The Oz Series

Chapter 95

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

This encyclopedia covers chapters 1 to 100 of the story and shows the world as it stands at chapter 100, so it contains spoilers up to that point. To read it spoiler free, one chapter at a time, open the interactive codex.

What happens

At noon the travelers open the Fox-King's luncheon basket, finding roasted turkey with cranberry sauce and bread and butter; the shaggy man cuts up the turkey with his pocket-knife and passes slices around as they sit on the grass. Polychrome asks for dewdrops, mist-cakes, or cloudbuns, but Dorothy explains they eat solid earthly food and offers cold tea. Watching Button-Bright devour a turkey leg, Polychrome decides to try eating because she is hungry, takes a thin slice of white breast meat with bread and butter, and finds the turkey good—better even than mist-cakes—though a little satisfies her, finished with a tiny sip of cold tea. Dorothy remarks Polly ate as little as a fly and mentions she knows people in Oz who eat nothing at all: a scarecrow stuffed with straw and a woodman made of tin, both alive, clever, and nice, whom she promises to introduce if they reach Oz. She reassures Button-Bright the Scarecrow will not scare him because he is not a crow and has a lovely painted smile.

After luncheon they resume the journey, the shaggy man, Dorothy, and Button-Bright walking soberly while Polychrome dances ahead, sometimes darting nearly out of sight before returning with silvery laughter. Once she returns more sedately to report a city a little way off; Dorothy recalls the fox-people warned of a city filled with stupid beasts that would not hurt them. Polychrome adds the city is big and the road runs straight through it. The shaggy man reassures them that as long as he carries the Love Magnet every living thing will love him and he will not let his friends be harmed.

They come to a signpost reading 'HAF A MYLE TO DUNKITON.' The shaggy man decides that if the inhabitants are donkeys there is nothing to fear, though Dorothy warns they may kick; he cuts a long switch for himself and shorter switches for the others, advising them to order the beasts around since donkeys are used to it. The road brings them to the city gates in a high whitewashed wall, the gate a mere barless opening; no towers, steeples, or domes rise above the enclosure and no living thing is seen. As they are about to enter, a harsh clamor arises on every side, nearly deafening them and forcing them to cover their ears—like many cannon firing without cannon-balls, mighty thunder without a cloud, and breakers on a seashore without any sea.

Entering through the wall, they discover the cause: sheets of tin or thin iron are suspended inside, and a row of donkeys are pounding their heels against them with vicious kicks. The shaggy man runs up and strikes the nearest donkey with his switch, shouting for it to stop; he switches each donkey in turn until the rattling ceases. The frightened donkeys explain they were scaring away foxes, whose army they believed was marching to attack because they saw Button-Bright's fox head; the shaggy man explains Button-Bright is only temporarily wearing a fox head, and a donkey apologizes for the mistaken work and worry.

The donkeys sit up and examine the strangers with big glassy eyes, presenting a queer picture: they wear wide white scalloped collars, the gentlemen-donkeys wearing high pointed caps between their ears and the lady-donkeys wearing sunbonnets with holes cut for the ears, otherwise clad only in their hairy skins though many wear gold and silver bangles on their front wrists and metal bands on their rear ankles. Standing upright on their hind legs and using their stiff front hoofs as clumsy arms, they are white, brown, gray, black, or spotted with sleek smooth hair. A grey donkey, previously silent, explains they did not mean to be impolite but the visitors were unexpected and sent in no visiting cards; the shaggy man's grand words that they are important and distinguished travelers delight the donkeys, who bow with respect. The grey donkey offers to lead them before King Kik-a-bray, insisting the word 'donkey' means 'clever'—citing the Encyclopedia Donkaniara—rather than 'stupid' as Dorothy thought, and, since all donkeys love big words, uses many of them as he leads the party to their ruler.

Who is in play

Read this chapter, in the original or in translation →

All chapters