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such as peacocks, pheasants, turkeys, prairie-chickens, ducks, and geese.
Over each doorway was carved a head representing the fox who lived in that
house, this effect being quite pretty and unusual.
As our friends marched along, some of the foxes came out on the porches and
balconies to get a view of the strangers. These foxes were all handsomely
dressed, the girl-foxes and women-foxes wearing gowns of feathers woven
together effectively and colored in bright hues which Dorothy thought were
quite artistic and decidedly attractive.
Button-Bright stared until his eyes were big and round, and he would have
stumbled and fallen more than once had not the shaggy man grasped his
hand tightly. They were all interested, and Toto was so excited he wanted to
bark every minute and to chase and fight every fox he caught sight of; but
Dorothy held his little wiggling body fast in her arms and commanded him to
be good and behave himself. So he finally quieted down, like a wise doggy,
deciding there were too many foxes in Foxville to fight at one time.
By-and-by they came to a big square, and in the center of the square stood
the royal palace. Dorothy knew it at once because it had over its great door
the carved head of a fox just like the one she had seen on the arch, and this
fox was the only one who wore a golden crown.
There were many fox-soldiers guarding the door, but they bowed to the
captain and admitted him without question. The captain led them through
many rooms, where richly dressed foxes were sitting on beautiful chairs or
sipping tea, which was being passed around by fox-servants in white aprons.
They came to a big doorway covered with heavy curtains of cloth of gold.
Beside this doorway stood a huge drum. The fox-captain went to this drum
and knocked his knees against it--first one knee and then the other--so that
the drum said: "Boom-boom."
"
You must all do exactly what I do," ordered the captain; so the shaggy man
pounded the drum with his knees, and so did Dorothy and so did Button-
Bright. The boy wanted to keep on pounding it with his little fat knees,
because he liked the sound of it; but the captain stopped him. Toto couldn't
pound the drum with his knees and he didn't know enough to wag his tail
against it, so Dorothy pounded the drum for him and that made him bark,
and when the little dog barked the fox-captain scowled.
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