PIPER
[wildly]
Faith, and you shall.
A master tailor!—Come, here's food for thought.
Think all,—
[To the Strollers]
And hold your tongues, there!—
If a Cat—
If a Cat have—as all men say—Nine Lives,
And if Nine Tailors go to make a Man,
How long, then, shall it take one Man turned Tailor
To keep a Cat in Tails, until she die?
[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL looks subdued; the children whirl about.
But here's no game for Jan.—Stay! Something else.—
[He runs to a wooden coffer, rear, and takes out a long crystal on the
end of a string, with a glance at the shaft of sunlight from the roof.
The Children watch.
Be quiet, now.—Chase not your tails too far,
Till I come home again.
CHILDREN
Come home—come home!
PIPER
And you shall see my—
CHILDREN
Something Beautiful!
Oh, oh, what is it?—Oh, and will it play?
Will it play music?
PIPER
Yes.
[He hangs the crystal in the sun. A Rainbow strikes the wall.
—The best of all!
CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, JAN, CHILDREN
Oh, oh, how beautiful,—how beautiful!
PIPER
And hear it pipe and call, and dance, and sing.
Heja!—And hark you all. You have to mind—
The Rainbow!
[He climbs out, pipe in hand. The Children whirl about after their tails.—CHEAT-THE-DEVIL, and JAN on his tree-stump, open-mouthed with happiness, watch the Rainbow.
Curtain