The donkeys stood in a group and eyed the strangers
with fear and trembling.
"What do you mean by making such a racket?" asked the shaggy man, sternly.
"We were scaring away the foxes," said one of the donkeys, meekly.
"Usually they run fast enough when they hear the noise, which makes
them afraid."
"There are no foxes here," said the shaggy man.
"I beg to differ with you. There's one, anyhow," replied the donkey,
sitting upright on its haunches and waving a hoof toward
Button-Bright. "We saw him coming and thought the whole army of foxes
was marching to attack us."
"Button-Bright isn't a fox," explained the shaggy man. "He's only
wearing a fox head for a time, until he can get his own head back."
"Oh, I see," remarked the donkey, waving its left ear reflectively.
"I'm sorry we made such a mistake, and had all our work and worry
for nothing."
The other donkeys by this time were sitting up and examining the
strangers with big, glassy eyes. They made a queer picture, indeed;
for they wore wide, white collars around their necks and the collars
had many scallops and points. The gentlemen-donkeys wore high
pointed caps set between their great ears, and the lady-donkeys wore
sunbonnets with holes cut in the top for the ears to stick through.
But they had no other clothing except their hairy skins, although many
wore gold and silver bangles on their front wrists and bands of
different metals on their rear ankles.
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