Now listen I’ll tell you a tale
A story from long time ago
In Hamelin there was a plague
A plague of dirty rats.

They ate all the cheese from the vats
And spoiled the ladies’ chats
By speaking and shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.

Chorus
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rats
Cheeky and sneaky and ravenous rats
Fought with the dogs and they killed the cats
Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rats.

Then one day a stranger appeared
Dressed in bright yellow and red
Said he “The Pied Piper am I
And I can get rid of those rats”.

Chorus
The piper stepped out in the street
Put his pipe to his lips and he played
He danced all the way across town…..

The people of Hamelin cheered
And rang all the bells in the town
“Go” said the Mayor “and get poles
Poke out the nests and block up the holes”.

So the piper went back to the Mayor
Who’d faithfully promised to pay
One thousand guilders reward
The Mayor said “Fifty is all you will get.”

Chorus

The piper stepped out in the street
And once again started to play
And all over Hamelin town
Came the patter of tiny feet.

They followed the piper up Koppelberg Hill
A door in the mountain swung open until
All of the children were safely inside
Then that door in the mountain swung shut.

And that’s how this sad story ends
Not one of those children returned
The lesson is clear to us all
A promise made is a promise kept.

Chorus