A WIDOW who had great reputation as a housekeeper, because she was so
fond of cleaning, was waited upon by two little Maids.
She herself was wakened before dawn by the crowing of the cock, and
would rise at once and call her Maids.
The Maids, who had no taste for such excessive tidiness, and who were
kept weary by such constant labor, held a spite against the poor cock
for rousing their mistress so early.
“If it were not for him,” they said, “the mistress would sleep till the
sun is well up. Let us kill the cock, since there is no other way to
stop his loud crowing.”
But the mistress, no longer hearing the cock, was unable to tell the
time, and so often woke her Maids in the middle of the night and set
them to work.