The Bremen Town Musicians

Once upon a time, a miller had a donkey. For many long years the donkey had faithfully carried heavy sacks of grain to the mill, but now he was growing old, and his strength was not what it used to be. The miller scratched his head and thought that feeding a helper like that was just a waste of good oats.

The donkey guessed what was coming and decided not to wait around. "I’ll go to Bremen," he said to himself. "I have a fine loud voice. I’ll become a town musician!" And off he went.

The donkey walked a long way down a dusty road, past fields and groves, and his hooves tapped out a merry rhythm: clip-clop, clip-clop. On he went, and on, until he saw a hunting dog lying by the roadside, panting hard, as if he had been running all day.

"Why are you so out of breath, my friend?" asked the donkey.

"Oh dear," sighed the dog. "I’ve grown old, and I get weaker every day. I can’t keep up with the hares on a hunt anymore. My master got cross and wanted to send me away, so I ran off on my own. But where am I to go now?"

"Come with me to Bremen," said the donkey. "We’ll be musicians. I’ll play the lute, and you can beat the drum."

The dog thought about it and agreed. And so the two of them walked on together.

Soon they saw a cat sitting on a fence, looking as gloomy as three days of rain.

"Why the long face, Whiskers?" asked the donkey.

"How can I help it?" meowed the cat. "My teeth aren’t sharp anymore. I’d much rather lie by the stove and purr than chase mice. My mistress got cross about it, so I ran off to see the world. But where to, I couldn’t tell you."

"Come with us to Bremen! You know all about nighttime serenades. You can be our singer."

The cat liked the idea, and he joined the band.

The travelers passed a farmyard, and there on the gate stood a rooster, crowing with all his might.

"Why are you crowing so loudly? My ears are ringing!" said the donkey.

"How can I not?" answered the rooster. "Tomorrow is Sunday, and guests are coming, and the mistress has decided to make soup out of me. So I’m crowing while I still have a voice!"

"Oh, Redcomb," said the donkey, "come along with us instead. We’re going to Bremen, and with a voice like yours, our music will be famous!"

The rooster liked that advice, and now the four of them went on together.

But Bremen is too far to reach in a single day. Evening came, and the friends decided to spend the night in the forest. The forest was dark and cold, the wind tugged at the branches, and the travelers' tummies rumbled with hunger. The donkey and the dog lay down under a big tree, the cat climbed onto a branch, and the rooster flew right up to the very top, where it felt safest. Before going to sleep, he looked all around one more time and spotted a little light far away.

"Friends, there’s a house not far from here, and a light is shining in the window!"

"Then let’s go there," said the donkey. "It’s cold and uncomfortable under this tree."

"I could do with a nice meaty bone," added the dog dreamily.

They followed the light until they came to a little house. The donkey, being the tallest, quietly peeked in through the window.

"What can you see, Grayears?" asked the rooster.

"A table, and on it, lots of tasty food. And around the table sit robbers, helping themselves."

"What a supper that would be for us!" sighed the friends.

They put their heads together to think of a way to chase the robbers off, and at last they had an idea. The donkey put his front hooves on the windowsill, the dog jumped up onto the donkey’s back, the cat climbed onto the dog, and the rooster flew up onto the cat’s head. Then, at a signal, they all began to play their music together: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat meowed, and the rooster crowed. And in they burst through the window, making the glass jingle!

The robbers jumped out of their skins at the terrible racket. They thought some awful monster had broken into the house, and they ran for the forest as fast as their legs could carry them.

The four friends sat down at the table and ate as if they hadn’t had a bite for a whole week. The donkey munched on carrots and cabbage, the dog gnawed the bone he had been dreaming of, the cat savored a bit of fish, and the rooster pecked grains right off the tablecloth.

"Our music turned out to be quite loud," said the rooster happily.

"Loud, yes, that’s true," laughed the dog. "But whether it’s any good is another question!"

Then they blew out the light and lay down to sleep, each in the spot that suited him best: the donkey on the straw outside, the dog behind the door, the cat by the warm stove, and the rooster on a perch under the roof. They were tired from the road, and they fell asleep at once.

At midnight, the robbers saw from far away that the house was dark and quiet.

"We were silly to get so scared," said the robber chief, and he sent one of his men to see how things were.

The robber crept into the house and went to the stove to light a candle. In the darkness he saw two glowing spots, which were really the cat’s eyes, and he thought they were embers. He held a match up to them, and the cat hissed, leaped, and scratched! The robber dashed for the door, and the dog snapped at his leg! He ran out into the yard, and the donkey kicked him with a thump! And the rooster woke up and crowed from his perch: "Cock-a-doodle-doooo!"

The robber raced back to the others more dead than alive.

"Oh, there’s a horrible witch in that house," he said, shaking all over. "She scratched me with her long claws! A man with a knife is standing guard by the door, and he stabbed me in the leg! A black monster is lying in the yard, and it clubbed me! And up on the roof sits a judge, shouting, 'Bring that thief to me!' I barely escaped with my life!"

From then on, the robbers were afraid to go anywhere near that little house.

As for the four musicians, they liked it so much there that they decided not to go any farther. They never did get to Bremen, but why would they? They had a warm home, good friends, and their very own music, which they played for one another every evening.