The Town Musicians of Bremen a personalised book with your child as the hero

Once upon a time there was an old grey donkey who lived at a mill. For many long years he had carried the heavy sacks of flour from the mill to the market without a single complaint. But now he was old, and his legs were tired, and every sack felt heavier than the one before.

"You have worked hard enough, old friend," said the miller one morning, patting his neck. "You may rest now. There will be no more sacks for you."

The donkey looked at the mill, and at the sacks stacked by the door, and he thought for a long time. "I am too old to carry sacks," he said at last, "but I am not too old to sing. I shall go to Bremen and become a town musician."

The miller's little girl had heard every word. "Then I'm coming too," she said, "so you won't be lonely on the road."

The miller laughed and shook his head, and he put a loaf of bread in her satchel. "Go on, then, the pair of you," he said. "And mind you come back with a song."

So the girl and the donkey set off down the long country road, past the signpost that pointed the way to Bremen, and the mill grew smaller and smaller behind them.

They had not gone far when they found an old hound dog lying by the roadside, panting as if he had run a hundred miles.

"Why are you panting so, old hound?" asked the girl.

"Oh," sighed the dog, "I am too old to go hunting. My legs won't run any more, so my master has no use for me. Whatever shall I do?"

"Come with us to Bremen," said the girl. "We are going to be town musicians. The donkey will play the lute, and you can play the drum."

The dog thought that was a fine idea, and he got up and trotted along beside them.

A little further on, an old tabby cat was sitting in the middle of the road with a face as long as three rainy days.

"What's the matter, old puss?" asked the girl.

"I am getting old," said the cat, "and my teeth are blunt, and I would rather sit by the warm stove and purr than chase after mice. So the lady of the house says I am no use to her. Where can I go now?"

"Come with us to Bremen," said the girl. "You know all about night music. You can be our singer."

The cat liked the sound of that, and off she went with them.

Soon the four friends came past a farmyard. There on the gate sat a red rooster, crowing with all his might.

"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

"You crow loud enough to shake the clouds," said the girl. "What is the matter?"

"The farmer's wife says I am far too noisy," said the rooster, "and that tomorrow I must go. So today I am crowing as loudly as I can, while I still have a gate to crow from."

"Then come with us," said the girl. "You have a fine strong voice, and when we all make music together, it will be something to hear!"

The rooster flapped down from the gate, and now there were five of them on the road to Bremen.

But Bremen was a long way off, and they could not reach it in one day. In the evening they came into a great dark forest, and there they decided to spend the night. The donkey and the dog lay down under a big tree, the cat settled on a branch, the girl curled up on a mossy root, and the rooster flew right up to the very top, where he felt safest.

Before he went to sleep, the rooster looked all around. "I can see a light!" he called down. "There must be a house over there."

"Then let's go," said the girl, "for a bed indoors is better than a bed in the moss."

So they walked towards the light, and it grew brighter and bigger, until they came to a little house with a glowing window. The donkey, being the tallest, crept up and peeped in.

"What do you see, Grey-Coat?" whispered the rooster.

"I see a table piled with good things to eat and drink," said the donkey, "and robbers sitting round it, enjoying themselves."

"That would be just the thing for us," said the girl. And together they thought of a plan.

The donkey put his front hooves on the windowsill. The dog jumped up onto the donkey's back. The cat climbed up onto the dog's back. And the rooster flew up and perched on the cat's head. The girl stood back in the moonlit garden and raised her hands.

"One," she whispered. "Two... three!"

And they all began their music at once. The donkey brayed, the dog barked, the cat miaowed and the rooster crowed, and they tumbled in through the window with a great clatter. The robbers jumped up in fright, sure that a monster had come for them, and ran out of the door and away into the forest as fast as their legs could carry them.

Then the five friends sat down at the table and ate as if they would not see food again for a month.

When they had finished, they blew out the candles and each found a sleeping place. The donkey lay down in the soft straw in the yard, the dog behind the door, the cat by the warm ashes of the hearth, the rooster up on the roof beam, and the girl on the wooden bench under a patchwork quilt.

At midnight, the robbers saw that the house was dark and quiet. "Perhaps we ran away too quickly," said their captain, and he sent one robber back to look.

The robber tiptoed into the kitchen with a candle. He saw two bright, glowing eyes by the hearth and thought they were live coals, so he bent down to light his candle from them. But they were the cat's eyes! The cat hissed and spat. The dog jumped up behind the door and barked. The donkey in the yard brayed. And the rooster on the roof beam woke and crowed, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!"

The robber ran all the way back to his captain. "There's a witch in that house who hissed at me," he gasped, "and a growling man behind the door, and a great black monster in the yard who roared, and up on the roof a judge who shouted, 'Bring the rascal here!' I'm never going back there again!"

And the robbers never did.

As for the five friends, they liked the little house so much that they never went on to Bremen at all. Every evening they made their music outside the door: braying, barking, miaowing, crowing and singing. And one evening the miller heard it far away at the mill, followed the music through the forest with his lantern, and came to supper. And he said it was the finest band he had ever heard.