augh 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 affections 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.

"But I can't do that," was the reply. "My magic works only one way. I
can DO things, but I can't UNdo them. You'll have to find the Truth
Pond, and bathe in its water, in order to get back your own head. But
I advise you not to do that. This head is much more beautiful than the
old one."

"That's a matter of taste," said Dorothy.

"Where is the Truth Pond?" asked the shaggy man, earnestly.

"Somewhere in the Land of Oz; but just the exact location of it I can
not tell," was the answer.

"Don't worry, Shaggy Man," said Dorothy, smiling because her friend
wagged his new ears so comically. "If the Truth Pond is in Oz, we'll
be sure to find it when we get there."

"Oh! Are you going to the Land of Oz?" asked King Kik-a-bray.

"I don't know," she replied, "but we've been told we are nearer the
Land of Oz than to Kansas, and if that's so, the quickest way f