hunder,
only not a cloud was in the sky; it was like the roar of countless
breakers on a rugged seashore, only there was no sea or other water
anywhere about.

They hesitated to advance; but, as the noise did no harm, they entered
through the whitewashed wall and quickly discovered the cause of the
turmoil. Inside were suspended many sheets of tin or thin iron, and
against these metal sheets a row of donkeys were pounding their heels
with vicious kicks.

[Illustration]

The shaggy man ran up to the nearest donkey and gave the beast a sharp
blow with his switch.

"Stop that noise!" he shouted; and the donkey stopped kicking the metal
sheet and turned its head to look with surprise at the shaggy man. He
switched the next donkey, and made him stop, and then the next, so that
gradually the rattling of heels ceased and the awful noise subsided. The
donkeys stood in a group and eyed the strangers with fear and trembling.

"What do you mean by making such a racket?" asked the shaggy man,
sternly.

"We were scaring away the foxes," said one of the donkeys, meekly.
"Usually they run fast enough when they hear the noise, which makes them
afraid."

"There are no foxes here," said the shaggy man.

"I beg to differ with you. There's one, anyhow," replied the donkey,
sitting upright on its haunches and waving a hoof toward Button-Bright.
"We saw him coming and thought the whole army of foxes was marching to
attack us."

"Button-Bright isn't a fox," explained the shaggy man. "He's only
wearing a fox head for a time, until he can get his own head back."

"Oh, I see," remarked the donkey, waving its left ear reflectively. "I'm
sorry we made such a mistake, and had all our work and worry for
nothing."

The other donkeys by this time were sitting up and examining the
strangers with big, glassy eyes. They made a queer picture, indeed; for
they wore wide, white collars around their necks and the collars had
many scallops and points. The gentlemen-donkeys wore high pointed caps
set between their great ears, and the lady-donkeys wore sunbonnets with
holes cut in the top for the ears to stick through. But they had no
other clothing except their hairy skins, although many wore gold and
silver bangles on their front wrists and bands of different metals on
their rear ankles. When they were kicking they had braced themselves
with their front legs, but now they all stood or sat upright on their
hind legs and used their front ones as