quite exhausted. "However," said
he, after he had taken breath, "it won't do to be starved here, without
doing my best to escape; and if I can't get out one way, let me see if
there is not a hole at the other end." Thus saying, his courage, which
stood him in lieu of cunning, returned, and he proceeded on in the same
straightforward way in which he always conducted himself. At first the
path was exceedingly narrow, and he hurt his sides very much against
the rough stones that projected from the earth; but by degrees the way
became broader, and he now went on with considerable ease to himself,
till he arrived in a large cavern, where he saw an immense griffin
sitting on his tail, and smoking a huge pipe.

The dog was by no means pleased at meeting so suddenly a creature that
had only to open his mouth to swallow him up at a morsel; however,
he put a bold face on the danger, and walking respectfully up to the
griffin, said, "Sir, I should be very much obliged to you if you would
inform me the way out of these holes into the upper world."

The griffin took the pipe out of his mouth, and looked at the dog very
sternly.

"Ho, wretch!" said he, "how comest thou hither? I suppose thou wantest
to steal my treasure; but I know how to treat such vagabonds as you, and
I shall certainly eat you up.

"You can do that if you choose," said the dog; "but it would be very
unhandsome conduct in an animal so much bigger than myself. For my own
part, I never attack any dog that is not of equal size,--I should be
ashamed of myself if I did. And as to your treasure, the character I
bear for honesty is too well known to merit such a suspicion."

"Upon my word," said the griffin, who could not help smiling for the
life of him, "you have a singularly free mode of expressing yourself.
And how, I say, came you hither?"

Then the dog, who did not know what a lie was, told the griffin his
whole history,--how he had set off to pay his court to the cat, and how
Reynard the fox had entrapped him into the hole.

When he had finished, the griffin said to him, "I see, my friend, that
you know how to speak the truth; I am in want of just such a servant as
you will make me, therefore stay with me and keep watch over my treasure
when I sleep."

"Two words to that," said the dog. "You have hurt my feelings very much
by suspecting my honesty, and I would much sooner go back into the wood
and be avenged on that scoundrel the fox, than serve a master