"You shall return, and I will teach you all the craft of our race, which is much craftier than the race of that pettifogger the fox, so that you may be able to cope with your rival." "Ah, excuse me," said the dog, hastily, "I am equally obliged to you; but I fancy honesty is a match for cunning any day, and I think myself a great deal safer in being a dog of honour than if I knew all the tricks in the world." "Well," said the griffin, a little piqued at the dog's bluntness, "do as you please; I wish you all possible success." Then the griffin opened a secret door in the side of the cabin, and the dog saw a broad path that led at once into the wood.

He thanked the griffin with all his heart, and ran wagging his tail into the open moonlight.

"Ah, ah, master fox," said he, "there's no trap for an honest dog that has not two doors to it, cunning as you think yourself." With that he curled his tail gallantly over his left leg, and set off on a long trot to the cat's house.

When he was within sight of it, he stopped to refresh himself by a pool of water, and who should be there but our friend the magpie.
"And what do _you_ want, friend ?" said she, rather disdainfully, for the dog looked somewhat out of case after his journey.
"I am going to see my cousin the cat," answered he.
"_Your cousin_! marry come up," said the magpie; "don't you know she is going to be married to Reynard the fox?
This is not a time for her to receive the visits of a brute like you." These words put the dog in such a passion that he very nearly bit the magpie for her uncivil mode of communicating such bad news.

However, he curbed his temper, and, without answering her, went at once to the cat's residence.
The cat was sitting at the window, and no sooner did the dog see her than he fairly lost his heart; never had he seen so charming a cat before.