PIPER
Come, did you ever see a fat man cry,
About a little Boy?
[The Strollers are convulsed with hoarse mirth.
HANSEL
No,--Never.
ILSE
Never!
Oh, what a funny dream!
[They giggle together.]
[The PIPER silences the Strollers, with a gesture of warning
towards the rocky door.
PIPER
[to himself]
'T is Hans the Butcher.
[To the Children]
Well, what did he say?
HANSEL
'_Come home, come home, come home_!' But I didn't go.
I don't know where. . . Oh, what a funny dream!
ILSE
Mine was a bad dream!--Mine was a lovely lady
And she was by the river, staring in.
PIPER
You were the little gold-fish, none could catch.
Oh, what a funny dream! . . .
[Apart, anxiously]
No Michael yet.
[Aloud]
Come, bread and broth! Here--not all, three at a time;
'T is simpler. Here, you kittens. Eat awhile;
Then--
[RUDI wakes.]
RUDI
Oh! I had a dream,--an awful dream!
[The PIPER takes JAN on his knee and feeds him, after ladling out
a big bowl of broth from the kettle for the Children, and giving
them bread.
PIPER
Oh! oh! I had a dream!
CHILDREN
Oh, tell it to us!
PIPER
I dreamed. . . a Stork. . . had nested in my hat.
CHILDREN
Oh!
PIPER
And when I woke--
CHILDREN
You had--
PIPER
_One hundred children_!
CHILDREN
Oh, it came true! Oh, oh; it all came true!
THE STROLLERS
Ah, ho, ho, ho!
[The dumb one rises, stretches, and steals toward the entrance, stopping
to slip a blind-patch over one eye.
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