An honest
farmer had once an ass that had been a faithful servant to him a great many
years, but was now growing old and every day more and more unfit for work. His
master therefore was tired of keeping him and began to think of putting an end
to him; but the ass, who saw that some mischief was in the wind, took himself
slyly off, and began his journey towards the great city, 'For there,' thought
he, 'I may turn musician.' After he had travelled a little way, he spied a dog
lying by the roadside and panting as if he were tired. 'What makes you pant so,
my friend?' said the ass. 'Alas!' said the dog, 'my master was going to knock
me on the head, because I am old and weak, and can no longer make myself useful
to him in hunting; so I ran away; but what can I do to earn my livelihood?'
'Hark ye!'
said the ass, 'I am going to the great city to turn musician: suppose you go
with me, and try what you can do in the same way?'
The dog said he was willing, and they jogged on
together. They had not gone far before they saw a cat sitting in the middle of
the road and making a most rueful face. 'Pray, my good lady,' said the ass,
'what's the matter with you? You look quite out of spirits!'
'Ah, me!' said the cat, 'how can one be in good
spirits when one's life is in danger?
Because I am beginning to grow old, and had rather
lie at my ease by the fire than run about the house after the mice, my mistress
laid hold of me, and was going to drown me; and though I have been lucky enough
to get away from her, I do not know what I am to live upon.'
'Oh,' said the ass, 'by all means go with us to the
great city; you are a good night singer, and may make your fortune as a
musician.' The cat was pleased with the thought, and joined the party.
Soon
afterwards, as they were passing by a farmyard, they saw a cock perched upon a
gate, and screaming out with all his might and main. 'Bravo!' said the ass;
'upon my word, you make a famous noise; pray what is all this about?' 'Why,'
said the cock, 'I was just now saying that we should have fine weather for our
washing-day, and yet my mistress and the cook don't thank me for my pains, but
threaten to cut off my head tomorrow, and make broth of me for the guests that
are coming on Sunday!'
'Heaven
forbid!' said the ass, 'come with us Master Chanticleer; it will be better, at
any rate, than staying here to have your head cut off! Besides, who knows? If
we care to sing in tune, we may get up some kind of a concert; so come along
with us.'
'With all my heart,' said the cock: so they all four
went on jollily together. They could not, however, reach the great city the
first day; so when night came on, they went into a wood to sleep. The ass and
the dog laid themselves down under a great tree, and the cat climbed up into
the branches; while the cock, thinking that the higher he sat the safer he
should be, flew up to the very top of the tree, and then, according to his
custom, before he went to sleep, looked out on all sides of him to see that
everything was well. In doing this, he saw afar off something bright and
shining and calling to his companions said, 'There must be a house no great way
off, for I see a light.'
'If that be the case,' said the ass, 'we had better
change our quarters, for our lodging is not the best in the world!' 'Besides,'
added the dog, 'I should not be the worse for a bone or two, or a bit of meat.'
So they walked off together towards the spot where Chanticleer had seen the
light, and as they drew near it became larger and brighter, till they at last
came close to a house in which a gang of robbers lived. The ass, being the
tallest of the company, marched up to the window and peeped in. 'Well, Donkey,'
said Chanticleer, 'what do you see?'
'What do I see?' replied the ass. 'Why, I see a
table spread with all kinds of good things, and robbers sitting round it making
merry.' 'That would be a noble lodging for us,' said the cock.
'Yes,' said
the ass, 'if we could only get in'; so they consulted together how they should
contrive to get the robbers out; and at last they hit upon a plan. The ass
placed himself upright on his hind legs, with his forefeet resting against the
window; the dog got upon his back; the cat scrambled up to the dog's shoulders,
and the cock flew up and sat upon the cat's head. When all was ready a signal
was given, and they began their music. The ass brayed, the dog barked, the cat
mewed, and the cock screamed; and then they all broke through the window at
once, and came tumbling into the room, amongst the broken glass, with a most
hideous clatter!
The robbers,
who had been not a little frightened by the opening concert, had now no doubt
that some frightful hobgoblin had broken in upon them, and scampered away as
fast as they could. The coast once clear, our travellers soon sat down and
dispatched what the robbers had left, with as much eagerness as if they had not
expected to eat again for a month. As soon as they had satisfied themselves,
they put out the lights, and each once more sought out a resting-place to his
own liking.
The donkey laid himself down upon a heap of straw in
the yard, the dog stretched himself upon a mat behind the door, the cat rolled
herself up on the hearth before the warm ashes, and the cock perched upon a
beam on the top of the house; and, as they were all rather tired with their
journey, they soon fell asleep. But about midnight, when the robbers saw from
afar that the lights were out and that all seemed quiet, they began to think
that they had been in too great a hurry to run away; and one of them, who was
bolder than the rest, went to see what was going on.
Finding everything still, he marched into the
kitchen, and groped about till he found a match in order to light a candle; and
then, espying the glittering fiery eyes of the cat, he mistook them for live
coals, and held the match to them to light it. But the cat, not understanding
this joke, sprang at his face, and spat, and scratched at him.
This frightened him dreadfully, and away he ran to
the back door; but there the dog jumped up and bit him in the leg; and as he
was crossing over the yard the ass kicked him; and the cock, who had been
awakened by the noise, crowed with all his might. At this the robber ran back
as fast as he could to his comrades, and told the captain how a horrid witch
had got into the house, and had spat at him and scratched his face with her
long bony fingers; how a man with a knife in his hand had hidden himself behind
the door, and stabbed him in the leg; how a black monster stood in the yard and
struck him with a club, and how the devil had sat upon the top of the house and
cried out, 'Throw the rascal up here!' After this the robbers never dared to go
back to the house; but the musicians were so pleased with their quarters that
they took up their abode there; and there they are, I dare say, at this very
day.
A shepherd had a faithful dog, called Sultan, who
was grown very old, and had lost all his teeth. And one day when the shepherd
and his wife were standing together before the house the shepherd said, 'I will
shoot old Sultan tomorrow morning, for he is of no use now.' But his wife said,
'Pray let the poor faithful creature live; he has served us well a great many
years, and we ought to give him a livelihood for the rest of his days.' 'But
what can we do with him?' said the shepherd, 'he has not a tooth in his head,
and the thieves don't care for him at all; to be sure he has served us, but
then he did it to earn his livelihood; tomorrow shall be his last day, depend
upon it.' Poor Sultan, who was lying close by them, heard all that the shepherd
and his wife said to one another, and was very much frightened to think
tomorrow would be his last day; so in the evening he went to his good friend
the wolf, who lived in the wood, and told him all his sorrows, and how his
master meant to kill him in the morning.
'Make
yourself easy,' said the wolf, 'I will give you some good advice.
Your master, you know, goes out every morning very
early with his wife into the field; and they take their little child with them,
and lay it down behind the hedge in the shade while they are at work. Now do
you lie down close by the child, and pretend to be watching it, and I will come
out of the wood and run away with it; you must run after me as fast as you can,
and I will let it drop; then you may carry it back, and they will think you
have saved their child, and will be so thankful to you that they will take care
of you as long as you live.
' The dog liked this plan very well; and accordingly
so it was managed. The wolf ran with the child a little way; the shepherd and
his wife screamed out; but Sultan soon overtook him, and carried the poor
little thing back to his master and mistress. Then the shepherd patted him on
the head, and said, 'Old Sultan has saved our child from the wolf, and
therefore he shall live and be well taken care of, and have plenty to eat.
Wife, go home, and give him a good dinner, and let him have my old cushion to
sleep on as long as he lives.' So from this time forward Sultan had all that he
could wish for. Soon afterwards the wolf came and wished him joy, and said,
'Now, my good fellow, you must tell no tales, but turn your head the other way
when I want to taste one of the old shepherd's fine fat sheep.' 'No,' said the
Sultan; 'I will be true to my master.
' However, the wolf thought he was in joke, and came
one night to get a dainty morsel. But Sultan had told his master what the wolf
meant to do; so he laid wait for him behind the barn door, and when the wolf
was busy looking out for a good fat sheep, he had a stout cudgel laid about his
back, that combed his locks for him finely. Then the wolf was very angry, and
called Sultan 'an old rogue,' and swore he would have his revenge. So the next
morning the wolf sent the boar to challenge Sultan to come into the wood to
fight the matter. Now Sultan had nobody he could ask to be his second but the
shepherd's old three-legged cat; so he took her with him, and as the poor thing
limped along with some trouble, she stuck up her tail straight in the air.
The wolf and the wild boar were first on the ground;
and when they espied their enemies coming, and saw the cat's long tail standing
straight in the air, they thought she was carrying a sword for Sultan to fight
with; and every time she limped, they thought she was picking up a stone to
throw at them; so they said they should not like this way of fighting, and the
boar lay down behind a bush, and the wolf jumped up into a tree. Sultan and the
cat soon came up, and looked about and wondered that no one was there. The
boar, however, had not quite hidden himself, for his ears stuck out of the
bush; and when he shook one of them a little, the cat, seeing something move,
and thinking it was a mouse, sprang upon it, and bit and scratched it, so that
the boar jumped up and grunted, and ran away, roaring out, 'Look up in the
tree, there sits the one who is to blame.' So they looked up, and espied the
wolf sitting amongst the branches; and they called him a cowardly rascal, and
would not suffer him to come down till he was heartily ashamed of himself, and
had promised to be good friends again with old Sultan.
Comments
Post a Comment
any suggestion on my side