“That is a bad business,” said the donkey. “You had better come with us. We are going to the city to become musicians, and such a voice as yours would be a great help.”
The cock did not wait to be asked twice. He flew down from the gatepost and flapped along beside them, but this was tiresome, so the donkey bade the cock fly up on to his back, and after that Master Red-head rode along in comfort.
Presently it began to grow dark, and still the musicians had not come within sight of the big city. Instead they came to a deep wood, and after wandering about in it for some time they grew so weary that they decided to go no farther that night. The donkey and the hound lay down under a large tree, the cat climbed up to a crotch of the branches, while the cock was not content to roost anywhere but at the top of the tree.
He had not been sitting there long when he said, “Brothers, I see a light not far off. There must be a house there.”
“That is good news,” said the donkey. “I for one have no liking for sleeping on the bare ground. Perhaps if we go there and sing they may give us a night’s lodging.”
This plan suited the others. The cat and the cock came down from the tree, and the four musicians set out together in the direction of the light.
It was not long before they came to a house and the light the cock had seen shone through a lower window. The donkey, being the largest, was chosen to look in through the window and tell the others what he saw.
The donkey looked so long and so silently that the others grew impatient. “Well, Brother Greycoat, what do you see?” asked the hound.
“Brothers,” said the donkey in a low voice, “I can easily see that this house belongs to a band of robbers. They have a quantity of treasure piled up in one corner of the room, and they are sitting around the table eating and drinking.”
“Oh, if we could only scare them away and take the treasure for ourselves! Robbers are always cowards,” said the dog.