不来梅镇的音乐家｜The Bremen Town Musicians

每天五分钟听经典英文故事，读绘本，磨耳朵。一头老驴带着老狗、老猫和公鸡，踏上通往不来梅的音乐之路，却在一间强盗的小屋里找到了真正的家。The donkey was oldOnce, he carried heavy sacks every day, back and forth between the mill and the village roadHis back grew more and more bent, his steps slower and slower, and his master, seeing there was little strength left to squeeze out of him, slowly lost all patienceThe donkey heard those wordsHe knew staying would lead to no goodSo one day, without waiting for the whip to fall, he lowered his head and quietly walked away down the roadHe was heading to BremenThere were streets there, and crowds, and maybe someone would be willing to listen to an old donkey singSince he could no longer carry things, he thought, he might as well become a musicianHalfway there, he saw a hound lying by the road, panting heavily, as if even standing up was a struggleThe donkey asked him why he looked so downcastThe hound said he was old, could no longer run, and could not catch prey anymoreHis master thought keeping him was useless and wanted to beat him to deathHe had no choice but to run away, but after escaping, he had no idea where else to goAfter hearing this, the donkey said, then come with meI am going to Bremen to be a musician, and you can beat the drum or sing the bassWe can always earn a meal with our voicesThe hound lifted his head and looked at this equally old and weary donkeyWith nowhere better to go, he followed him down the roadThe two old fellows continued on their wayNot long after, they saw a cat sitting by the road, his face long and drawn, as if he had just stepped out of the rainThe cat said his teeth were loose, he was no good at catching mice anymore, and all he wanted was to doze by the stoveBut his mistress thought he was useless and wanted to throw him into the water to drownHe had escaped, but he did not know how to surviveThe donkey said, then come with usYou know the songs of the night, your voice is sharp and bright, in Bremen, that might just come in handyThe cat thought for a moment, stood up, shook the dust from his coat, and joined the bandLater, they passed a farmyard and saw a rooster standing at the gate, crowing at the top of his lungsThat sound was not like a morning call, it was more like saying goodbye to someoneThe donkey asked him why he was crowing so sadlyThe rooster said guests were coming tomorrow, and the mistress had already said she would turn him into soupToday he could still stand at the gate and crow, but tomorrow there would be nothing left but a pot of steamThe donkey said, then you come with us tooYour voice is so bright, it would be a shame to leave it in a potLet us go to Bremen together, and form a bandAnd so the donkey, the hound, the cat, and the rooster, four creatures cast out by their old lives, walked on together down the roadBut Bremen was farther than they had thoughtThe sky slowly darkened, the trees along the road turned black one by one, and the wind passed through the woods like someone whisperingToo tired to go on, they had to find a place in the forest to spend the nightThe rooster flew up into a tree and looked into the distanceSuddenly he called out, saying there was a light over thereThey walked toward the light and saw a house deep in the forestThrough the window glowed firelight, a table was spread with food, and inside sat a band of robbers, eating, drinking, and laughingThe four animals stood outside, cold and hungryThey had no knives and no guns, only their voices and a handful of old bonesThe donkey thought for a moment and told everyone to stack upThe donkey stood at the bottom, the hound jumped onto his back, the cat climbed onto the hound's back, and the rooster flew to the very topAs they drew near the window, all four voices burst out at onceThe donkey brayed, the hound barked wildly, the cat screeched, and the rooster crowed at full volumeThe next moment, they crashed through the window together and charged into the houseThe robbers could not make out what it was at all, they only saw dark shapes rushing in, glass shattering everywhere, and the room filling with terrible shrieksScared out of their wits, they dropped their food and fled into the forestThe house fell quiet all at onceThe four animals stood by the table, breathing in the smell of hot food, and not one of them said a wordIt had been a long time since any of them had seen a meal this solid and realThe donkey ate the hay, the hound gnawed the bones, the cat licked the plates, and the rooster pecked at the breadcrumbsAfter they had eaten their fill, they found places to sleepThe donkey lay down on the straw pile in the yard, the hound slept behind the door, the cat curled up by the stove, and the rooster flew up onto the roof beamThe firelight faded little by little, the night of the forest wrapped around the little house, and for the first time, the house belonged not to robbers, but to four old animals who had run awayIn the middle of the night, the robbers saw from afar that the house had gone quiet, so they sent one man back to investigateThe man crept into the dark house, saw two glowing points by the stove, thought they were embers, and reached out to light a candleBut those were the cat's eyesThe cat was startled awake, pounced at him fiercely, and scratched his faceThe robber turned and ran, but just as he reached the door, the hound bit him hard on the legHe dashed into the yard, and the donkey raised his hind legs and kicked him flyingThe rooster on the roof beam was woken too and let out a piercing crowThe robber tumbled all the way back to the forest and, trembling all over, told his companions, inside the house was a terrible witch who had clawed his face, by the door was a man with a knife who had stabbed his leg, in the yard was a black monster who had beaten him with a club, and on the roof was a judge who kept shouting to bring him forwardAfter hearing this, the robbers never dared go near that house againWhen morning came, the forest was still the same forest, and the road still led to BremenBut the four animals were in no hurry to keep goingThey looked at the table, at the fire in the stove, at the straw pile by the door and the spot on the roof beam, and suddenly understood, this place was already good enoughThey had set out to become musicians in BremenIn the end, they never reached BremenThey simply moved into a little house left behind by robbersThe donkey could walk slowly, the hound could guard the door, the cat could sleep by the warm stove, and the rooster stood on the rooftop every day to wake the morningThe forest was vast, and the night would still fall darkBut from that day on, the four old creatures who had been driven from their homes were never driven away again前往小宇宙评论区与主播互动