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Show 27 Master Hermann and the council members while I was away with Gast. I would mention it to Gast when I saw him. Both Hilde and I saw him much sooner than we expected. That evening, as the bell of Market Church was tolling Vespers, a sweet harmony mingled with the chime. Without even waiting to ask Master Hermann whether I could go, I ran out of the bakery and hurried to where the music was coming from. The rain had stopped, and a pale western sun shone over the rooftops. All around the square, children peered out of doorways and then came forward, two and three at a time, to where Gast stood in the center of Market Place piping his strange music. The twins Damien and Dietrich, their little sister Gerta, Maria the mayor's daughter carrying her baby sister Agnes, Gunther von Emmern, Ulrich Wulf and Trude Scadelant, all children of councilmen, and of course Hilde, who was pushing her way through the throng of children to stand at Gast's elbow. As Gast kept playing, they kept coming, until there were too many for me to count. It seemed that every child of Hamelin was there in the square, gazing wide-eyed at Gast. When he started to play a fast, carefree round, their feet twitched and they began to dance, joining hands to make a circle around him. As the tune grew faster they danced faster and began to laugh - it was as merry a scene as I could remember in Hamelin. I must explain that we were starved for music. A few years before, we'd had a town musician who played for weddings and festivals, but when |