"Oh, I see," said the little girl. "You are quite civilized here."
"Dunkiton," he replied, "is the center of the world's
highest civilization."
They came to a house where two youthful donkeys were whitewashing the
wall, and Dorothy stopped a moment to watch them. They dipped the
ends of their tails, which were much like paint-brushes, into a pail of
whitewash, backed up against the house, and wagged their tails right
and left until the whitewash was rubbed on the wall, after which they
dipped these funny brushes in the pail again and repeated the performance.
"That must be fun," said Button-Bright.
"No, it's work," replied the old donkey; "but we make our youngsters
do all the whitewashing, to keep them out of mischief."
"Don't they go to school?" asked Dorothy.
"All donkeys are born wise," was the reply, "so the only school we
need is the school of experience. Books are only for those who know
nothing, and so are obliged to learn things from other people."
"In other words, the more stupid one is, the more he thinks he knows,"
observed the shaggy man. The grey donkey paid no attention to this
speech because he had just stopped before a house which had painted
over the doorway a pair of hoofs, with a donkey tail between them and
a rude crown and sceptre above.
"I'll see if his magnificent Majesty King Kik-a-bray is at home," said
he.
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