I am young and good-looking, fond of play and amusement, and altogether as agreeable a husband as a cat could find in a summer's day.

If she marries me, well and good; she may have her property settled on herself: if not, I shall bear her no malice; and I hope I sha'n't be too much in love to forget that there are other cats in the world." With that the dog threw his tail over his back, and set off to his mistress with a gay face on the matter.
Now the fox heard the dog talking thus to himself, for the fox was always peeping about, in holes and corners, and he burst out a laughing when the dog was out of sight.
"Ho, ho, my fine fellow!" said he; "not so fast, if you please: you've got the fox for a rival, let me tell you." The fox, as you very well know, is a beast that can never do anything without a manoeuvre; and as, from his cunning, he was generally very lucky in anything he undertook, he did not doubt for a moment that he should put the dog's nose out of joint.

Reynard was aware that in love one should always, if possible, be the first in the field; and he therefore resolved to get the start of the dog and arrive before him at the cat's residence.

But this was no easy matter; for though Reynard could run faster than the dog for a little way, he was no match for him in a journey of some distance.

"However," said Reynard, "those good-natured creatures are never very wise; and I think I know already what will make him bait on his way." With that, the fox trotted pretty fast by a short cut in the woods, and getting before the dog, laid himself down by a hole in the earth, and began to howl most piteously.
The dog, hearing the noise, was very much alarmed.