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Show "Since no one knew who my father was, or where my mother had come from, I was given to the nuns to raise. They kept me till I was eight, then I was brought to Master Hermann. He needed a boy to work for him." A rat started to nibble the toe of my torn hose, and I raised my foot to kick it off. Other rats were jumping up to the shelf where the fresh bread lay. I swang a rag at them, but the sleek black creatures only danced out of the way and came right back. The stranger seemed amused at my antics with the rats. "Is Hamelin town always so full of vermin?" he asked me. "This horde of them came only about ten days ago," I answered. "We've always had some rats, of course, but never a plague like these. They get into everything. They jump right on the tables when people try to eat, and one of them even got into the cradle of the mayor's baby daughter. That is the reason the streets are empty just now." He raised an eyebrow. "What is the reason?" "Everyone has gone to church to pray that God will tell us some way to get rid of the rats. At the same time they're praying that God or Saint Boniface will make the rain stop. We've had so much rain for the past two years that crops rot in the fields. Between the rain and the rats, who eat everything they find, we will probably see many people starve this winter." I was repeating what I'd heard Master Hermann say to other members of the town council. The stranger moved so suddenly that I was taken by surprise. He whipped a strangely-marked silver flute from the folds of his |
