"So we are. There is no question about our knowing more than men do,"
replied the King, proudly. "But we employ our wisdom to do good,
instead of harm; so that horrid Aesop did not know what he was
talking about."
They did not like to contradict him, because they felt he ought to
know the nature of foxes better than men did; so they sat still and
watched the play, and Button-Bright became so interested that for the
time he forgot he wore a fox head.
Afterward they went back to the palace and slept in soft beds stuffed
with feathers; for the foxes raised many fowl for food, and used their
feathers for clothing and to sleep upon.
Dorothy wondered why the animals living in Foxville did not wear just
their own hairy skins as wild foxes do; when she mentioned it to King
Dox he said they clothed themselves because they were civilized.
"But you were born without clothes," she observed, "and you don't seem
to me to need them."
"So were human beings born without clothes," he replied; "and until
they became civilized they wore only their natural skins. But to
become civilized means to dress as elaborately and prettily as
possible, and to make a show of your clothes so your neighbors will
envy you, and for that reason both civilized foxes and civilized
humans spend most of their time dressing themselves."
"I don't," declared the shaggy man.
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