James Baquet

This is a story from the Brothers Grimm.

A farmer had a donkey who had worked for many years, but was getting too old to work. So the donkey ran away before the farmer could get rid of him. He decided, instead, to become a musician in the town of Bremen.

As he traveled, he met a dog lying in the road. He too was running away, since he had become too old to please his master. “Come with me,” said the donkey. “We’ll be musicians in Bremen. I will play the lute and you can play the timpani.”

The dog agreed, and on they went.

Soon they met a cat, who had the same problem. She was too old to catch mice, so she joined the band as well. It was the same with a rooster they met, who gladly went along with the travelers instead of becoming next Sunday’s dinner.

Bremen was far away, and the four new friends had to find a place to sleep for the night. They were going to use a tree for shelter, but climbing high in its branches the rooster saw a house in the distance, so they decided to ask for shelter there.

Alas, the house belonged to robbers! The animals decided to drive them out, and stood one atop the other — donkey, then dog, cat, and rooster at the top — outside the window of the house, where they made a horrible noise and frightened the robbers out of their wits.

The robbers thought they were being attacked by a ghoul, and ran away. The “musicians” ate, and, finding places to lie down, they soon went to sleep.

After midnight, the robbers sent one of their number to investigate what was going on at the house. As he crept about in the dark, the cat scratched his face, the dog bit his leg, the donkey kicked him, and the rooster cried out “cock-a-doodle-doo!”

The rogue ran back to his fellows and told them that a witch had scratched his face with her claws, a man with a knife had stabbed him in the leg, and a black monster had beaten him with a wooden club. The rooster, he thought, was a judge calling for his arrest. So he ran back to the gang, and advised that they flee at once, as the house no longer suited them. And so they did.

But the house suited the four musicians just fine and they never left again.

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. companions, friends

2. moved silently

3. stuck with something sharp

4. like fingernails on a cat or dog

5. the ability to think clearly

6. a criminal, a dishonest person

7. a demon who haunts graveyards

8. a stringed instrument like a guitar

9. fit, was appropriate for

10. a large round drum