A bell sounded from somewhere farther away so Matilda walked down the alley and came to a huge Town Square. Soldiers stood in line, poking their spears at rats that dared to try to get past them. On the steps of the Town Hall a roly-poly man, dressed in the robes of a Burgermeister, spoke to a group of citizens gathered below. A man in a fine tunic, and wearing a silk beret with a pretty feather in its band, stood beside the Burgermeister. He had a flute in one hand.
“Citizens,” shouted the fat Burgermeister, “I have found the answer to our problem. May I introduce the Pied Piper, who promises to rid our beautiful city of these terrible rats for the payment of 500 gold coins.”
The crowd burst into applause and the Pied Piper gave a graceful bow as he removed his beret.
“And he will do it immediately!” continued the Burgermeister.
The cheers from the people were deafening. Everybody watched in amazement as the Pied Piper walked down the steps, past the line of soldiers, and began to play his flute. A delightful tune echoed around the Town Square and the rats stood still, enchanted by the music. Suddenly rats appeared from everywhere throughout the city, thousands of them, and, when the Pied Piper began walking towards the gates of the city, the rats followed behind as if they had been trained to march in line. People came out onto their balconies and into the streets to clap the Pied Piper for solving their problem.
Matilda watched from the wall of the city as the Pied Piper continued to play his flute and passed through the city gates, down the road leading to the river. When he reached the river he stood by its bank and kept playing. The rats, still bewitched by the music, marched straight past the Pied Piper and into the fast-flowing stream. Soon the waters were covered with the bodies of the rats as they struggled against the current to stay afloat and were washed towards the sea. For the citizens of Hamelin it was a wonderful sight.
When the last rat had plunged into the water, the Pied Piper put his flute in a small pouch on his belt and strolled back to the city gates where the plump Burgermeister was waiting with a huge grin on his face.
Now the Burgermeister was a shrewd and mean man and he had no intention of paying the 500 gold coins when the job was done. After all, he thought, he hadn’t signed a contract with the Pied Piper, and 500 gold coins was far too much for a task that had only taken half an hour at most. So, when the Pied piper approached him, he handed over a small purse containing just 10 gold coins. He intended keeping the difference for himself.
Taking the purse and counting the coins, the Pied Piper looked at the Burgermeister in disgust.
“You promised me 500 gold coins,” he roared, going red in the face. “Are you not a man of your word?” And he threw the coins and purse to the ground.
Like all mean people, the Burgermeister had a hide as thick as a rhinoceros. He smiled at the Pied Piper.
“We had no contract,” he replied. “And I didn’t realise that your task would be so simple. Be happy with what you have and leave our city.”
“You will pay for this,” stormed the Pied Piper. “I promise you that.”
Ignoring the 10 gold coins, he walked off down the road.
Matilda watched all of this happening and was quite angry with the selfish Burgermeister. She knew from the story what would happen next and feared for the citizens of the city. She would have to help solve the problem but decided that the Burgermeister should have a scare first. So she walked down the road after the Pied Piper and found a grassy nook in the shade of trees to rest until the next episode unfolded.
That night the podgy Burgermeister was snoring away in his bed, a bright red nightcap on his bulbous head, when he was awakened by music. It was coming from the Town Square. He rolled out of his bed and went to the window. Below he saw the Pied Piper playing a different tune on his flute and – shock, horror – hundreds of the city’s children were moving into the Town Square as if they were sleep-walking.
As soon as all of the children had assembled, the Pied Pied marched out of the city with the children following behind. By the time the Burgermeister had put on his clothes and dashed down to the Town Hall to call out the guards, the Pied Piper and his dreamy company had disappeared.
The Town Square was soon filled with frantic and angry parents.
“Our children have gone,” they cried.
“Where has he taken them?” they asked.
“We want our children back!” they screamed.
“You caused this,” they shouted at the Burgermeister.
Somebody threw a tomato which struck the Burgermeister on the cheek. Suddenly rotten fruit was coming at him from all directions, staining his clothes and dripping off his face. He ran back into the Town Hall in fear of his life.
Meanwhile, Matilda had watched from her hiding place as the Pied Piper strode past with the children. She followed him to a hill with a stony cliff. Here the Pied Piper stopped and played another tune on his flute. The cliff face split apart to reveal a cave and, as the Pied Piper played his flute again, the children marched into the hillside. When the last child had entered the cave, the Pied Piper played another melody and the opening in the cliff closed.
The Pied Piper sat down on a rock, not looking too happy with himself. Matilda walked up to him.
“Well you’ve paid back the Burgermeister for his trickery. Now what do you plan to do?”
The Pied Piper was startled by this young girl’s voice and jumped from the rock.
“Who are you?” he asked in a surprised voice. “Did I miss putting you in the cave?”
“No, no,” replied Matilda calmly. “I don’t live in Hamelin. I’m from another land and I’m here to see that the fair thing is done.”
“Fair? Fair?” shouted the Pied Piper. “That blubber of a Burgermeister doesn’t know what the word means. I told him that he’d pay for his treachery, and so he shall!”
“But should the citizens of Hamelin also pay?” said Matilda. “They didn’t do anything to deceive you and I’m certain that they will pay you your full fee once they have discovered what the Burgermeister has done.”
“Do you really think so?” queried the Pied Piper.
“I’m sure so,” declared Matilda. “Will you release the children if you are paid what you are owed?”
“As long as that overweight thief of a Burgermeister gets what he is due as well.”
“I can assure you he will,” stated Matilda.
“Very well,” said the Pied Piper, who was truly sorry for having to use the children to settle the score with the Burgermeister. “You bring me a purse containing 500 gold coins and news of what has happened to the double-crossing Burgermeister, and I will release the children.” With that he reached out and shook hands with Matilda.
Time was important. Matilda realised that the children’s loving parents must be beside themselves with worry and shouldn’t have to suffer any longer for the Burgermeister’s greed and treachery. She ran all the way to the Town Square and began ringing the bell to summon all of the citizens. The Burgermeister was cowering with fear inside the Town Hall and did not dare come out. Soon the square was filled with anxious-looking parents.
Matilda held up her hands to quieten the parents, then began to speak.
“I am a friend from another land and I am here to save your children,” she shouted. The parents were upset and worried enough not to question anybody that might help them. “The loss of your children is due to one person only,” she continued. “Your greedy Burgermeister did not live up to his promise of paying the Pied Piper 500 gold coins for ridding your city of the rats. Instead he intended keeping most of the reward for himself. He only gave the Pied Piper 10 gold coins.”
A shocked buzz went through the crowd.
“Bring out the Burgermeister! Bring out the Burgermeister!” the crowd began to chant.
Behind the closed doors of the Town Hall, the Burgermeister began to shake in his boots.
Who was this stranger turning the people against him? What could he do to escape the angry mob outside? The Town Guards would no longer protect him, in fact they seized him and dragged him out to face the crowd. The citizens began to boo.
Matilda held up her hands again. “Please, please,” she begged them, “give him a chance to explain.” The people went silent.
“Harumph,” began the Burgermeister, clearing his throat. “Citizens of Hamelin, it is true that I only gave the Pied Piper 10 gold coins, but it was because I believed that he had only earned that much for the time it took him to rid us of the rats. And I was only trying to save the city a great deal of money. I was . . . er . . . certainly not going to keep the rest of the reward for myself. Believe me when I say my only purpose was to help the city.”
Matilda knew this was a bald-faced lie. She whispered, “Peri”, and the little fairy appeared on her shoulder. The people were far enough away not to notice her and the Burgermeister was looking at the crowd.
“Let’s see what’s in his purse,” Matilda said to Peri.
The fairy waved her wand and the Burgermeister's purse flew up from his belt, tipped upside down and scattered gold coins onto the steps.
The Burgermeister went white in the face.
“There is the truth,” shouted Matilda. “The gold coins for the Pied Piper’s reward were in his own purse.”
Several men ran up the steps and grabbed the Burgermeister, dragging him down to the crowd.
Hoisting him into the air, they carried him down to the river and threw him into the water. He sailed away with the current, spluttering to keep his flabby body afloat, and headed for the sea to join the other rats. Luckily, history tells us that he was fished out of the water by the captain of a river barge and lived the rest of his life in exile.
In the meantime, Matilda gathered up the gold coins and ran down the road to find the Pied Piper. She didn’t have to go very far as he had come to the river to watch the Burgermeister receive his punishment. When Matilda handed him the purse containing his reward, he thanked her with a bow and a flourish of his silk beret.
Taking his flute from its holder he began playing a tune and, within minutes, the parents saw their children running up the road to join them. There were shouts of joy and tears of happiness.
The Pied Piper strutted into the hills playing another beautiful tune on his flute, never to be seen again by the merry citizens of Hamelin.
Matilda called to Peri and the fairy waved her wand to summon the Story Mat. In literally no time at all, they were back in her bedroom. She left the carpet on the floor beside her bed this time and ran downstairs where her mother and father were sitting in the kitchen, looking very glum.
“We’re really sorry for what happened a few minutes ago,” said her mother when she saw Matilda come through the door.
“A few minutes ago?” thought Matilda, confused. A few minutes ago she was watching the Burgermeister float down the river. Then she remembered that time stood still while she was away on her adventures.
“We do trust you,” added her father. “We just worry about you.”
“I know,” said Matilda. “And that’s why I love you both so much.”
A tear trickled down her mother’s face and she gave Matilda a hug.
“Now, how about some jam sponge and lemonade?” suggested her mother.
“I don’t feel very hungry at the moment,” replied Matilda with a smirk.
“And rabbits might rock and roll,” said her father.
Chapter 12
Book #5
Two things were worrying Matilda on her last day with the Story Mat. Firstly, she still had no idea what the gem was that Maximilian had asked her to discover during her adventures. The only jewels she had seen were in the crown of the Emperor when he was being fitted with his new suit of clothes. And Maximilian had said that it wasn’t a real jewel anyway. What could it be?
The second question was which fairy story she would choose for her fifth and final adventure. She had looked carefully through her books and had been shocked to find that most of them were pretty scary. Why did the writers of fairy stories have to make them so cruel and heartless? Surely they must have realised that children would be frightened by them - Rapunzel trapped in a tower; Rumpelstiltskin demanding the first-born baby; the witch putting Hansel and Gretel in an oven; Sleeping Beauty and Snow White being poisoned; even the Wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood” and the terrible Troll in “Three Billy Goats Gruff, trying to eat everybody. How gruesome!
She finally decided to enter one of “Aesop’s Fables” which were mostly harmless. She chose to let the book select her story so, taking it from her bookshelf, she simply dropped it on the floor and looked down to find which fable the open book revealed. There, in front of her, was a picture of a tortoise and a hare.
Walking across to the bedside table Matilda whispered, “Peri”.
“Ready for our last adventure?” she said when the fairy appeared.
“Ready . . . and willing,” replied Peri.
“This should be a simple one,” stated Matilda, holding up the picture.
“That's what we've thought with most of them,” declared Peri.
“M-m-m,” murmured Matilda. “Well, we can only hope.”
Carrying the book across to the Story Mat, she placed it on the sun and opened to the story of “The Tortoise and the Hare”. As Peri flew to her shoulder, Matilda sat down, folded her arms, closed her eyes, and away they went, through the walls of the house and into space.
The Story Mat landed in a pretty, green forest, beside a gravel road. Matilda could hear excited chattering so she walked towards it and hid behind a bush. She could see the most fantastic collection of animals gathered in groups and prattling away amongst themselves. There were badgers, squirrels, rabbits, foxes, deer, pigs, roosters, frogs, toads, horses, rats, moles, and too many more to name. They all seemed to be stirred up about something.
Above the crowd, Matilda saw a banner stretched across the road. It had “START” printed in large letters on one side, and “FINISH” on the other side. Standing under the banner were a hare and a tortoise. The hare was doing warm-up exercises, stretching his legs, swinging his arms and running on the spot while one weasel handed him a bottle of water and another wiped him down with a towel. The Tortoise stood on his own, occasionally sticking out one little leg at a time from beneath his shell.
At last a badger walked out in front of the crowd and asked for silence.
“As you are all aware,” he began to ramble on in a slow, deep, important voice, as badgers do,
“Mr Hare and Mr Tortoise have had a disagreement over their place of residence. Mr Hare declares that he found the cosy hole in the wood first. Mr Tortoise disagrees. He says that his family has lived there for generations and it was only left unattended while he was on a long visit to his Grandma in Totting Waters. Mr Hare has therefore challenged Mr Tortoise to a race around the forest, the winner to have the right to the residence. Mr Tortoise has . . . humph . . . foolishly agreed to the challenge, but so be it. When I blow my whistle the race will begin - one lap of the road around the forest. May the best animal win.”
The hare stepped up to the starting line still doing his exercises. The tortoise waddled over and looked sadly at the crowd. “How did I ever get into this silly contest,” he thought to himself. “Ready!” shouted the badger. “Set!” and then blew his whistle.
The hare raced down the road as the tortoise shuffled off the starting line. The hare stopped a little way down the road, turned to the tortoise and called out, “Watch out for that snail overtaking you, Mr Plod.” And the crowd burst out laughing.
“One step at a time. One step at a time,” the tortoise repeated to himself as he wandered along.
He saw the hare disappearing around a bend.
Matilda knew how the story went but she was in for a shock when she
followed the hare. Of course she couldn’t keep up with him so she called on her fairy friend.
“Peri,” she said when the little fairy appeared on her shoulder, “I need to keep up with the hare
So I can see what he’s up to. Can you arrange that?”
“No problem,” Peri informed her and she waved her wand. In the blink of an eye Matilda was by the edge of the forest watching the hare come down the road towards her. But the surprising thing was that there were two weasels there as well. The road crossed a small stream and the weasels were busy removing several planks from the bridge across the water. It would be impossible for the tortoise to leap across the gap. The weasels were laughing to themselves as the hare approached, jumped over the obstacle, waved to the weasels and continued on his way.
“Not fair,” whispered Matilda, and asked Peri to settle the score with the weasels.
Another wave of her wand and the two weasels were thrown into the air, off the bridge, and into the stream. While they were busy trying to stay afloat and screaming blue murder, Matilda rushed out to replace the planks. Soon she saw the tortoise clumping towards her so she ran back to hide in the forest.
“One step at a time. One step at a time,” the little tortoise kept muttering to himself. He crawled across the bridge and looked down at the weasels thrashing about in the water.
“Strange animals, those weasels,” he commented.
“I wonder what other surprises the weasels have in store?” sighed Matilda and asked Peri to follow the hare again.
This time she arrived ahead of the hare to see another two weasels cutting down a tree and laying it across the road. The hare easily vaulted over the tree and disappeared into the distance.
“Another dirty trick,” said Matilda. “Go to work Peri.”
When the fairy waved her wand this time, the weasels were lifted into the air and hung by the braces of their overalls to a branch of a tree way up in the air. They struggled and squealed as they tried to free themselves. Meanwhile, Matilda pulled the fallen tree off the road.
Along came the little tortoise still muttering to himself, “One step at a time. One step at a time.”
As he passed, he looked up at the two weasels hanging from the branch.