The Emporers' Clothes/Bremen Musicians
The Emporers' New Clothes
Once upon a time, there was an emporer who was interested in nothing but his clothes. His people payed high taxes to keep his wardrobe up, but they didn't mind, because there was no hunger, or sickness or war, so they were happy.

The king, however, was not happy. He had grown bored with his current wardrobe, and wanted something truly spectacualr to wear. So, when two men claiming to be weavers arrived on his dorrstep, proclaiming their talents and boasting of garments with solid gold thread and hundreds of intricate patterns, the emporer jumped at the chance. He gave them vast sums of money for the materials, and sent them out to begin their work.

The two pretended to be weaving the finest cloth in the land, saying that only wise and virtuous people would be able to see such fine cloth. Not wishing to seem foolish, or to lack virtue, no one would admit to not being able to see the cloth.

Finally, the clothes were finished, and the emporer paraded through his kingdom in them, while all his subjects admired him. Not wishing to be seen as foolish, they, too, would not admit that they could not see the emporers clothes.

One child, however suddenly shouted out "The emporer has no clothes on!"

There was silence for amoment, and then the people began laughing, realizing that they had been fools after all. The emporer, it seemed, was wandering around the kingdom stark naked.

The emporer eventually got over it, and life went on. And they all lived happily ever after.



The Traveling Musicians of Bremen


There once was an old donkey, who's strength was failing. He no longer had the strength to pull his masters grain to the mill. His master intended to kill the donkey, to save the money for feed, and put a little meat on his table.

The donkey, desperate, ran away. He traveled for a few days, and came across a dog, hiding from his master. Upon asking, he found that the dog could no longer hunt like he used to, and his master had been looking for him to shoot him that morning, so the dog had run away.

The dog and donkey agree to travel together to Bremen, where they will become musicians. Along the way, they pick up an old, one eyed cat who's master was going to drown him (why do people drown cats and shoot dogs? why not the other way around?), and a rooster who was to be that sunday's dinner. Taking these companions along, they settled in for one more night.

Late in the evening, the Rooster, who had been keeping watch, spotted a light in the firest. Upon investigating, the animals found a house full of robbers.

With a little enginuity and a lot of guts, the animals managed to scare the robbers away.

They liked the house so much that they forego joining the Bremen Orchestra as they had planned, and stayed in the small cottage. They have been living happily there ever since, playing their music for themselves.