It was amusing to note the expression on the face of King Dox as he
looked the boy over, from his sailor hat to his stubby shoes, and it
was equally diverting to watch Button-Bright stare at the King in
return. No fox ever beheld a fresher, fairer child’s face, and no
child had ever before heard a fox talk, or met with one who dressed so
handsomely and ruled so big a city. I am sorry to say that no one had
ever told the little boy much about fairies of any kind; this being
the case, it is easy to understand how much this strange experience
startled and astonished him.

“How do you like us?” asked the King.

“Don’t know,” said Button-Bright.

“Of course you don’t. It’s too short an acquaintance,” returned his
Majesty. “What do you suppose my name is?”

“Don’t know,” said Button-Bright.

“How should you? Well, I’ll tell you. My private name is Dox, but a
King can’t be called by his private name; he has to take one that is
official. Therefore my official name is King Renard the Fourth.
Ren-ard with the accent on the ‘Ren’.”

“What’s ‘ren’?” asked Button-Bright.

“How clever!” exclaimed the King, turning a pleased face toward his
counselors. “This boy is indeed remarkably bright. ‘What’s ‘ren’?’
he asks; and of course ‘ren’ is nothing at all, all by itself. Yes,
he’s very bright indeed.”

“That question is what your Majesty might call foxy,” said one of the
counselors, an old grey fox.

“So it is,” declared the King. Turning again to Button-Bright, he asked:

“Having told you my name, what would you call me?”

“King Dox,” said the boy.

“Why?”

“‘Cause ‘ren”s nothing at all,” was the reply.

“Good! Very good indeed! You certainly have a brilliant mind. Do
you know why two and two make four?”

“No,” said Button-Bright.

“Clever! clever indeed! Of course you don’t know. Nobody knows why;
we only know it’s so, and can’t tell why it’s so. Button-Bright,
those curls and blue eyes do not go well with so much wisdom. They
make you look too youthful, and hide your real cleverness. Therefore,
I will do you a great favor. I will confer upon you the head of a fox,
so that you may hereafter look as bright as you really are.”

As he spoke the King waved his paw toward the boy, and at once the
pretty curls and fresh round face and big blue eyes were gone,
while in their place a fox’s head appeared upon Button-Bright’s
shoulders–a hairy head with a sharp nose, pointed ears, and keen
little eyes.

“Oh, don’t do that!” cried Dorothy, shrinking back from her
transformed companion with a shocked and dismayed face.

“Too late, my dear; it’s done. But you also shall have a fox’s head
if you can prove you’re as clever as Button-Bright.”

“I don’t want it; it’s dreadful!” she exclaimed; and, hearing this
verdict, Button-Bright began to boo-hoo just as if he were still a
little boy.

“How can you call that lovely head dreadful?” asked the King. “It’s
a much prettier face than he had before, to my notion, and my wife
says I’m a good judge of beauty. Don’t cry, little fox-boy. Laugh
and be proud, because you are so highly favored. How do you like the
new head, Button-Bright?”

“D-d-don’t n-n-n-know!” sobbed the child.

“Please, PLEASE change him back again, your Majesty!” begged Dorothy.

King Renard IV shook his head.

“I can’t do that,” he said; “I haven’t the power, even if I wanted
to. No, Button-Bright must wear his fox head, and he’ll be sure to
love it dearly as soon as he gets used to it.”

Both the shaggy man and Dorothy looked grave and anxious, for they
were sorrowful that such a misfortune had overtaken their little
companion. Toto barked at the fox-boy once or twice, not realizing it
was his former friend who now wore the animal head; but Dorothy cuffed
the dog and made him stop. As for the foxes, they all seemed to think
Button-Bright’s new head very becoming and that their King had
conferred a great honor on this little stranger. It was funny to see
the boy reach up to feel of his sharp nose and wide mouth, and wail
afresh with grief. He wagged his ears in a comical manner and tears
were in his little black eyes. But Dorothy couldn’t laugh at her
friend just yet, because she felt so sorry.

Just then three little fox-princesses, daughters of the King, entered
the room, and when they saw Button-Bright one exclaimed: “How lovely
he is!” and the next one cried in delight: “How sweet he is!” and
the third princess clapped her hands with pleasure and said, “How
beautiful he is!”

Button-Bright stopped crying and asked timidly:

“Am I?”

“In all the world there is not another face so pretty,” declared the
biggest fox-princess.

“You must live with us always, and be our brother,” said the next.

“We shall all love you dearly,” the third said.

This praise did much to comfort the boy, and he looked around and
tried to smile. It was a pitiful attempt, because the fox face was
new and stiff, and Dorothy thought his expression more stupid than
before the transformation.

“I think we ought to be going now,” said the shaggy man, uneasily,
for he didn’t know what the King might take into his head to do next.

“Don’t leave us yet, I beg of you,” pleaded King Renard. “I intend to
have several days of feasting and merry-making in honor of your visit.”

“Have it after we’re gone, for we can’t wait,” said Dorothy, decidedly.
But seeing this displeased the King, she added: “If I’m going to get
Ozma to invite you to her party I’ll have to find her as soon as
poss’ble, you know.”

In spite of all the beauty of Foxville and the gorgeous dresses of its
inhabitants, both the girl and the shaggy man felt they were not quite
safe there, and would be glad to see the last of it.

“But it is now evening,” the King reminded them, “and you must stay
with us until morning, anyhow. Therefore, I invite you to be my
guests at dinner, and to attend the theater afterward and sit in the
royal box. To-morrow morning, if you really insist upon it, you may
resume your journey.”

They consented to this, and some of the fox-servants led them to a
suite of lovely rooms in the big palace.

Button-Bright was afraid to be left alone, so Dorothy took him into
her own room. While a maid-fox dressed the little girl’s hair–which
was a bit tangled–and put some bright, fresh ribbons in it, another
maid-fox combed the hair on poor Button-Bright’s face and head and
brushed it carefully, tying a pink bow to each of his pointed ears.
The maids wanted to dress the children in fine costumes of woven feathers,
such as all the foxes wore; but neither of them consented to that.

“A sailor suit and a fox head do not go well together,” said one of
the maids, “for no fox was ever a sailor that I can remember.”

“I’m not a fox!” cried Button-Bright.

“Alas, no,” agreed the maid. “But you’ve got a lovely fox head on
your skinny shoulders, and that’s ALMOST as good as being a fox.”

The boy, reminded of his misfortune, began to cry again. Dorothy
petted and comforted him and promised to find some way to restore
him his own head.

“If we can manage to get to Ozma,” she said, “the Princess will change
you back to yourself in half a second; so you just wear that fox head
as comf’t’bly as you can, dear, and don’t worry about it at all. It
isn’t nearly as pretty as your own head, no matter what the foxes say;
but you can get along with it for a little while longer, can’t you?”

“Don’t know,” said Button-Bright, doubtfully; but he didn’t cry any
more after that.

Dorothy let the maids pin ribbons to her shoulders, after which they
were ready for the King’s dinner. When they met the shaggy man in the
splendid drawing room of the palace they found him just the same as
before. He had refused to give up his shaggy clothes for new ones,
because if he did that he would no longer be the shaggy man, he said,
and he might have to get acquainted with himself all over again.

He told Dorothy he had brushed his shaggy hair and whiskers; but she
thought he must have brushed them the wrong way, for they were quite
as shaggy as before.

As for the company of foxes assembled to dine with the strangers, they
were most beautifully costumed, and their rich dresses made Dorothy’s
simple gown and Button-Bright’s sailor suit and the shaggy man’s
shaggy clothes look commonplace. But they treated their guests with
great respect and the King’s dinner was a very good dinner indeed.
Foxes, as you know, are fond of chicken and other fowl; so they served
chicken soup and roasted turkey and stewed duck and fried grouse and
broiled quail and goose pie, and as the cooking was excellent the
King’s guests enjoyed the meal and ate heartily of the various dishes.

The party went to the theater, where they saw a play acted by foxes
dressed in costumes of brilliantly colored feathers. The play was
about a fox-girl who was stolen by some wicked wolves and carried to
their cave; and just as they were about to kill her and eat her a
company of fox-soldiers marched up, saved the girl, and put all the
wicked wolves to death.

“How do you like it?” the King asked Dorothy.

“Pretty well,” she answered. “It reminds me of one of Mr.
Aesop’s fables.”

“Don’t mention Aesop to me, I beg of you!” exclaimed King Dox.
“I hate that man’s name. He wrote a good deal about foxes, but always
made them out cruel and wicked, whereas we are gentle and kind, as you
may see.”

“But his fables showed you to be wise and clever, and more shrewd than
other animals,” said the shaggy man, thoughtfully.

“So we are. There is no question about our knowing more than men do,”
replied the King, proudly. “But we employ our wisdom to do good,
instead of harm; so that horrid Aesop did not know what he was
talking about.”

They did not like to contradict him, because they felt he ought to
know the nature of foxes better than men did; so they sat still and
watched the play, and Button-Bright became so interested that for the
time he forgot he wore a fox head.

Afterward they went back to the palace and slept in soft beds stuffed
with feathers; for the foxes raised many fowl for food, and used their
feathers for clothing and to sleep upon.

Dorothy wondered why the animals living in Foxville did not wear just
their own hairy skins as wild foxes do; when she mentioned it to King
Dox he said they clothed themselves because they were civilized.

“But you were born without clothes,” she observed, “and you don’t seem
to me to need them.”

“So were human beings born without clothes,” he replied; “and until
they became civilized they wore only their natural skins. But to
become civilized means to dress as elaborately and prettily as
possible, and to make a show of your clothes so your neighbors will
envy you, and for that reason both civilized foxes and civilized
humans spend most of their time dressing themselves.”

“I don’t,” declared the shaggy man.

“That is true,” said the King, looking at him carefully; “but perhaps
you are not civilized.”

After a sound sleep and a good night’s rest they had their breakfast
with the King and then bade his Majesty good-bye.

“You’ve been kind to us–‘cept poor Button-Bright,” said Dorothy,
“and we’ve had a nice time in Foxville.”

“Then,” said King Dox, “perhaps you’ll be good enough to get me an
invitation to Princess Ozma’s birthday celebration.”

“I’ll try,” she promised; “if I see her in time.”

“It’s on the twenty-first, remember,” he continued; “and if you’ll
just see that I’m invited I’ll find a way to cross the Dreadful
Desert into the marvelous Land of Oz. I’ve always wanted to visit the
Emerald City, so I’m sure it was fortunate you arrived here just when
you did, you being Princess Ozma’s friend and able to assist me in
getting the invitation.”

“If I see Ozma I’ll ask her to invite you,” she replied.

The Fox-King had a delightful luncheon put up for them, which the
shaggy man shoved in his pocket, and the fox-captain escorted them to
an arch at the side of the village opposite the one by which they had
entered. Here they found more soldiers guarding the road.

“Are you afraid of enemies?” asked Dorothy.

“No; because we are watchful and able to protect ourselves,” answered
the captain. “But this road leads to another village peopled by big,
stupid beasts who might cause us trouble if they thought we were
afraid of them.”

“What beasts are they?” asked the shaggy man.

The captain hesitated to answer. Finally, he said:

“You will learn all about them when you arrive at their city. But do
not be afraid of them. Button-Bright is so wonderfully clever and has
now such an intelligent face that I’m sure he will manage to find a
way to protect you.”

This made Dorothy and the shaggy man rather uneasy, for they had not
so much confidence in the fox-boy’s wisdom as the captain seemed to
have. But as their escort would say no more about the beasts, they
bade him good-bye and proceeded on their journey.