The Road to Oz. Baum Lyman Frank

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СКАЧАТЬ 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 merrymaking, 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 СКАЧАТЬ