Grimm's Household Tales

In the time of Schlauraffen, I went there and saw Rome and the Lateran hanging by a small silken thread, and a man without feet who outran a swift horse, and a keen, sharp sword that cut through a bridge. There I saw a young donkey with a silver nose that pursued two fleet hares, and a very large linden tree on which hot cakes were growing. There I saw a lean old goat that carried about a hundred cartloads of fat on his body, and sixty loads of salt. Have I not told enough lies? There I saw a plow plowing without horse or cow, and a one-year-old child threw four millstones from Ratisbon to Treves, and from Treves to Strasburg, and a hawk swam over the Rhine, which he had a perfect right to do. There I heard some fish begin to make such a disturbance with each other that it resounded as far as heaven, and sweet honey flowed like water from a deep valley at the top of a high mountain; these were strange things. There were two crows that were mowing a meadow, and I saw two gnats building a bridge, and two doves tore a wolf to pieces. Two children gave birth to two kids, and two frogs threshed grain together. There I saw two mice consecrating a bishop and two cats scratching out a bear’s tongue. Then a snail came running up and killed two furious lions. A barber stood there and shaved a woman’s beard off, and two nursing babies told their mother to hold her tongue. There I saw two greyhounds that brought a mill out of the water, and a sorry old horse beside it said it was right. And four horses were standing in the yard threshing grain with all their might, and two goats were heating the stove, and a red cow slid the bread into the oven. Then a rooster crowed, “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” The story is all told. Cock-a-doodle-doo!