When they had gone a bit farther they met a cock.
“Good-day, good sirs,” said the cock,
“whither are you going to-day, gentlemen?”
“Good-day, good-day,” said the sheep,
“we are going off to the wood to build a house
and set up for ourselves, for you know, ’’Tis
good to travel east and west, but after all a home
is best.’”
“Well,” said the cock, “if I might
have leave to join such a gallant company, I also
would like to go to the wood and build a house.”
“Ay, ay!” said the pig, “but how
can you help us build a house?”
“Oh,” said the cock, “what would
you do without a cock? I am up early, and I wake
every one.”
“Very true,” said the pig, “let
him come with us. Sleep is the biggest thief,”
he said, “he thinks nothing of stealing half
one’s life.”
So they all set off to the wood together, and built
a house.
The pig hewed the timber, and the sheep drew it home;
the hare was carpenter, and gnawed pegs and bolts
and hammered them into the walls and roof; the goose
plucked moss and stuffed it into the seams; the cock
crew, and looked out that they did not oversleep themselves
in the morning; and when the house was ready, and
the roof lined with birch bark and thatched with turf,
there they lived by themselves and were merry and
well.
But you must know that a bit farther on in the wood
was a wolf’s den, and there lived two graylegs.
When they saw that a new house had been built near
by, they wanted to become acquainted with their neighbors.
One of them made up an errand and went into the new
house and asked for a light for his pipe. But
as soon as he got inside the door the sheep gave him
such a butt that he fell head foremost into the hearth.
Then the pig began to bite him, and the goose to nip
and peck him, and the cock upon the roost to crow
and chatter, and as for the hare, he was so frightened
that he ran about aloft and on the floor and scratched
and scrambled in every corner of the house.
So after a time the wolf came out.
“Well,” said the one who waited for him
outside, “you must have been well received since
you stayed so long. But what became of the light?
You have neither pipe nor smoke.”
“Yes, yes,” said the other, “a pleasant
company indeed. As soon as I got inside the door,
the shoemaker began to beat me with his last, so that
I fell head foremost into the open fire, and there
sat two smiths who blew the bellows, and made the
sparks fly, and struck and punched me with red-hot
tongs and pincers. As for the hunter, he went
scrambling about looking for his gun, and it was good
luck he did not find it. And all the while there
was another who sat up under the roof and slapped his
arms and cried out, ‘Drag him hither, drag him
hither!’ That was what he screamed, and if he
had only got hold of me, I should never have come
out alive.”
The wolves never went calling on their neighbors any
more.
