The miller’s donkey had grown old and found it more and more difficult to carry the heavy load that his master put on his back. He heard his master grumbling to the neighbours about the donkey becoming a useless burden. This worried him a lot. Before his master could find a way to get rid of him, the donkey decided to run away.
“I’ll go to the town of Bremen and become a town musician,” he thought.
On his way, he found a dog lying on the side of the road, looking miserable.
“Hullo, friend,” he called out, “What ails you?”
“Old age, my friend,” replied the dog, “My master has no more use for me because I can’t hunt now. So, he was planning to kill me. I ran away quickly.”
“Why not join me?” asked the donkey, “I’m on my way to Bremen where I’ll be a town musician. I’ll play the lute and you can beat the drum.”
“That’s a good idea,” said the dog as he got up, shook himself and trotted along beside the donkey.
A little further on, they came upon a large tawny cat, sulking by the roadside.
“Hullo, why are you sitting there looking so grumpy?” asked the donkey.
“What do you expect?” said the cat, “My mistress was going to drown me because I’ve grown old and become too slow to catch mice! Am I supposed to be happy about it?”
“You could come along with us,” suggested the donkey, “We’re going to Bremen to become town musicians.”
“That’s better than sitting around here,” replied the cat as she marched up to join them.
A cock sat on the fence of a farm-yard crowing.
“What a time to crow,” said the friends. They stopped and asked him why he was crowing in the middle of the day. “I thought you crowed in the morning,” said the dog smartly.
“I do,” said the cock, sadly, “But after all these years of waking up the farm early morning and foretelling the weather, the farmer’s wife is going to chop me up for dinner. So, I was crowing my heart out for the last time.”
“We are going to be town musicians at Bremen. You can come with us,” suggested the donkey, “You have a good voice, so you could sing.”
The cock was thrilled and joined them immediately, though he kept a wary eye on the cat.
It was a long way to walk and by the time they reached the forest on the outskirts of Bremen they were tired. They decided to rest. The donkey and the dog settled down under a tree and the cat climbed up into a branch and stretched out. The cock decided to sit on a branch a little higher up, away from the cat.
The branch was high and gave him a good view of the forest. He saw a light flickering through the trees and, craning his neck, he saw there was a hut.
“Hey, fellows,” he called out, “There seems to be a house close by. Shall we take a look?”
“Let’s do that,” said the donkey. The dog agreed, saying, “Houses are nice. Let’s go.” The cat said in a superior kind of voice, “This branch is not very comfortable. Let’s see if the house is better.”
So they went off towards the house. Light flooded out of a window. The donkey, being the tallest, peeped in.
“There’s food inside and a warm fire in the hearth,” he told his friends. “There are some men sitting at the table with bags full of gold and jewels. I think they are robbers.”
“In that case,” said the dog, “Let’s chase them out.”
They whispered together and made a plan. The donkey would stand near the window, with the dog on his back. The cat would sit on the dog with the cock on its head.
As soon as they had arranged themselves, at a signal they all set off together: the donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat mewed and shrieked and the cock crowed at the top of its voice! Then they all together leaped into the room through the window.
The din had terrified the robbers and the sight of strange creatures jumping in frightened them out of their wits. They ran out of the hut screaming in fright!
“A ghost! A monster! Help! Help!” They huddled outside under the trees wondering what to do.
Meanwhile, the four friends enjoyed the feast and, blowing out the candles, they settled down to sleep. The donkey stretched out on some straw in the yard. The dog found a comfortable place behind the door. The cat curled up on the ashes in front of the hearth and the cock perched on a beam near the ceiling.
The robbers, shivering under the trees, waited till they saw the lights being put out.
“Our gold’s inside,” said one of them, “What should we do now?”
They whispered and consulted one another. Finally, the robber chief said to one of them, “You go in and check out what is happening. We have to be sure the monster’s gone.”
Reluctantly, one of the robbers went to the hut. It was dark when he peered in through the open door. Something was glowing in the darkness.
“I can see the embers in the fire. I had better light it before they go out,” he thought, as he went towards the glow. They were not the embers; they were the eyes of the cat, gleaming in the dark!
As he reached there, he stepped on its tail. With a shriek the cat shot up, scratching his face and arms. He rushed towards the door where the dog had woken up. Barking and snarling, he bit the robber in the leg.
The robber fell back running towards the yard, where the donkey let off one kick with his hind legs! The commotion had woken up the cock who began to crow again at the top of his voice.
The terrified robber ran for his life, right out of the hut. “The monster is still there!” he howled, “I think it’s a witch! She scratched me with her claws; stabbed me with a knife and when I tried to get out through the yard, she hit me with a cudgel! And she has several voices!”
There was nothing they could do. So, they ran from the hut in the forest leaving behind all their stolen gold! The musicians had found a new home!
