Cricket201901

When Hans was twelve, his father trav-
eled to the big city. “What would you have
me bring back for you, my dumpling, my
dove?” the merchant asked his wife.
“Oh, pots and pans and pantry goods,”
she said.
“What would you have me bring back
for you, my dainty, my dear?” he asked the
housemaid.
“Oh, bracelets and baubles and bonny
trinkets,” she said.
“And you?” he asked his son.
“Once,” said Hans, “a bagpiper came
through town, and he made the sky buzz with
music like all the world’s bees were singing
together. I would like a bagpipe, that I might
learn to play like that.”
His father harrumphed, but he brought
back a bagpipe for Hans. Soon the boy could
play as well as one of the queen’s own guards,
and he would spend his days in the barnyard
playing to his beastly friends.
When Hans was fourteen, he approached
his father.
“Father,” he said, “it’s no secret that you
don’t love me. Well, if only you’ll have a sad-
dle made for my rooster and let me take the
animals that like me best, I’ll go away, and
you won’t have to see me, not ever again.”
So his father went to the saddler’s shop
and had a saddle made for Hans’s rooster,
and Hans rode away playing his pipes, with
his pigs and donkeys and goats and geese
following behind.
Now, most people are terrified of the
Great Forest, but when Hans came to it, he