The Road to Oz


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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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