"I was a doctor's assistant."
"A doctor's assistant!" repeated Alméric and the beggar in the same breath.
"Yes, a doctor's assistant," replied the bear; "but everybody made fun of my position. Men pursued me with their irony, made songs about me, burlesqued me on the stage. I wished to escape them, and had myself turned into a bear; but I am tired of my condition. I was not born for solitude."
"You old fool!" cried the beggar, angrily, "why did you leave the calling you were in? You might have avenged yourself on the men you detest; for you do not appear to me to be very learned, and you might have poisoned the universe with your drugs and your blunders."
The beggar was still speaking, when his attention was attracted by a gigantic elephant in an adjoining court.
"An elephant!" he cried. "Who can have asked to be turned into an elephant? an ant, I'll wager."
However, the old man was mistaken; it was not an ant that had desired to be turned into an elephant: it was a rabbit. He had only recently obtained that signal favour, and was still puffed up with pride at his metamorphosis.
He was walking about heavily, and with an air of importance, and received condescendingly all the compliments addressed to him on his new promotion.
The beggar, having learned his history, advanced towards him familiarly.
"Good-day, bunny!" he said. "Well, how do you like your big skin?"