“All but one, who swam a-cross,
and lived to tell the sto-ry !” |

“But rats don’t talk, un-cle Ned
-—it isn’t a true sto-ry you are tell-
ing us!” cried Jack.

“Oh! as to the truth of the story”
re-plied un-cle Ned, “TI shall leave
that to the peo-ple of Ham-el-in to de-
cide. bButif you don’t be-lieve what
I have al-read-y told you, I don’t
think you will be-lieve the rest of
the sto-ry.” |

“But what was it? We want to —
hear it all,” said both the chil-dren.

“There is not much more to tell.
When the Pi-per asked for his thou-
sand pieces of sil-ver, the peo-ple
would not give them to him,
and—”