The leaves and ardent pulp of the fruits filled their blood with some
strange summer-like power, a palpitating joy which made their hearts
beat faster as they came nearer and nearer the marvels that were to be
theirs.

* * * * *

At last they came to the abode of the beasts, who had attained eternal
bliss. It was the first Paradise, that of the dogs.

For some time already they had heard barking. Bending down toward the
trunk of a decayed oak they saw a mastiff sitting in a hollow as in
a niche. His disdainful and yet placid glance told them that his mind
was disordered. It was the dog of Diogenes, to whom God had accorded
solitude in this tub, hollowed out of a very tree itself. With
indifference he watched the dogs with the spiked collars pass by.
Then to their great astonishment he left his moss-grown kennel for
a moment, and, since his leash had become undone, tied himself fast
again using his mouth as aid. He reëntered his den of wood, and said:

"_Here each one takes his pleasure where he finds it_."

And, in fact, Rabbit and his companions saw dogs in quest of imaginary
travelers who had lost their way. They dared descent into deep abysses
to find those who had met with accident, bearing to them the bouillon,
meat, and brandy contained in the small casks hanging from their
collars.

Others flung themselves into icy waters, always hoping, but always in
vain, that they might rescue a shipwrecked sailor. When they regained