Barbara loiters by the tent.  Veronika, the sad young wife of Kurt, watches from the house steps, left, keeping her little lame boy, Jan, close beside her.

Shouts of delight greet the end of the show, a Noah’s Ark miracle-play of the rudest; and the Children continue to scream with joy whenever an Animal looks out of the Ark.

Men and women pay scant attention either to Jacobus, when he speaks (himself none too sober)—­from his doorstep, prompted by the frowning Kurt,—­or yet to Anselm, the priest, who stands forth with lifted hands, at the close of the miracle-play.

Anselm
And you, who heed the colors of this show,
Look to your laughter!—­It doth body forth
A Judgment that may take you unaware,—­
Sun-struck with mirth, like unto chattering leaves
Some wind of wrath shall scourge to nothingness.

Hans, Axel, and others
Hurrah, Hurrah!

Jacobus
  And now, good townsmen all,
Seeing we stand delivered and secure
As once yon chosen creatures of the Ark,
For a similitude,—­our famine gone,
Our plague of rats and mice,—­

Crowd
  Hurrah—­hurrah!

Jacobus
’Tis meet we render thanks more soberly—­

Hans the Butcher
Soberly, soberly, ay!—­

Jacobus
  For our deliverance. 
And now, ye wit, it will be full three days
Since we beheld—­our late departed pest.—­

Old Ursula
[putting out an ear-trumpet]
What does he say?

Reynard
[from the Ark]
  —­Oh, how felicitous!

Hans’ wife
He’s only saying there be no more rats.

Jacobus
[with oratorical endeavor]
Three days it is; and not one mouse,—­one mouse,
One mouse, I say!—­No-o-o!  Quiet. . . as a mouse.

[Resuming] And now. . .

Crowd
  Long live Jacobus!—­

Jacobus
  You have seen
Noah and the Ark, most aptly happening by
With these same play-folk.  You have marked the Judgment. 
You all have seen the lost souls sent to—­Hell—­
And, nothing more to do.—­

[Kurt prompts him]
  Yes, yes.—­And now. . .

[Hans the Butcher steps out of his group.]

Hans the Butcher
Hath no man seen the Piper?—­Please your worships.

Others
Ay, ay, so! 
  —­Ay, where is he? 
    —­Ho, the Piper!

Jacobus
Piper, my good man?

Hans the Butcher
—­He that charmed the rats!

Others
Yes, yes,—­that charmed the rats!

Jacobus
[piously]
  Why, no man knows.—­
Which proves him such a random instrument
As Heaven doth sometimes send us, to our use;
Or, as I do conceive, no man at all,—­
A man of air; or, I would say—­delusion. 
He’ll come no more.