ndsomely and ruled so big a city. I am sorry to say that no one had
ever told the little boy much about fairies of any kind; this being the
case, it is easy to understand how much this strange experience
startled and astonished him.

"How do you like us?" asked the King.

"Don't know," said Button-Bright.

"Of course you don't. It's too short an acquaintance," returned his
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