A certain man had a jennet, whose strength was going,
so she was too old to carry the corn-sacks to the mill.
Her master considered how he might give her away. But
the jennet, seeing that, ran away and set out on
the road to Bilzen. There, she thought, she could surely
become a town-musician.
When she had walked a while, she found a dog lying on the
road crying. “Why are you crying so loud, you big
fellow”, asked the jennet. “I am old and weak”, he
replied. “My master wanted me to kill, so I ran away.
But how can I earn my bread now?”
"I am going to Bilzen, and shall be a town-musician
there,” jennet told him. “Come with me. I will play the
lute, and you can beat the kettle-drum."
The dog agreed, and they went on. Soon they came to a
cat, with a face like three rainy days. It was the same
with her. “You`re too old to catch mice, but you understand night music”, they said to the cat.
“Come with us to Bilzen.”
The cat thought well of it, and went with them. After this the three folks came to a farmyard, where the cock was sitting upon the gate, crowing with all his might.
"Your crow goes through and through one," said the jennet. "What is the matter?"
“They intend to eat me in the soup tomorrow”, he cried.
"You`d better come with us”, the jennet said. “We are going to Bilzen. You have a good voice.
If we make music together, it should have good quality.”
The cock agreed to this plan, and all four went on together. They could not reach the city of
Bilzen in one day, however, and in the evening they came to a forest. There they meant to
pass the night. The jennet and the dog laid themselves down under a large tree, the cat and
the cock settled themselves in the branches. But the cock flew right to the top, where he was
safer.
Before he went to sleep he looked round, and thought he saw a light. So they decided to go to
the place the light was, and soon they came to a well-lighted cabin. The jennet, as
the biggest, went to the window and looked in.
"I see a table covered with good things to eat and drink, and robbers sitting at it enjoying
themselves", he soon told the others.
"That would be the sort of thing for us," said the cock.
Then the animals thought about how they should manage to drive away the robbers, and at last
they had a plan. The jennet placed himself with his fore-feet upon the window-ledge, the dog
jumped on the jennet's back, the cat climbed upon the dog, and lastly the cock flew up and
perched upon the head of the cat.
When this was done, they began to perform their music together. The jennet brayed, the dog
barked, the cat mewed, and the cock crowed. Then they burst through the window into the
room, shattering the glass.
That was so horrible, that the robbers sprang up, thinking a monster had come in, and fled in a
great fright out into the forest.
The four companions now sat down at the table, well content with what was left, and ate as
much as they could.
Later they put out the light, and each of them looked for a good place to sleep. The jennet
laid herself down upon some straw in the yard, the dog behind the door, the cat upon the
hearth, and the cock upon a roof beam. Tired they soon went to sleep.
After midnight the robbers saw that there was no light in the house. So the captain ordered
one of them to go back again and examine the house.
The robber found all quiet, so he went into the kitchen to light a candle. But, taking the
glistening eyes of the cat for hot coals, he held a matchstick to them to light it. Sothe cat
flew in his face, scratching.
He was very frightened, and ran to the back-door, but the dog, lying there, sprang up and bit
his leg. And as he ran across the yard by the dunghill, the jennet gave him a smart kick with
her foot.
The cock, too, who had been awakened by the noise, cried down from the beam: "Cock-adoodle-doo."
Then the robber ran back as fast as he could to his captain, and said: "There is a horrible
witch sitting in the house that spat on me and scratched my face with her long claws. She nearly took my leg off with her sharp claws as I escaped. And in the yard there lies a monster
that kicked me. And above, upon the roof, sits the judge, who called out,
bring the rogue here to me. So I got away as fast as I could."
After this the robbers never again dared to enter the house. But it suited the four musicians
of Bilzen so well that they did not want to leave it any more. They abandoned their dreams of being town musicians and lived happily ever after in their humble cabin.