 
 Soldier The milk-white steed with its crimson 
 trappings waits for you to mount, my lord. 
 
 Solomon Then, let us start forth with all speed, 
 for I would welcome the Queen of Sheba just with- 
 out the walls of the city. 
 
 {All ride off together in haste.) 
 164 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE I05 
 
 Secmid Soldier We were none too soon, my lord, 
 for look! the beautiful Queen is already in sight, upon 
 the road with her attendants following. 
 
 Solomon A Queen indeed she is! One would 
 know that by the way she sits her beautiful horse, 
 A proud Queen, too, I know by the way she holds 
 her lovely head. She is dressed as a Queen should 
 be, too, in robes of purple and gold, even on this 
 dusty road. {Says to Qtieen) Welcome to the beautiful 
 Queen of Sheba ! Welcome to my kingdom ! We are 
 honored indeed to receive a visit from one so great. 
 
 Queen Greetings! O King! I live not far from 
 your country and I have wished for some time to 
 pay you a visit and see for myself, if all the wonder- 
 ful things I hear of you are true. 
 
 Solomon What are some of these wonderful 
 things you have heard of me ? I am glad of them, 
 whatever they are, since they have brought me a 
 visit from so beautiful and good a Queen. 
 
 Queen Your people think you are the wisest man 
 in the world. I have heard you called the richest as 
 well. 
 
 Solomon My people love me and think everything 
 I do is right. Perhaps they talk too much of my 
 wisdom to those who do not know and love me as 
 they do. My kingdom is a very rich one. I liave 
 more gold than any man needs. 
 
 Queen But that is not all. The most wonderful 
 
1 66 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 thing I heard of you is yet to come: that you knew 
 the language which all the birds and animals and in- 
 sects speak. People say you are so wise that you 
 can understand everything that is said by all crea- 
 tures that live upon the earth, great and small, those 
 that walk and those that swim, those that fly and 
 those that crawl, you understand the language that 
 all of these creatures speak. Is it true, O King, that 
 you are even as wise as that ? 
 
 Solomon It is not as hard as you think it is to 
 study languages different from the one we speak. 
 It does not take a very wise man to understand what 
 birds and animals and insects are saying, if he is 
 willing to watch them and listen patiently for awhile. 
 
 Queen What a beautiful part of the country this 
 is through which we are riding. 
 
 Solomon We'll ride in this direction a little farther 
 before we turn towards home, so you may look 
 down into the valley. 
 
 (While King and Queen ride on in silence, ant folk 
 talk among themselves,) 
 
 First Ant Here comes that king men say is so 
 wise and good and just. 
 
 Second Ant How can he be, I'd like to know, 
 when he means in another moment to crush us 
 and our homes in the dust? When by turning his 
 horse but a few inches out of the path, he need not 
 
THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 167 
 
 kill US nor ruin the homes we have worked so hard 
 to make. 
 
 Third Ant He does not seem to see that he will 
 ride over us, if he keeps on. 
 
 Fourth Ant Perhaps he would not care if he did 
 ride over us, killing us and crushing our homes. 
 
 Fourth Ant O. Ants! we have wronged a good 
 kind king when we said he'd not care if his horse's 
 hoofs did trample us in the ground, for see what he 
 has done! 
 
 Fijth Ant Turned his own horse sharply aside, 
 and of course every soldier will do whatever his king 
 does, though he may not know why. 
 
 Sixth Ant Yes, every soldier all down the long 
 line, turns his horse sharply aside, when he comes 
 to the place where the king turned his. 
 
 Seventh Ant He is the wise good king we have 
 always heard he was, to be sure. 
 
 Eighth Ant We were only some little black ants 
 to him, but he went out of his way to spare our lives 
 and our homes. 
 
 Ninth Ant What other king would ever do that ? 
 I never heard of one that would. 
 
 Solomon Why are you so silent, O Queen ? Am I 
 taking you too long a ride? Perhaps you are tired. 
 We can turn back any time you wish. 
 
 Queen I am not in the least tired, and do not 
 wish to turn back, but I have been wondering why 
 
1 68 THE LAND OF MAKE-BELIEVE 
 
 you and all your soldiers turned your horses aside 
 when you came to a certain place in the road. 
 
 Solomon Did you see those little black ants we 
 just now passed? As we came towards them, I 
 heard one say, ^^Here comes that king men say is 
 so wise and kind. How can he be, when he means 
 in a moment to crush us and our homes in the dust ?" 
 Another said, "He does not seem to see that he will 
 ride over us," and still another thought I'd not care 
 if I did kill them and ruin their homes. I would have 
 turned my horse aside for the busy little things, if I had 
 not heard a word they said, they are such patient 
 toilers. 
 
 Queen O King! The ants ought to be happy 
 even to be stepped on by one as wise and great as 
 you. How dare those crawling things speak one 
 word against you, whom God has given a crown I 
 You, to whom even kings bend the knee! 
 
 Solomon {shakes head slowly) No, no. The wise 
 and strong ought to take care of the weak. That is 
 the right way. 
 
 Queen My proud head is bowed before you, 
 O King! Now I know why people call you good 
 and wise and great. No wonder this country is a 
 happy one. It is not strange your people love you 
 as they do. There are few rulers in the world who 
 listen more carefully to the troubles of his poor than 
 to all the flattering things the rich may say to him. 
 
One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
 
 *^ »" 25 
 
 ^' \