The Baker Children and the Rats
By Ashly Burgen
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Spring 2007

The Baker household was always busy. Matthew Baker and his wife, Rebecca, managed to raise six wonderful children while running the local bakery. Garthe, the second oldest boy, helped his father run the bakery and the girls Elizabeth, Mary and Rebecca all baked in the back. Sarah, being only nine years old, was too young to bake but she helped keep the bakery clean with her brother Gunther, who was eleven. John, the oldest of all the children, didnt work in the bakery. Instead, he worked on his studies.

The rat problem had never been a problem at the bakery until they infested the storage barrels of rye. They began to eat the bread and rolls. The family began to run out of baked goods to sell. Not to mention that the rats werent exactly good for business. The Bakers knew that if the rat problem was not taken care of soon, their business would soon fail and they would have no money to feed their children.

Matthew, worried for his family, decided to go and visit the mayor of Hamelin to plead with him to find any help. He know the mayor would help because he got most of his breads and other baked goods from their bakery.

Mayor, you have to do something about this rat problem. I have six children and the rats are ruining my bakery. If I dont have any customers, I dont have money to provide for my family. Isnt there anything you can do?

The mayor sighed and looked up at Matthew. Believe me, Mr. Baker, I am trying my best to take care of the rat problem. It seems like we may never find any form of help.

Matthew left the mayors home depressed. He felt like he was failing as the head of the house. He knew the number of rats was increasing, and his business wouldnt last two more weeks.

The next day, the town square rumbled and people looked down at the ground. A tune began to sound through the rumbling and when the towns people looked down at the cracking earth, a chasm opened up and thousands of rats poured out of the abyss. They swarmed over the town square towards the river Wesser. Following the rats, a man appeared out of the darkness playing a strange wind instrument. Whatever tune he was playing, it was making the rats run for their lives. When all the rats had cleared out of town, and drowned in the river, the people began to celebrate. Finally they were saved from the curse of the rats.

Matthew, who happened to be in the town square and witnessed the event, ran home to tell his family. As he ran in the door, he almost tripped over his own feet in excitement. Were saved! The bakery is saved! he shouted.

What about all the rats? What about all the destroyed baked goods, Rebecca asked him.

The rats are gone. I saw it with my own eyes. A man played an instrument and the tune led all the rats out of town into the Wesser River. All the rats are drowned. All the rats are gone and now we can bake without our goods being eaten up by the rats! Matthew could barely contain his happiness.

Rebecca smiled hugged him. All the family celebrated and had a big feast to celebrate the joyous occasion. That night, while the Baker family lay in their beds, another tune began to play outside. The Baker children slowly began to awaken, beginning with little Sarah, the youngest. She began to walk outside in a hypnotized trance, following the Pied Piper. Other children followed the melodic sounds and soon it even woke the parents. When they looked out and saw their children were following the Pied Piper, they were outraged and tried to call out to stop him. They began to think he was going to drown them in the river too, just like he did the rats. Unfortunately, the melody that made the children follow the Piper eventually froze the parents in their tracks. They watched helplessly as the Pied Piper led the children out of town towards a large mountain, their feet glued to the ground. The pleas and lamentations of the parents could be heard all the way to the mountain side, where the Piper played a cryptic tune. All at once, the side of the mountain opened up to reveal an enormous cavern lit by a thousand candles. The children followed the Piper inside, and when the last child was safely inside the yawning mouth of the cavern there was a landslide that closed off the entrance forever. The parents, their feet released from the pavement as soon as the last rock stopped rolling down the side of the hill, rushed to the mountain side and began pulling away the rubble and debris. But for every rock they removed from the landslide, two more rocks rolled down from the mountain top. After days of trying to open up the cavern, they gave up. The children were never seen again.

Some say the children were taken to a mysterious carnival in the mountain. Others have heard that the Pied Piper led the children on a childrens crusade. The townsfolk never saw or heard from the children again, and it devastated everyone in the town.

As for the Bakers, they were at a loss. All of their children followed the Piper. There was no longer any one to help with the work of the bakery. Rebecca Baker died of heartbreak, borne out of depression. Matthew sold the bakery and went on a journey to find his children. He was never seen again.

For Reflection:
Many of the materialistic ideas of today are expressed in terms of money. However, money in coin or paper format was difficult to come by for the average person during the middle ages. Can you research the use of coin and paper money during this time period? How and when was the barter system strong, as a replacement for money?

Two student writers from different classes have portrayed John Baker as a person who does not intend to follow his father into the bakery business. This is an interesting concept to come out of two different classrooms on a chance characterization of John Baker. In the time of the middle ages, the oldest boy inherited the name, the title, the business, the land etc of the father. Therefore, its unusual for both of these students to imagine John Baker doing something outside the norm. Therefore, there must be something they see in this character that sets him apart. How do you envision John Baker???? Can you write his biography?

Since the children disappeared, the focus of the story is that Matthew no longer had the labor force needed to run the bakery. Is this the reason for large families in the middle ages? To help run the family business? What do you think?

Can you write a story that describes Matthews journey to search for his children? Did he try to go around to the other side of the mountain? Did he try to go over the mountain? What magical force caused the landslide to keep coming down when the parents tried to dig out the cave entrance?