The Bremen Town Musicians

Four hooves beat steadily on the dirt road, slow but determined, as the evening light turned purple behind a line of trees. The donkey kept walking. Not once did he look back at the house he had just left, or at the master he had served through so many harvests. There were no sacks of grain on his back anymore. There were only four tired hooves, and a decision already made.

Old German storytellers passed this tale along by the fireside for many generations. Then two scholars, the Brothers Grimm, gathered it up and wrote it down in a book, so that children in later times could still hear it.

The story goes that for many long years, this donkey had bent his back carrying heavy sacks of grain all the way to the mill. But now his strength was spent and his legs were slow, and his master no longer wanted to keep him. The donkey heard about it and thought it over. Rather than stay and wait for who knows what, he would set out for the town of Bremen and become a musician. His voice was still loud and strong. Perhaps it was just right for a street musician. With that thought, he slipped away that very evening.

He had gone some way down the road when he came upon a hunting dog lying by the roadside, panting, his tongue hanging out from weariness. The donkey stopped to ask what was wrong. The dog said he had grown old and slow. He could no longer hunt the forest game as he once did, so his master had decided not to keep him anymore. The dog had run away, but he had no idea where to go or how to live. The donkey listened, then made an offer. "I am on my way to Bremen to be a musician. Your bark rings out as well as my voice does. Together the two of us could make a fine piece of music." The offer sounded good to the dog, and he got up and followed at once.

A little farther on, the two animals met a cat sitting in the middle of the road. Her face was as gloomy as if she had just lost something precious. The cat said her teeth had grown dull, and she could no longer catch mice as quickly as before. So her mistress meant to send her away. The cat had no idea where to go either. Once again the donkey made his offer. "Come along with us to Bremen. A cat's cry in the night would suit a late-night musician very well." The cat thought that made sense and joined them right away.

The three animals passed a farm and saw a rooster perched on the gate, crowing as loud as he could, as if he were pouring out the last of his strength. The donkey asked why he was crowing so fiercely. The rooster sighed. He had overheard the lady of the house telling the cook to turn him into a pot of soup for the guests next Sunday. So he was crowing his fill while he still could. The donkey invited him to come along at once. A crow that carried so far would be perfect for a musician, he said, and surely better than lying in a soup pot. The rooster was delighted. He flapped his wings and flew down to join his three new companions.

So four old animals, each carrying a sad story of his own, became traveling companions. Together they set off at a brisk pace toward the town of Bremen.

The road to Bremen was longer than they had thought, and a whole day of walking did not bring them there. Night fell in the middle of a thick forest, so the four animals stopped to rest. The donkey and the dog lay down at the foot of a great old tree. The cat climbed onto a low branch. The rooster flew all the way up to the very top of the tree, the safest spot for anyone in the group.

Before closing his eyes, the rooster looked out once in all four directions. Suddenly he saw a faint spot of light far off in the distance. He called down to wake his friends and told them there must be a house somewhere nearby. The donkey said their bed under this tree was not very comfortable. They might as well all go toward that light and see.

The four animals followed the spot of light. At last they came to a house with its lamps lit. The donkey, the tallest of them, peered through the window. Inside was a table loaded with good food and fragrant wine. All around it sat a band of robbers, eating and drinking merrily.

The four animals put their heads together to work out how they might sit down at that table and eat their fill. They came up with a plan. The donkey set his front hooves on the windowsill. The dog jumped onto the donkey's back. The cat climbed onto the dog's back. The rooster flew up and perched on the cat's head. Then, at a single signal, all four sang out at once. The donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat yowled, and the rooster crowed with all his might. Together they made the strangest sound anyone had ever heard. A moment later, the whole stack of animals tumbled in through the window. The glass shattered with a crash, and they landed with a thump on the floor.

The robbers had been eating and drinking happily. At that terrible noise, every one of them went pale with fright, sure that some monster had burst in. The whole band abandoned the feast and ran from the house as fast as they could. They plunged straight into the deep forest and never dared to look back.

The four animals calmly took their seats at the table. They gobbled up the leftover food as if they would get nothing more to eat for a whole month. When they had eaten their fill, each one found a familiar corner to sleep in. The donkey lay down out in the yard. The dog lay just behind the door. The cat curled up by the warm ashes beside the hearth. The rooster flew up and perched on a beam under the roof. All four soon fell asleep after their long day on the road.

In the middle of the night, the robbers looked back from far away. They saw that the house was dark, with no lamp burning, and thought all was quiet again. So they sent one man back to see how things stood. The robber crept into the kitchen and tried to strike a match for some light. In the darkness, he took the cat's bright, glowing eyes for two live coals and held the match close to them. The cat jumped with fright, yowled, and waved her claws about, and the robber leaped back in terror.

He turned and ran for the back door, but there he stumbled over the dog. The dog barked furiously right at his feet, and the robber staggered and nearly fell. As he ran across the yard, the donkey lying there suddenly stirred and gave him a little nudge with a hind foot. The robber reeled and pitched forward. At that very moment, up on the beam, the rooster was woken by the noise and gave one great, ringing crow. The robber was scared out of his wits. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, straight back to the others.

Gasping for breath, he told them what he had found. The house was full of frightening things. Something had scratched at his sleeve and made him jump. Something had chased right at his heels. Something had shoved him so hard he reeled across the yard. And up on the roof, something had let out a shout that filled the sky. When they heard this, the robbers were so afraid that none of them ever dared to go near that house again.

As for the four animals, they found the house in the forest warm, quiet, and just big enough for all four of them. So they decided to stay for good, and they never went on to the town of Bremen after all. Night after night, in the little house in the middle of the forest, the donkey breathes steadily out in the yard. The dog stirs softly behind the door. The cat purrs quietly beside the dying ashes. Now and then, a small crow drifts down from the beam high above. Together they make a piece of music that was never written down, meant only for four old friends who found each other, and found a home.