In this tale is shown to you
How large the boast of Cock-alu;
But, when he comes to act, you’ll see
Small hope indeed for Hen-alie;
And thus you clearly will perceive
That who has great things to achieve
Must not stand talking but must do,
Else he will fail like Cock-alu.
For he who would perform the most
Will utter no vainglorious boast;
But still press onward, staunch and true,
With but the honest end in view.
Cock-alu and Hen-alie sat on the perch above the bean-straw. It was four o’clock in the morning, and Cock-alu clapped his wings and crowed; then, turning to Hen-alie, he said: “Hen-alie, my little wife, I love you better than all the world, you know I do. I always told you so! I will do anything for you; I’ll go round the world for you, I’ll travel as far as the sun for you! You know I would! Tell me, what shall I do for you?”
“Crow!” said Hen-alie.
“Oh, that is such a little thing!” said Cock-alu, and crowed with all his might. He crowed so loud that he woke the farmer’s wife, and the dog and the cat, and all the pigeons and horses in the stable, and the cow in the stall. He crowed so loud that all the neighbors’ cocks heard him and answered him, and they woke all their people; and thus Cock-alu woke the whole parish.
“I’ve done it rarely this morning!” said Cock-alu; “I told you I would do anything to please you!”
The next morning, at breakfast, as Hen-alie was picking beans out of the bean-straw, one stuck in her throat; and she was soon so ill that she was just ready to die.
“Oh, Cock-alu,” said she, calling to him in the yard, where he stood clapping his wings in the sunshine, “run and fetch me a drop of water from the silver-spring in the Beech-wood! Fetch me a drop quickly, while the dew is in it; for that is the true remedy.”
But Cock-alu was so busy crowing against a neighbor that he took no notice.
“Oh, Cock-alu, do run and fetch me the water from the silver-spring, or I shall die; for the bean sticks in my throat, and nothing but water with dew in it can cure me! Oh, Cock-alu, dear, run quickly!”
Cock-alu heard her this time, and set off, crowing as he went. He had not gone far before he met the snail.