Denmark
One day the dog and the cock were walking in the farmyard. The cock was cheerful, flapping his wings and crowing lustily, but the dog hung his tail and appeared to be buried in sad thoughts. Angry at the cock's cheerfulness, he said, "I cannot understand how you can be so happy!"
"Why not?" asked the cock.
"Can't you see," said the dog, "that our master has been going around with a long face for a few days now? I think that we should be sharing his concerns."
"What are his concerns?" asked the cock.
"About his wife," said the dog. "She is so bad that he never gets a good word from her. She is never satisfied with anything he does or says. A woman like that can be the death of a man!"
"She wouldn't be the death of me," answered the cock. "I have seventy wives, and if I ever had to hang my head because something went wrong, the devil would be in charge, not I. No, I handle them differently. My wives receive blows if they are stubborn and don't want to listen to me. And if they get in each others' hair, I pull them apart. In this manner I get along splendidly with my seventy wives, and if our master can't deal with his one wife, then he is a sorry fellow indeed!" And with that the cock proudly and cheerfully went on his way.
Now the master had been listening in on this entire conversation, so he went to his wife. Once again she had bad words for him, so he answered her with an appropriate measure of blows, and from that time onward she was as tame and agreeable as never before.
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