perhaps because he didn't need
it. He squatted down in the center of the room and a little brown donkey
ran and brought a big gold crown which it placed on the monarch's head,
and a golden staff with a jeweled ball at the end of it, which the King
held between his front hoofs as he sat upright.

"Now, then," said his Majesty, waving his long ears gently to and fro,
"tell me why you are here, and what you expect me to do for you." He
eyed Button-Bright rather sharply, as if afraid of the little boy's
queer head, though it was the shaggy man who undertook to reply.

[Illustration]

"Most noble and supreme ruler of Dunkiton," he said, trying not to laugh
in the solemn King's face, "we are strangers traveling through your
dominions, and have entered your magnificent city because the road led
through it, and there was no way to go around. All we desire is to pay
our respects to your Majesty--the cleverest king in all the world, I'm
sure--and then to continue on our way."

This polite speech pleased the King very much; indeed, it pleased him so
much that it proved an unlucky speech for the shaggy man. Perhaps the
Love Magnet helped to win his Majesty's affection as well as the
flattery, but however this may be the white donkey looked kindly upon
the speaker and said:

"Only a donkey should be able to use such fine, big words, and you are
too wise and admirable in all ways to be a mere man. Also I feel that I
love you as well as I do my own favored people, so I will bestow upon
you the greatest gift within my power--a donkey's head."

As he spoke he waved his jeweled staff. Although the shaggy man cried
out and tried to leap backward and escape, it proved of no use. Suddenly
his own head was gone and a donkey head appeared in its place--a brown,
shaggy head so absurd and droll that Dorothy and Polly both broke into
merry laughter, and even Button-Bright's fox face wore a smile.

"Dear me! dear me!" cried the shaggy man, feeling of his shaggy new head
and his long ears. "What a misfortune--what a great misfortune! Give me
back my own head, you stupid king--if you love me at all!"

"Don't you like it?" asked the King, surprised.

"Hee-haw! I hate it! Take it away--quick!" said the shaggy man.

[Illustration: KING KICK-A-BRAY WORKS MAGIC ON THE SHAGGY MAN]

"But I can't do that," was the reply. '"My magic works only one way. I
can _do_ things, but I can't _un_ do them. You'll have to find the Truth
Pond, and bathe in