格林童话选 英文版 Grimms' Fairy Tales
格林兄弟 Brüder Grimm
THE MOUSE, THE BIRD, AND THE SAUSAGE
Once upon a time, a mouse, a bird, and a sausage, entered intopartnership and set up house together. For a long time all went well;they lived in great comfort, and prospered so far as to be able to addconsiderably to their stores. The bird's duty was to fly daily intothe wood and bring in fuel; the mouse fetched the water, and thesausage saw to the cooking.
When people are too well off they always begin to long for somethingnew. And so it came to pass, that the bird, while out one day, met afellow bird, to whom he boastfully expatiated on the excellence of hishousehold arrangements. But the other bird sneered at him for being apoor simpleton, who did all the hard work, while the other two stayedat home and had a good time of it. For, when the mouse had made thefire and fetched in the water, she could retire into her little roomand rest until it was time to set the table. The sausage had only towatch the pot to see that the food was properly cooked, and when itwas near dinner-time, he just threw himself into the broth, or rolledin and out among the vegetables three or four times, and there theywere, buttered, and salted, and ready to be served. Then, when thebird came home and had laid aside his burden, they sat down to table,and when they had finished their meal, they could sleep their filltill the following morning: and that was really a very delightfullife.
Influenced by those remarks, the bird next morning refused to bring inthe wood, telling the others that he had been their servant longenough, and had been a fool into the bargain, and that it was now timeto make a change, and to try some other way of arranging the work. Begand pray as the mouse and the sausage might, it was of no use; thebird remained master of the situation, and the venture had to be made.They therefore drew lots, and it fell to the sausage to bring in thewood, to the mouse to cook, and to the bird to fetch the water.
And now what happened? The sausage started in search of wood, the birdmade the fire, and the mouse put on the pot, and then these two waitedtill the sausage returned with the fuel for the following day. But thesausage remained so long away, that they became uneasy, and the birdflew out to meet him. He had not flown far, however, when he cameacross a dog who, having met the sausage, had regarded him as hislegitimate booty, and so seized and swallowed him. The bird complainedto the dog of this bare-faced robbery, but nothing he said was of anyavail, for the dog answered that he found false credentials on thesausage, and that was the reason his life had been forfeited.
He picked up the wood, and flew sadly home, and told the mouse all hehad seen and heard. They were both very unhappy, but agreed to makethe best of things and to remain with one another.
So now the bird set the table, and the mouse looked after the foodand, wishing to prepare it in the same way as the sausage, by rollingin and out among the vegetables to salt and butter them, she jumpedinto the pot; but she stopped short long before she reached thebottom, having already parted not only with her skin and hair, butalso with life.
Presently the bird came in and wanted to serve up the dinner, but hecould nowhere see the cook. In his alarm and flurry, he threw the woodhere and there about the floor, called and searched, but no cook wasto be found. Then some of the wood that had been carelessly throwndown, caught fire and began to blaze. The bird hastened to fetch somewater, but his pail fell into the well, and he after it, and as he wasunable to recover himself, he was drowned.