enough.




THE PARADISE OF BEASTS


Once on a rainy midnight a poor old horse, harnessed to a cab, was
drowsing in front of a dingy restaurant from whence came the laughter
of women and young people.

And the poor spiritless animal with drooping head and shaking limbs
made a sorry spectacle, as he stood there waiting the pleasure of the
roisterers, that would at last permit him to go home to his reeking
stable.

Half asleep, the horse heard the coarse jokes of these men and women.
He had long since grown painfully accustomed to it. His poor brain
understood that there was no difference between the monotonous
unchanging screech of a turning wheel and the shrill voice of a
prostitute.

And this evening he dreamed vaguely of the time when he had been a
little colt that had gamboled on a smooth field, quite pink amid the
green grass, and how his mother had given him to suck.

Suddenly he fell stone dead on the slippery pavement.

He reached the gate of heaven. A great scholar, who was waiting for