and he leaned down and stroked the soft hair with much pleasure. Then
he wiped his feet on the new mat and went into the palace to tell the
Queen.

When her Majesty saw the nice, soft door-mat she declared it was too
good to be left outside; so she brought it into the parlor and put it
on the floor before the fire-place.

The good King was sorry he had treated the dog so harshly, and for fear
he might do some other dreadful thing he went back to the place where
he had lost his temper and searched until he found it again, when he
put it carefully away in his pocket where it would stay.

Then he returned to the palace an entered the parlor; but as he passed
the mat, his new boots were so clumsy, he stumbled against the edge and
pushed the mat together into a roll.

Immediately the dog gave a bark, got upon its legs and said:

"Well, this is better! Now I can breathe again, but while I was so flat
I could not draw a single breath."

The monarch and his Queen were much surprised to find that what they
had taken for a mat was only the dog, that had fallen so flat on their
door-step; but they could not forbear laughing at his queer appearance.
For, as the King had kicked the mat on the edge, the dog was more than
six feet long, and no bigger around than a lead-pencil; which brought
its font legs so far from its rear legs that it could scarcely turn
around in the room without getting tangled up.