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 into thewood and bring in fuel; the mouse fetched the water, and the sausage sawto 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 the fireand fetched in the water, she could retire into her little room and restuntil it was time to set the table. The sausage had only to watch thepot to see that the food was properly cooked, and when it was neardinner-time, he just threw himself into the broth, or rolled in and outamong the vegetables three or four times, and there they were, buttered,and salted, and ready to be served. Then, when the bird came home andhad laid aside his burden, they sat down to table, and when they hadfinished their meal, they could sleep their fill till the followingmorning: and that was really a very delightful life.

Influenced by those remarks, the bird next morning refused to bring inthe wood, telling the others that he had been their servant long enough,and had been a fool into the bargain, and that it was now time to make achange, and to try some other way of arranging the work. Beg and prayas the mouse and the sausage might, it was of no use; the bird remainedmaster of the situation, and the venture had to be made. They thereforedrew lots, and it fell to the sausage to bring in the wood, to the mouseto 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 came acrossa dog who, having met the sausage, had regarded him as his legitimatebooty, and so seized and swallowed him. The bird complained to the dogof this bare-faced robbery, but nothing he said was of any avail, forthe dog answered that he found false credentials on the sausage, andthat 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 make thebest of things and to remain with one another.

So now the bird set the table, and the mouse looked after the food and,wishing to prepare it in the same way as the sausage, by rolling in andout among the vegetables to salt and butter them, she jumped into thepot; but she stopped short long before she reached the bottom, havingalready parted not only with her skin and hair, but also 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 was tobe found. Then some of the wood that had been carelessly thrown down,caught fire and began to blaze. The bird hastened to fetch some water,but his pail fell into the well, and he after it, and as he was unableto recover himself, he was drowned.