What to do he didn't know. He
sat with his head in his hands, and thought and thought and thought.
Suddenly there came a little _rat-tat_ at the door. Oh! how the Mayor
jumped! His poor old heart went pit-a-pat at anything like the sound of a
rat. But it was only the scraping of shoes on the mat. So the Mayor sat
up, and said, "Come in!"
And in came the strangest figure! It was a man, very tall and very thin,
with a sharp chin and a mouth where the smiles went out and in, and two
blue eyes, each like a pin; and he was dressed half in red and half in
yellow--he really was the strangest fellow!--and round his neck he had a
long red and yellow ribbon, and on it was hung a thing something like a
flute, and his fingers went straying up and down it as if he wanted to be
playing.
He came up to the Mayor and said, "I hear you are troubled with rats in
this town."
"I should say we were," groaned the Mayor.
"Would you like to get rid of them? I can do it for you."
"You can?" cried the Mayor. "How? Who are you?"
"Men call me the Pied Piper," said the man, "and I know a way to draw
after me everything that walks, or flies, or swims. What will you give me
if I rid your town of rats?"
"Anything, anything," said the Mayor. "I don't believe you can do it, but
if you can, I'll give you a thousand guineas.
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