PIPER
[distracted]
No, no, no!
You shall be kittens all. And chase your tails,
Till I come back!--So here!

[Catches HANSEL and affixes to his little jacket a long strip of leather
for a tail; then whirls him about.

CHILDREN
Me too!--Me too!

CHEAT-THE-DEVIL
Let me make tails,--let me!
[Seizing shears and leather.]

PIPER
[wildly]
Faith, and you shall.
A master tailor!--Come, here's food for thought.
Think all,--
[To the Strollers]
And hold your tongues, there!--
If a Cat--
If a Cat have--as all men say--Nine Lives,
And if Nine Tailors go to make a Man,
How long, then, shall it take one Man turned Tailor
To keep a Cat in Tails, until she die?
[CHEAT-THE-DEVIL looks subdued; the children whirl about.