Then, one day much like all the others, a man came to the town carrying a wooden flute, and said 'I will lead all the rats away from your city and to a far-off country, if you will give me the best and fairest children as a reward, to take home to my white palace across the waves'.
And the people didn't want to give their children up, of course, but the rats were horrific creatures and eventually they cried 'yes, yes, all right, you may take our best and fairest children as a reward, to take home to your white palace across the waves'.
So the man with the flute began to play a tune, and led the rats away into the dark, and the town was never troubled again. And the people cheered, although they were sad at heart, for they knew they would soon lose their beloved children.
The man with the flute came back and began to play another song, and this song was happy and sad and tears and laughter all at once on every note, and the best and fairest children followed him down to the shores of the sea with laughter on their voices. And there they climbed aboard tall white ships, and waves goodbye to their friends and families.
But there was one lad who paused on the dock, and turned to look at the boy and the girl he loved. And then he faced the man with the flute and said 'I am not best, nor fairest, though some think me so. I am simply myself, and wish to be an ordinary lad in an ordinary world, for I believe that to be better and fairer than a white palace across the waves'.
'But you shall have beautiful clothes, and beautiful music, and beautiful companions, if you come to the white palace' the man with the flute said. And the lad said 'Yes, I know, thankyou very much for the offer, sir, I'm much obliged, but I think I like worn clothes with ink-stains and the wails of a baby with colic and the dear homely faces of the boy and girl I love much better than I should love the beautiful things in the white palace'.
And the man smiled, and nodded, and the lad ran back to the boy and girl he loved, and lived an ordinary life until the end of his days, in a town entirely free of rats.
~