The Oz Series

Chapter 93

Part of the The Road to Oz: The Shaggy Man's Journey to Ozma's Birthday arc.

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What happens

King Dox studies Button-Bright with amusement while the boy stares back, neither fox nor child having encountered the other's like; Button-Bright, never told about fairies, is startled by the experience. The King, taking the boy's repeated 'Don't know' answers as signs of cleverness, reveals that his private name is Dox but his official royal name is King Renard the Fourth (Ren-ard, accent on 'Ren'). When Button-Bright asks what 'ren' is and later says he would still call the King 'Dox' because 'ren' is nothing at all, the King and his counselors, including an old grey fox, praise the boy as remarkably bright and 'foxy.'

Deciding that Button-Bright's curls, blue eyes, and youthful round face hide his supposed cleverness, King Renard IV waves his paw and confers upon the boy the head of a fox—a hairy head with sharp nose, pointed ears, and keen little eyes—replacing his own. Dorothy cries out in shock and refuses the King's offer to give her a fox head too if she proves as clever, calling it dreadful; Button-Bright begins to cry. The King insists the fox head is prettier and cannot be reversed because he lacks the power to undo his magic, so Button-Bright must keep it and will grow to love it. The shaggy man and Dorothy are grieved; Toto barks at the fox-boy, not recognizing his former friend, until Dorothy cuffs him quiet. The foxes consider the new head a great honor.

Three fox-princesses, daughters of the King, enter and exclaim over how lovely, sweet, and beautiful Button-Bright is, inviting him to live with them always as their brother; this praise comforts the boy, who stops crying and attempts a stiff smile that Dorothy finds looks more stupid than before. The shaggy man, uneasy about what the King might do next, says they ought to leave, but King Renard urges them to stay for days of feasting. Dorothy insists they cannot wait because she must find Ozma quickly to secure the King's invitation, but the King persuades them to stay until morning as his dinner guests and to attend the theater in the royal box.

Fox-servants lead them to a suite of rooms. Button-Bright, afraid to be alone, stays in Dorothy's room, where maid-foxes dress Dorothy's tangled hair with ribbons and comb and brush Button-Bright's fox head and face, tying pink bows to his pointed ears; both children refuse the offered costumes of woven feathers. A maid notes a sailor suit and fox head do not match, prompting Button-Bright to cry again that he is not a fox, and Dorothy comforts him, promising that Ozma can change him back to himself in half a second once they reach her, and urging him to bear the fox head for a while.

Dorothy allows the maids to pin ribbons to her shoulders and they prepare for dinner. In the drawing room the shaggy man is unchanged, having refused new clothes because giving up his shaggy garments would mean he is no longer the shaggy man and might have to get acquainted with himself again; his brushed hair and whiskers remain as shaggy as before. The richly costumed foxes make the guests' plain clothing look commonplace but treat them with respect, and the King's dinner of chicken soup, roasted turkey, stewed duck, fried grouse, broiled quail, and goose pie is excellent, since foxes are fond of fowl.

The party attends the theater to see a play acted by feather-costumed foxes about a fox-girl stolen by wicked wolves and rescued by fox-soldiers who put the wolves to death. When Dorothy compares it to one of Mr. Aesop's fables, King Dox declares he hates Aesop's name because Aesop wrote of foxes as cruel and wicked whereas the foxes are gentle and kind, though he proudly agrees Aesop showed foxes to be wise, clever, and shrewd; the guests do not contradict him. They sleep in feather-stuffed beds, and Dorothy learns from the King that the foxes clothe themselves because they are civilized, the King defining civilization as dressing elaborately to make neighbors envious. The next morning, after breakfast, they bid the King goodbye; Dorothy thanks him for his kindness except toward Button-Bright, and the King again asks for an invitation to Ozma's birthday celebration on the twenty-first, promising to find a way to cross the Dreadful Desert into the Land of Oz. The Fox-King provides a luncheon, and the fox-captain escorts them to an arch on the opposite side of the village, where more soldiers guard the road leading to another village peopled by big, stupid beasts; the captain declines to name the beasts but urges them not to be afraid, expressing confidence that the clever Button-Bright will protect them, which leaves Dorothy and the shaggy man uneasy as they depart.

Who is in play

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