13
Reading Time
The Pied Piper is an old story that has been told as a poem, a play, and a fairy tale. Different town names are used in different stories, but in every version, a town that is overrun by rats is helped by a strange man in a many-colored coat ( pied means “having many colors”) who plays the pipes.
Short Reads Fiction
ranchville is a sleepy little town on the shore. As sleepy as it is now, it was once lively, and what made it especially lively was its rats. The place was so infested with them as to be hardly worth living in. There was not a barn or storeroom or cupboard that hadn’t been eaten into. Not a cheese that the rats hadn’t gnawed hollow. Not a sugary treat that they hadn’t gobbled up. The noise of rats hurrying and scurrying and squeaking was so loud that no one in the town could get any rest. No matter what they tried—cats, poison, rat-catchers, traps—every day there seemed to be more rats than ever.
The mayor and the town council were at their wits’ end. As they were sitting in the town hall one day, a messenger brought word that a strange man was at the town gates. This stranger was tall and thin, with keen, piercing eyes. He wore a coat with all the colors of the rainbow, and he offered to get rid of the rats. “I’m called the Pied Piper,” he began. “What might you be willing to pay me, if I rid you of every rat in your town?” Well, much as the town officers feared the rats, they feared parting with their money even more. But, in
Folktale (German)
Teacher: Students may read this folktale on their own or with a partner. Purpose: To read a folktale about a town that strikes a deal to get rid of its rat problem
28 Session 13
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