what," said the ass, "I am going to Bremen to become
town musician. You may as well go with me, and take up music too. I can
play the lute, and you can beat the drum."

The dog consented, and they walked on together. It was not long before
they came to a cat sitting in the road, looking as dismal as three wet
days.

"Now, then, what is the matter with you, old friend?" said the ass.

"I should like to know who would be cheerful when his neck is in
danger?" answered the cat. "Now that I am old, my teeth are getting
blunt, and I would rather sit by the oven and purr than run about after
mice, and my mistress wants to drown me; so I took myself off; but good
advice is scarce, and I do not know what is to become of me."

"Go with us to Bremen," said the ass, "and become town musician. You
understand serenading."

The cat thought well of the idea, and went with them accordingly. After
that the three travelers passed by a yard, and a cock was perched on the
gate crowing with all his might.

"Your cries are enough to pierce bone and marrow," said the ass; "what
is the matter?"

"I have foretold good weather for Lady-day, so that all the shirts may be
washed and dried; and now on Sunday morning company is coming, and the
mistress has told the cook that I must be made into soup, and this
evening my neck is to be wrung, so that I am crowing with all my might
while I can."

"You had better go with us, Chanticleer," said the ass. "We are going to
Bremen. At any rate that will be better than dying. You have a powerful
voice, and when we are all performing together it will have a very good
effect."

So the cock consented, and they went on, all four together.

But Bremen was too far off to be reached in one day, and toward evening
they came to a wood, where they determined to pass the night. The ass
and the dog lay down under a large tree; the cat got up among the
branches, and the cock flew up to the top, as that was the safest place
for him. Before he went to sleep he looked all around him to the four
points of the compass, and perceived in the distance a little light
shining, and he called out to his companions that there must be a house
not far off, as he could see a light, so the ass said:

"We had better get up and go there, for these are uncomfortable
quarters."

The dog began to fancy a few bones, not quite bare, would do him good.
And they all set off in the direction of the light, and it grew larger
and brig