“Wait a moment!” exclaimed the ass; “I know what the matter is. We must get in a row, and then we shall play in tune.”
This advice was acted upon. The four animals placed themselves in a straight line, and struck up once more.
The quartet was as unmusical as ever. Then they stopped again, and began squabbling and wrangling about the proper positions to be taken. It happened that a nightingale came flying by that way, attracted by their din. They begged the nightingale to solve their difficulty for them.
“Pray be so kind,” they said, “as to stay a moment, so that we may get our quartet in order. We have music and we have instruments; only tell us how to place ourselves.”
To which the nightingale replied:
“To be a musician, one must have a better ear and more intelligence than any of you. Place yourselves any way you like; it will make no difference. You will never become musicians.”
Fedor Dostoevsky was a celebrated Russian novelist and journalist.
We quote a small extract, which, it may be, depends in part for its fun on its excellent English rendition of the German patter.