{"collection":"folklore-oral-tradition","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_16865/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_16865","id":"gutenberg_16865","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16865","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Novels","Fairy tales","Pinocchio (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction","Puppets -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by Mark C. Orton, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.\n\n\n\n\n\nPINOCCHIO\n\nTHE TALE OF A\nPUPPET\n\nBy C COLLODI\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: \"HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO GO IN?\"]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\nPINOCCHIO\n\nTHE TALE OF A\nPUPPET\n\nBy C COLLODI\n\nIllustrated By\nALICE CARSEY\n\n\nWHITMAN PUBLISHING CO.\nRACINE, WISCONSIN\n\n\n\n\nCOPYRIGHT 1916 BY\nWHITMAN PUBLISHING CO.\nRACINE, WISCONSIN\nPRINTED IN U.S.A.\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\nThe untitled illustration on page 26 was not listed in the List of\nIllustrations of the source book.\n\nIn several cases, missing punctuation was added or wrong punctuation\nremoved.\n\nThe following typos were fixed:\n    thouand to thousand\n    Harelquin to Harlequin\n    pretrified to petrified\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n  Chap.                                                           Page\n     I  THE PIECE OF WOOD THAT LAUGHED AND CRIED LIKE A CHILD        9\n    II  MASTER CHERRY GIVES THE WOOD AWAY                           12\n   III  GEPPETTO NAMES HIS PUPPET PINOCCHIO                         16\n    IV  THE TALKING-CRICKET SCOLDS PINOCCHIO                        23\n     V  THE FLYING EGG                                              26\n    VI  PINOCCHIO'S FEET BURN TO CINDERS                            29\n   VII  GEPPETTO GIVES HIS OWN BREAKFAST TO PINOCCHIO               31\n  VIII  GEPPETTO MAKES PINOCCHIO NEW FEET                           35\n    IX  PINOCCHIO GOES TO SEE A PUPPET-SHOW                         39\n     X  THE PUPPETS RECOGNIZE THEIR BROTHER PINOCCHIO               42\n    XI  FIRE-EATER SNEEZES AND PARDONS PINOCCHIO                    45\n   XII  PINOCCHIO RECEIVES A PRESENT OF FIVE GOLD PIECES            49\n  XIII  THE INN OF THE RED CRAW-FISH                                57\n   XIV  PINOCCHIO FALLS AMONG ASSASSINS                             61\n    XV  THE ASSASSINS HANG PINOCCHIO TO THE BIG OAK                 65\n   XVI  THE BEAUTIFUL CHILD RESCUES THE PUPPET                      71\n  XVII  PINOCCHIO WILL NOT TAKE HIS MEDICINE                        75\n XVIII  PINOCCHIO AGAIN MEETS THE FOX AND THE CAT                   81\n   XIX  PINOCCHIO IS ROBBED OF HIS MONEY                            87\n    XX  PINOCCHIO STARTS BACK TO THE FAIRY'S HOUSE                  91\n   XXI  PINOCCHIO ACTS AS WATCH-DOG                                 94\n  XXII  PINOCCHIO DISCOVERS THE ROBBERS                             97\n XXIII  PINOCCHIO FLIES TO THE SEASHORE                            101\n  XXIV  PINOCCHIO FINDS THE FAIRY AGAIN                            109\n   XXV  PINOCCHIO PROMISES THE FAIRY TO BE GOOD                    116\n  XXVI  THE TERRIBLE DOG-FISH                                      120\n XXVII  PINOCCHIO IS ARRESTED BY THE GENDARMES                     126\nXXVIII  PINOCCHIO ESCAPES BEING FRIED LIKE A FISH                  133\n  XXIX  HE RETURNS TO THE FAIRY'S HOUSE                            139\n   XXX  THE \"LAND OF BOOBIES\"                                      147\n  XXXI  PINOCCHIO ENJOYS FIVE MONTHS OF HAPPINESS                  153\n XXXII  PINOCCHIO TURNS INTO A DONKEY                              160\nXXXIII  PINOCCHIO IS TRAINED FOR THE CIRCUS                        167\n XXXIV  PINOCCHIO IS SWALLOWED BY THE DOG-FISH                     178\n  XXXV  A HAPPY SURPRISE FOR PINOCCHIO                             186\n XXXVI  PINOCCHIO AT LAST CEASES TO BE A PUPPET AND BECOMES A BOY  194\n\n\n\n\nLINE ILLUSTRATIONS\n\nDECORATIVE TITLE PAGE                                       1\nTHE RUNAWAY PUPPET                                          9\nGEPPETTO CARRIED OFF HIS FINE PIECE OF WOOD                12\nHE SET TO WORK TO CUT OUT HIS PUPPET                       16\nA LITTLE CHICKEN POPPED OUT                                17\nPINOCCHIO THREW HIS HAMMER AT THE TALKING-CRICKET          23\nUNTITLED                                                   26\nPOOR PINOCCHIO'S FEET BURN TO CINDERS                      29\nGEPPETTO MAKES HIS PUPPET SOME CLOTHES                     35\nTHE PUPPETS BEGAN TO DANCE MERRILY                         45\nPINOCCHIO MEETS THE CAT AND THE FOX                        49\nSPLASH! SPLASH! THEY FELL INTO THE DITCH                   52\nDINNER AT THE RED CRAW-FISH INN                            57\nPINOCCHIO ESCAPES FROM HIS ASSASSINS                       61\nTHEY HUNG PINOCCHIO TO THE BIG OAK TREE                    65\nFOUR RABBITS AS BLACK AS INK ENTERED                       69\nTHE FALCON SAVES PINOCCHIO                                 71\nPINOCCHIO REFUSES TO TAKE HIS MEDICINE                     75\nTREACHEROUS COMPANIONS                                     81\nTHE JUDGE WAS A BIG APE                                    87\nPINOCCHIO GETS HIS FOOT CAUGHT IN A TRAP                   94\nTHE NEW WATCH-DOG                                          97\nPINOCCHIO'S WILD RIDE ON THE PIGEON'S BACK                101\nAN IMMENSE SERPENT STRETCHED ACROSS THE ROAD              104\nPINOCCHIO BRAVES THE SEA TO SAVE HIS FATHER               109\n\"SCHOOL GIVES ME PAIN ALL OVER THE BODY\"                  116\nPINOCCHIO STARTS OFF HAPPILY FOR SCHOOL                   120\n\"OH, I AM SICK OF BEING A PUPPET!\"                        121\nTHE BOYS THREW THEIR BOOKS AT POOR PINOCCHIO              126\nTHE FISHERMAN PUT HIS HAND INTO THE NET                   133\nTHE DOG SEIZES PINOCCHIO AND ESCAPES                      139\n\"HERE IS THE COACH!\" SHOUTED CANDLEWICK                   147\nTHEY ARRIVE IN THE \"LAND OF THE BOOBIES\"                  153\nTHE BOYS ARE TURNED INTO DONKEYS                          160\nTHE LITTLE DONKEYS ARE SOLD                               167\nALL HIS FRIENDS WERE INVITED                              172\nTHE PUPPET WAS WRIGGLING LIKE AN EEL                      178\nSWALLOWED BY THE DOG-FISH                                 186\nIT WOULD BE MORE COMFORTABLE ON THE TUNNY'S BACK          189\nTHE BLIND CAT AND THE TAILLESS FOX                        194\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nPINOCCHIO\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE PIECE OF WOOD THAT LAUGHED AND CRIED LIKE A CHILD\n\n\nThere was once upon a time a piece of wood in the shop of an old\ncarpenter named Master Antonio. Everybody, however, called him Master\nCherry, on account of the end of his nose, which was always as red and\npolished as a ripe cherry.\n\nNo sooner had Master Cherry set eyes on the piece of wood than his face\nbeamed with delight, and, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction,\nhe said softly to himself:\n\n\"This wood has come at the right moment; it will just do to make the leg\nof a little table.\"\n\nHe immediately took a sharp axe with which to remove the bark and the\nrough surface, but just as he was going to give the first stroke he\nheard a very small voice say imploringly, \"Do not strike me so hard!\"\n\nHe turned his terrified eyes all around the room to try and discover\nwhere the little voice could possibly have come from, but he saw nobody!\nHe looked under the bench--nobody; he looked into a cupboard that was\nalways shut--nobody; he looked into a basket of shavings and\nsawdust--nobody; he even opened the door of the shop and gave a glance\ninto the street--and still nobody. Who, then, could it be?\n\n\"I see how it is,\" he said, laughing and scratching his wig, \"evidently\nthat little voice was all my imagination. Let us set to work again.\"\n\nAnd, taking up the axe, he struck a tremendous blow on the piece of\nwood.\n\n\"Oh! oh! you have hurt me!\" cried the same little voice dolefully.\n\nThis time Master Cherry was petrified. His eyes started out of his head\nwith fright, his mouth remained open, and his tongue hung out almost to\nthe end of his chin, like a mask on a fountain. As soon as he had\nrecovered the use of his speech he began to say, stuttering and\ntrembling with fear:\n\n\"But where on earth can that little voice have come from that said 'Oh!\noh!'? Is it possible that this piece of wood can have learned to cry and\nto lament like a child? I cannot believe it. This piece of wood is\nnothing but a log for fuel like all the others, and thrown on the fire\nit would about suffice to boil a saucepan of beans. How then? Can anyone\nbe hidden inside it? If anyone is hidden inside, so much the worse for\nhim. I will settle him at once.\"\n\nSo saying, he seized the poor piece of wood and commenced beating it\nwithout mercy against the walls of the room.\n\nThen he stopped to listen if he could hear any little voice lamenting.\nHe waited two minutes--nothing; five minutes--nothing; ten\nminutes--still nothing!\n\n\"I see how it is,\" he then said, forcing himself to laugh, and pushing\nup his wig; \"evidently the little voice that said 'Oh! oh!' was all my\nimagination! Let us set to work again.\"\n\nPutting the axe aside, he took his plane, to plane and polish the bit of\nwood; but whilst he was running it up and down he heard the same little\nvoice say, laughing:\n\n\"Stop! you are tickling me all over!\"\n\nThis time poor Master Cherry fell down as if he had been struck by\nlightning. When he at last opened his eyes he found himself seated on\nthe floor.\n\nHis face was changed, even the end of his nose, instead of being\ncrimson, as it was nearly always, had become blue from fright.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nMASTER CHERRY GIVES THE WOOD AWAY\n\n\nAt that moment some one knocked at the door.\n\n\"Come in,\" said the carpenter, without having the strength to rise to\nhis feet.\n\nA lively little old man immediately walked into the shop. His name was\nGeppetto, but when the boys of the neighborhood wished to make him angry\nthey called him Pudding, because his yellow wig greatly resembled a\npudding made of Indian corn.\n\nGeppetto was very fiery. Woe to him who called him Pudding! He became\nfurious and there was no holding him.\n\n\"Good-day, Master Antonio,\" said Geppetto; \"what are you doing there on\nthe floor?\"\n\n\"I am teaching the alphabet to the ants.\"\n\n\"Much good may that do you.\"\n\n\"What has brought you to me, neighbor Geppetto?\"\n\n\"My legs. But to tell the truth. Master Antonio, I came to ask a favor\nof you.\"\n\n\"Here I am, ready to serve you,\" replied the carpenter, getting on his\nknees.\n\n\"This morning an idea came into my head.\"\n\n\"Let us hear it.\"\n\n\"I thought I would make a beautiful wooden puppet; one that could dance,\nfence, and leap like an acrobat. With this puppet I would travel about\nthe world to earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine. What do you\nthink of it?\"\n\n\"Bravo, Pudding!\" exclaimed the same little voice, and it was impossible\nto say where it came from.\n\nHearing himself called Pudding, Geppetto became as red as a turkey-cock\nfrom rage and, turning to the carpenter, he said in a fury:\n\n\"Why do you insult me?\"\n\n\"Who insults you?\"\n\n\"You called me Pudding!\"\n\n\"It was not I!\"\n\n\"Do you think I called myself Pudding? It was you, I say!\"\n\n\"No!\"\n\n\"Yes!\"\n\n\"No!\"\n\n\"Yes!\"\n\nAnd, becoming more and more angry, from words they came to blows, and,\nflying at each other, they bit and fought, and scratched.\n\nWhen the fight was over Master Antonio was in possession of Geppetto's\nyellow wig, and Geppetto discovered that the grey wig belonging to the\ncarpenter remained between his teeth.\n\n\"Give me back my wig,\" screamed Master Antonio.\n\n\"And you, return me mine, and let us be friends again.\"\n\nThe two old men having each recovered his own wig, shook hands and swore\nthat they would remain friends to the end of their lives.\n\n\"Well, then, neighbor Geppetto,\" said the carpenter, to prove that peace\nwas made, \"what is the favor that you wish of me?\"\n\n\"I want a little wood to make my puppet; will you give me some?\"\n\nMaster Antonio was delighted, and he immediately went to the bench and\nfetched the piece of wood that had caused him so much fear. But just as\nhe was going to give it to his friend the piece of wood gave a shake\nand, wriggling violently out of his hands, struck with all of its force\nagainst the dried-up shins of poor Geppetto.\n\n\"Ah! is that the courteous way in which you make your presents, Master\nAntonio? You have almost lamed me!\"\n\n\"I swear to you that it was not I!\"\n\n\"Then you would have it that it was I?\"\n\n\"The wood is entirely to blame!\"\n\n\"I know that it was the wood; but it was you that hit my legs with it!\"\n\n\"I did not hit you with it!\"\n\n\"Liar!\"\n\n\"Geppetto, don't insult me or I will call you Pudding!\"\n\n\"Knave!\"\n\n\"Pudding!\"\n\n\"Donkey!\"\n\n\"Pudding!\"\n\n\"Baboon!\"\n\n\"Pudding!\"\n\nOn hearing himself called Pudding for the third time Geppetto, mad with\nrage, fell upon the carpenter and they fought desperately.\n\nWhen the battle was over, Master Antonio had two more scratches on his\nnose, and his adversary had lost two buttons off his waistcoat. Their\naccounts being thus squared, they shook hands and swore to remain good\nfriends for the rest of their lives.\n\nGeppetto carried off his fine piece of wood and, thanking Master\nAntonio, returned limping to his house.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nGEPPETTO NAMES HIS PUPPET PINOCCHIO\n\n\nGeppetto lived in a small ground-floor room that was only lighted from\nthe staircase. The furniture could not have been simpler--a rickety\nchair, a poor bed, and a broken-down table. At the end of the room there\nwas a fireplace with a lighted fire; but the fire was painted, and by\nthe fire was a painted saucepan that was boiling cheerfully and sending\nout a cloud of smoke that looked exactly like real smoke.\n\nAs soon as he reached home Geppetto took his tools and set to work to\ncut out and model his puppet.\n\n[Illustration: A Little Chicken Popped Out, Very Gay and Polite]\n\n\"What name shall I give him?\" he said to himself; \"I think I will call\nhim Pinocchio. It is a name that will bring him luck. I once knew a\nwhole family so called. There was Pinocchio the father, Pinocchia the\nmother, and Pinocchi the children, and all of them did well. The\nrichest of them was a beggar.\"\n\nHaving found a name for his puppet he began to work in good earnest, and\nhe first made his hair, then his forehead, and then his eyes.\n\nThe eyes being finished, imagine his astonishment when he perceived that\nthey moved and looked fixedly at him.\n\nGeppetto, seeing himself stared at by those two wooden eyes, said in an\nangry voice:\n\n\"Wicked wooden eyes, why do you look at me?\"\n\nNo one answered.\n\nHe then proceeded to carve the nose, but no sooner had he made it than\nit began to grow. And it grew, and grew, and grew, until in a few\nminutes it had become an immense nose that seemed as if it would never\nend.\n\nPoor Geppetto tired himself out with cutting it off, but the more he cut\nand shortened it, the longer did that impertinent nose become!\n\nThe mouth was not even completed when it began to laugh and deride him.\n\n\"Stop laughing!\" said Geppetto, provoked; but he might as well have\nspoken to the wall.\n\n\"Stop laughing, I say!\" he roared in a threatening tone.\n\nThe mouth then ceased laughing, but put out its tongue as far as it\nwould go.\n\nGeppetto, not to spoil his handiwork, pretended not to see and continued\nhis labors. After the mouth he fashioned the chin, then the throat, then\nthe shoulders, the stomach, the arms and the hands.\n\nThe hands were scarcely finished when Geppetto felt his wig snatched\nfrom his head. He turned round, and what did he see? He saw his yellow\nwig in the puppet's hand.\n\n\"Pinocchio! Give me back my wig instantly!\"\n\nBut Pinocchio, instead of returning it, put it on his own head and was\nin consequence nearly smothered.\n\nGeppetto at this insolent and derisive behavior felt sadder and more\nmelancholy than he had ever been in his life before; and, turning to\nPinocchio, he said to him:\n\n\"You young rascal! You are not yet completed and you are already\nbeginning to show want of respect to your father! That is bad, my boy,\nvery bad!\"\n\nAnd he dried a tear.\n\nThe legs and the feet remained to be done.\n\nWhen Geppetto had finished the feet he received a kick on the point of\nhis nose.\n\n\"I deserve it!\" he said to himself; \"I should have thought of it sooner!\nNow it is too late!\"\n\nHe then took the puppet under the arms and placed him on the floor to\nteach him to walk.\n\nPinocchio's legs were stiff and he could not move, but Geppetto led him\nby the hand and showed him how to put one foot before the other.\n\nWhen his legs became limber Pinocchio began to walk by himself and to\nrun about the room, until, having gone out of the house door, he jumped\ninto the street and escaped.\n\nPoor Geppetto rushed after him but was not able to overtake him, for\nthat rascal Pinocchio leaped in front of him like a hare and knocking\nhis wooden feet together against the pavement made as much clatter as\ntwenty pairs of peasants' clogs.\n\n\"Stop him! stop him!\" shouted Geppetto; but the people in the street,\nseeing a wooden puppet running like a race-horse, stood still in\nastonishment to look at it, and laughed and laughed.\n\nAt last, as good luck would have it, a soldier arrived who, hearing the\nuproar, imagined that a colt had escaped from his master. Planting\nhimself courageously with his legs apart in the middle of the road, he\nwaited with the determined purpose of stopping him and thus preventing\nthe chance of worse disasters.\n\nWhen Pinocchio, still at some distance, saw the soldier barricading the\nwhole street, he endeavored to take him by surprise and to pass between\nhis legs. But he failed entirely.\n\nThe soldier without disturbing himself in the least caught him cleverly\nby the nose and gave him to Geppetto. Wishing to punish him, Geppetto\nintended to pull his ears at once. But imagine his feelings when he\ncould not succeed in finding them. And do you know the reason? In his\nhurry to model him he had forgotten to make any ears.\n\nHe then took him by the collar and as he was leading him away he said to\nhim, shaking his head threateningly:\n\n\"We will go home at once, and as soon as we arrive we will settle our\naccounts, never doubt it.\"\n\nAt this information Pinocchio threw himself on the ground and would not\ntake another step. In the meanwhile a crowd of idlers and inquisitive\npeople began to assemble and to make a ring around them.\n\nSome of them said one thing, some another.\n\n\"Poor puppet!\" said several, \"he is right not to wish to return home!\nWho knows how Geppetto, that bad old man, will beat him!\"\n\nAnd the others added maliciously:\n\n\"Geppetto seems a good man! but with boys he is a regular tyrant! If\nthat poor puppet is left in his hands he is quite capable of tearing him\nin pieces!\"\n\nIt ended in so much being said and done that the soldier at last set\nPinocchio at liberty and led Geppetto to prison. The poor man, not being\nready with words to defend himself, cried like a calf and as he was\nbeing led away to prison sobbed out:\n\n\"Wretched boy! And to think how I labored to make him a well-conducted\npuppet! But it serves me right! I should have thought of it sooner!\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE TALKING-CRICKET SCOLDS PINOCCHIO\n\n\nWhile poor Geppetto was being taken to prison for no fault of his, that\nimp Pinocchio, finding himself free from the clutches of the soldier,\nran off as fast as his legs could carry him. That he might reach home\nthe quicker he rushed across the fields, and in his mad hurry he jumped\nhigh banks, thorn hedges and ditches full of water.\n\nArriving at the house he found the street door ajar. He pushed it open,\nwent in, and having fastened the latch, threw himself on the floor and\ngave a great sigh of satisfaction.\n\nBut soon he heard some one in the room who was saying:\n\n\"Cri-cri-cri!\"\n\n\"Who calls me?\" said Pinocchio in a fright.\n\n\"It is I!\"\n\nPinocchio turned round and saw a big cricket crawling slowly up the\nwall.\n\n\"Tell me, Cricket, who may you be?\"\n\n\"I am the Talking-Cricket, and I have lived in this room a hundred years\nor more.\"\n\n\"Now, however, this room is mine,\" said the puppet, \"and if you would do\nme a pleasure go away at once, without even turning round.\"\n\n\"I will not go,\" answered the Cricket, \"until I have told you a great\ntruth.\"\n\n\"Tell it me, then, and be quick about it.\"\n\n\"Woe to those boys who rebel against their parents and run away from\nhome. They will never come to any good in the world, and sooner or later\nthey will repent bitterly.\"\n\n\"Sing away, Cricket, as you please, and as long as you please. For me, I\nhave made up my mind to run away tomorrow at daybreak, because if I\nremain I shall not escape the fate of all other boys; I shall be sent to\nschool and shall be made to study either by love or by force. To tell\nyou in confidence, I have no wish to learn; it is much more amusing to\nrun after butterflies, or to climb trees and to take the young birds out\nof their nests.\"\n\n\"Poor little goose! But do you not know that in that way you will grow\nup a perfect donkey, and that every one will make fun of you?\"\n\n\"Hold your tongue, you wicked, ill-omened croaker!\" shouted Pinocchio.\n\nBut the Cricket, who was patient and philosophical, instead of becoming\nangry at this impertinence, continued in the same tone:\n\n\"But if you do not wish to go to school why not at least learn a trade,\nif only to enable you to earn honestly a piece of bread!\"\n\n\"Do you want me to tell you?\" replied Pinocchio, who was beginning to\nlose patience. \"Amongst all the trades in the world there is only one\nthat really takes my fancy.\"\n\n\"And that trade--what is it?\"\n\n\"It is to eat, drink, sleep and amuse myself, and to lead a vagabond\nlife from morning to night.\"\n\n\"As a rule,\" said the Talking-Cricket, \"all those who follow that trade\nend almost always either in a hospital or in prison.\"\n\n\"Take care, you wicked, ill-omened croaker! Woe to you if I fly into a\npassion!\"\n\n\"Poor Pinocchio! I really pity you!\"\n\n\"Why do you pity me?\"\n\n\"Because you are a puppet and, what is worse, because you have a wooden\nhead.\"\n\nAt these last words Pinocchio jumped up in a rage and, snatching a\nwooden hammer from the bench, he threw it at the Talking-Cricket.\n\nPerhaps he never meant to hit him, but unfortunately it struck him\nexactly on the head, so that the poor Cricket had scarcely breath to cry\n\"Cri-cri-cri!\" and then he remained dried up and flattened against the\nwall.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE FLYING EGG\n\n\nNight was coming on and Pinocchio, remembering that he had eaten nothing\nall day, began to feel a gnawing in his stomach that very much resembled\nappetite.\n\nAfter a few minutes his appetite had become hunger and in no time his\nhunger became ravenous.\n\nPoor Pinocchio ran quickly to the fireplace, where a saucepan was\nboiling, and was going to take off the lid to see what was in it, but\nthe saucepan was only painted on the wall. You can imagine his feelings.\nHis nose, which was already long, became longer by at least three\ninches.\n\nHe then began to run about the room, searching in the drawers and in\nevery imaginable place, in hopes of finding a bit of bread. If it was\nonly a bit of dry bread, a crust, a bone left by a dog, a little moldy\npudding of Indian corn, a fish bone, a cherry stone--in fact, anything\nthat he could gnaw. But he could find nothing, nothing at all,\nabsolutely nothing.\n\nAnd in the meanwhile his hunger grew and grew. Poor Pinocchio had no\nother relief than yawning, and his yawns were so tremendous that\nsometimes his mouth almost reached his ears. And after he had yawned he\nspluttered and felt as if he were going to faint.\n\nThen he began to cry desperately, and he said:\n\n\"The Talking-Cricket was right. I did wrong to rebel against my papa and\nto run away from home. If my papa were here I should not now be dying of\nyawning! Oh! what a dreadful illness hunger is!\"\n\nJust then he thought he saw something in the dust-heap--something round\nand white that looked like a hen's egg. To give a spring and seize hold\nof it was the affair of a moment. It was indeed an egg.\n\nPinocchio's joy was beyond description. Almost believing it must be a\ndream he kept turning the egg over in his hands, feeling it and kissing\nit. And as he kissed it he said:\n\n\"And now, how shall I cook it? Shall I make an omelet? No, it would be\nbetter to cook it in a saucer! Or would it not be more savory to fry it\nin the frying-pan? Or shall I simply boil it? No, the quickest way of\nall is to cook it in a saucer: I am in such a hurry to eat it!\"\n\nWithout loss of time he placed an earthenware saucer on a brazier full\nof red-hot embers. Into the saucer instead of oil or butter he poured a\nlittle water; and when the water began to smoke, tac! he broke the\negg-shell over it and let the contents drop in. But, instead of the\nwhite and the yolk a little chicken popped out very gay and polite.\nMaking a beautiful courtesy it said to him:\n\n\"A thousand thanks, Master Pinocchio, for saving me the trouble of\nbreaking the shell. Adieu until we meet again. Keep well, and my best\ncompliments to all at home!\"\n\nThus saying, it spread its wings, darted through the open window and,\nflying away, was lost to sight.\n\nThe poor puppet stood as if he had been bewitched, with his eyes fixed,\nhis mouth open, and the egg-shell in his hand. Recovering, however, from\nhis first stupefaction, he began to cry and scream, and to stamp his\nfeet on the floor in desperation, and amidst his sobs he said:\n\n\"Ah, indeed, the Talking-Cricket was right. If I had not run away from\nhome, and if my papa were here, I should not now be dying of hunger! Oh!\nwhat a dreadful illness hunger is!\"\n\nAnd, as his stomach cried out more than ever and he did not know how to\nquiet it, he thought he would leave the house and make an excursion in\nthe neighborhood in hopes of finding some charitable person who would\ngive him a piece of bread.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nPINOCCHIO'S FEET BURN TO CINDERS\n\n\nIt was a wild and stormy night. The thunder was tremendous and the\nlightning so vivid that the sky seemed on fire.\n\nPinocchio had a great fear of thunder, but hunger was stronger than\nfear. He therefore closed the house door and made a rush for the\nvillage, which he reached in a hundred bounds, with his tongue hanging\nout and panting for breath like a dog after game.\n\nBut he found it all dark and deserted. The shops were closed, the\nwindows shut, and there was not so much as a dog in the street. It\nseemed the land of the dead.\n\nPinocchio, urged by desperation and hunger, took hold of the bell of a\nhouse and began to ring it with all his might, saying to himself:\n\n\"That will bring somebody.\"\n\nAnd so it did. A little old man appeared at a window with a night-cap on\nhis head and called to him angrily:\n\n\"What do you want at such an hour?\"\n\n\"Would you be kind enough to give me a little bread?\"\n\n\"Wait there, I will be back directly,\" said the little old man, thinking\nit was one of those rascally boys who amuse themselves at night by\nringing the house-bells to rouse respectable people who are sleeping\nquietly.\n\nAfter half a minute the window was again opened and the voice of the\nsame little old man shouted to Pinocchio:\n\n\"Come underneath and hold out your cap.\"\n\nPinocchio pulled off his cap; but, just as he held it out, an enormous\nbasin of water was poured down on him, soaking him from head to foot as\nif he had been a pot of dried-up geraniums.\n\nHe returned home like a wet chicken, quite exhausted with fatigue and\nhunger; and, having no longer strength to stand, he sat down and rested\nhis damp and muddy feet on a brazier full of burning embers.\n\nAnd then he fell asleep, and whilst he slept his feet, which were\nwooden, took fire, and little by little they burnt away and became\ncinders.\n\nPinocchio continued to sleep and to snore as if his feet belonged to\nsome one else. At last about daybreak he awoke because some one was\nknocking at the door.\n\n\"Who is there?\" he asked, yawning and rubbing his eyes.\n\n\"It is I!\" answered a voice.\n\nAnd Pinocchio recognized Geppetto's voice.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nGEPPETTO GIVES HIS OWN BREAKFAST TO PINOCCHIO\n\n\nPoor Pinocchio, whose eyes were still half shut from sleep, had not as\nyet discovered that his feet were burnt off. The moment, therefore, that\nhe heard his father's voice he slipped off his stool to run and open the\ndoor; but, after stumbling two or three times, he fell his whole length\non the floor.\n\nAnd the noise he made in falling was as if a sack of wooden ladles had\nbeen thrown from a fifth story.\n\n\"Open the door!\" shouted Geppetto from the street.\n\n\"Dear papa, I cannot,\" answered the puppet, crying and rolling about on\nthe ground.\n\n\"Why can't you?\"\n\n\"Because my feet have been eaten.\"\n\n\"And who has eaten your feet?\"\n\n\"The cat,\" said Pinocchio, seeing the cat, who was amusing herself by\nmaking some shavings dance with her forepaws.\n\n\"Open the door, I tell you!\" repeated Geppetto. \"If you don't, when I\nget into the house you shall have the cat from me!\"\n\n\"I cannot stand up, believe me. Oh, poor me! poor me! I shall have to\nwalk on my knees for the rest of my life!\"\n\nGeppetto, believing that all this lamentation was only another of the\npuppet's tricks, thought of a means of putting an end to it, and,\nclimbing up the wall, he got in at the window.\n\nHe was very angry and at first he did nothing but scold; but when he saw\nhis Pinocchio lying on the ground and really without feet he was quite\novercome. He took him in his arms and began to kiss and caress him, and\nto say a thousand endearing things to him, and as the big tears ran down\nhis cheeks he said, sobbing:\n\n\"My little Pinocchio! how did you manage to burn your feet?\"\n\n\"I don't know, papa, but it has been such a dreadful night that I shall\nremember it as long as I live. It thundered and lightened, and I was\nvery hungry, and then the Talking-Cricket said to me: 'It serves you\nright; you have been wicked and you deserve it,' and I said to him:\n'Take care, Cricket!' and he said: 'You are a puppet and you have a\nwooden head,' and I threw the handle of a hammer at him, and he died,\nbut the fault was his, for I didn't wish to kill him, and the proof of\nit is that I put an earthenware saucer on a brazier of burning embers,\nbut a chicken flew out and said: 'Adieu until we meet again, and many\ncompliments to all at home': and I got still more hungry, for which\nreason that little old man in a night-cap, opening the window, said to\nme: 'Come underneath and hold out your hat,' and poured a basinful of\nwater on my head, because asking for a little bread isn't a disgrace, is\nit? and I returned home at once, and because I was always very hungry I\nput my feet on the brazier to dry them, and then you returned, and I\nfound they were burnt off, and I am always hungry, but I have no longer\nany feet! Oh! oh! oh! oh!\" And poor Pinocchio began to cry and to roar\nso loudly that he was heard five miles off.\n\nGeppetto, who from all this jumbled account had only understood one\nthing, which was that the puppet was dying of hunger, drew from his\npocket three pears and, giving them to him, said:\n\n\"These three pears were intended for my breakfast, but I will give them\nto you willingly. Eat them, and I hope they will do you good.\"\n\n\"If you wish me to eat them, be kind enough to peel them for me.\"\n\n\"Peel them?\" said Geppetto, astonished. \"I should never have thought, my\nboy, that you were so dainty and fastidious. That is bad! In this world\nwe should accustom ourselves from childhood to like and to eat\neverything, for there is no saying to what we may be brought. There are\nso many chances!\"\n\n\"You are no doubt right,\" interrupted Pinocchio, \"but I will never eat\nfruit that has not been peeled. I cannot bear rind.\"\n\nSo good Geppetto peeled the three pears and put the rind on a corner of\nthe table.\n\nHaving eaten the first pear in two mouthfuls, Pinocchio was about to\nthrow away the core, but Geppetto caught hold of his arm and said to\nhim:\n\n\"Do not throw it away; in this world everything may be of use.\"\n\n\"But core I am determined I will not eat,\" shouted the puppet, turning\nupon him like a viper.\n\n\"Who knows! there are so many chances!\" repeated Geppetto, without\nlosing his temper.\n\nAnd so the three cores, instead of being thrown out of the window, were\nplaced on the corner of the table, together with the three rinds.\n\nHaving eaten, or rather having devoured the three pears, Pinocchio\nyawned tremendously, and then said in a fretful tone:\n\n\"I am as hungry as ever!\"\n\n\"But, my boy, I have nothing more to give you!\"\n\n\"Nothing, really nothing?\"\n\n\"I have only the rind and the cores of the three pears.\"\n\n\"One must have patience!\" said Pinocchio; \"if there is nothing else I\nwill eat a rind.\"\n\nAnd he began to chew it. At first he made a wry face, but then one after\nanother he quickly disposed of the rinds: and after the rinds even the\ncores, and when he had eaten up everything he clapped his hands on his\nsides in his satisfaction and said joyfully:\n\n\"Ah! now I feel comfortable.\"\n\n\"You see, now,\" observed Geppetto, \"that I was right when I said to you\nthat it did not do to accustom ourselves to be too particular or too\ndainty in our tastes. We can never know, my dear boy, what may happen to\nus. There are so many chances!\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nGEPPETTO MAKES PINOCCHIO NEW FEET\n\n\nNo sooner had the puppet satisfied his hunger than he began to cry and\nto grumble because he wanted a pair of new feet.\n\nBut Geppetto, to punish him for his naughtiness, allowed him to cry and\nto despair for half the day. He then said to him:\n\n\"Why should I make you new feet? To enable you, perhaps, to escape again\nfrom home?\"\n\n\"I promise you,\" said the puppet, sobbing, \"that for the future I will\nbe good.\"\n\n\"All boys,\" replied Geppetto, \"when they are bent upon obtaining\nsomething, say the same thing.\"\n\n\"I promise you that I will go to school and that I will study and bring\nhome a good report.\"\n\n\"All boys, when they are bent on obtaining something, repeat the same\nstory.\"\n\n\"But I am not like other boys! I am better than all of them and I always\nspeak the truth. I promise you, papa, that I will learn a trade and that\nI will be the consolation and the staff of your old age.\"\n\nGeppetto's eyes filled with tears and his heart was sad at seeing his\npoor Pinocchio in such a pitiable state. He did not say another word,\nbut, taking his tools and two small pieces of well-seasoned wood, he set\nto work with great diligence.\n\nIn less than an hour the feet were finished: two little feet--swift,\nwell-knit and nervous. They might have been modelled by an artist of\ngenius.\n\nGeppetto then said to the puppet:\n\n\"Shut your eyes and go to sleep!\"\n\nAnd Pinocchio shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep.\n\nAnd whilst he pretended to sleep, Geppetto, with a little glue which he\nhad melted in an egg-shell, fastened his feet in their place, and it was\nso well done that not even a trace could be seen of where they were\njoined.\n\nNo sooner had the puppet discovered that he had feet than he jumped down\nfrom the table on which he was lying and began to spring and to cut a\nthousand capers about the room, as if he had gone mad with the greatness\nof his delight.\n\n\"To reward you for what you have done for me,\" said Pinocchio to his\nfather, \"I will go to school at once.\"\n\n\"Good boy.\"\n\n\"But to go to school I shall want some clothes.\"\n\nGeppetto, who was poor and who had not so much as a penny in his pocket,\nthen made him a little dress of flowered paper, a pair of shoes from the\nbark of a tree, and a cap of the crumb of bread.\n\nPinocchio ran immediately to look at himself in a crock of water, and he\nwas so pleased with his appearance that he said, strutting about like a\npeacock:\n\n\"I look quite like a gentleman!\"\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" answered Geppetto, \"for bear in mind that it is not fine\nclothes that make the gentleman, but rather clean clothes.\"\n\n\"By the bye,\" added the puppet, \"to go to school I am still in\nwant--indeed, I am without the best thing, and the most important.\"\n\n\"And what is it?\"\n\n\"I have no spelling-book.\"\n\n\"You are right: but what shall we do to get one?\"\n\n\"It is quite easy. We have only to go to the bookseller's and buy it.\"\n\n\"And the money?\"\n\n\"I have got none.\"\n\n\"Neither have I,\" added the good old man, very sadly.\n\nAnd Pinocchio, although he was a very merry boy, became sad also,\nbecause poverty, when it is real poverty, is understood by\neverybody--even by boys.\n\n\"Well, patience!\" exclaimed Geppetto, all at once rising to his feet,\nand putting on his old corduroy coat, all patched and darned, he ran out\nof the house.\n\nHe returned shortly, holding in his hand a spelling-book for Pinocchio,\nbut the old coat was gone. The poor man was in his shirt-sleeves and out\nof doors it was snowing.\n\n\"And the coat, papa?\"\n\n\"I have sold it.\"\n\n\"Why did you sell it?\"\n\n\"Because I found it too hot.\"\n\nPinocchio understood this answer in an instant, and unable to restrain\nthe impulse of his good heart he sprang up and, throwing his arms around\nGeppetto's neck, he began kissing him again and again.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nPINOCCHIO GOES TO SEE A PUPPET-SHOW\n\n\nAs soon as it stopped snowing Pinocchio set out for school with his fine\nspelling-book under his arm. As he went along he began to imagine a\nthousand things in his little brain and to build a thousand castles in\nthe air, one more beautiful than the other.\n\nAnd, talking to himself, he said:\n\n\"Today at school I will learn to read at once; then tomorrow I will\nbegin to write, and the day after tomorrow to figure. Then, with my\nacquirements, I will earn a great deal of money, and with the first\nmoney I have in my pocket I will immediately buy for my papa a beautiful\nnew cloth coat. But what am I saying? Cloth, indeed! It shall be all\nmade of gold and silver, and it shall have diamond buttons. That poor\nman really deserves it, for to buy me books and have me taught he has\nremained in his shirt-sleeves. And in this cold! It is only fathers who\nare capable of such sacrifices!\"\n\nWhilst he was saying this with great emotion, he thought that he heard\nmusic in the distance that sounded like fifes and the beating of a big\ndrum: Fi-fie-fi, fi-fi-fi; zum, zum, zum.\n\nHe stopped and listened. The sounds came from the end of a cross street\nthat led to a little village on the seashore.\n\n\"What can that music be? What a pity that I have to go to school, or\nelse--\"\n\nAnd he remained irresolute. It was, however, necessary to come to a\ndecision. Should he go to school? or should he go after the fifes?\n\n\"Today I will go and hear the fifes, and tomorrow I will go to school,\"\nfinally decided the young scapegrace, shrugging his shoulders.\n\nThe more he ran the nearer came the sounds of the fifes and the beating\nof the big drum: Fi-fi-fi; zum, zum, zum, zum.\n\nAt last he found himself in the middle of a square quite full of people,\nwho were all crowded round a building made of wood and canvas, and\npainted a thousand colors.\n\n\"What is that building?\" asked Pinocchio, turning to a little boy who\nbelonged to the place.\n\n\"Read the placard--it is all written--and then you will know.\"\n\n\"I would read it willingly, but it so happens that today I don't know\nhow to read.\"\n\n\"Bravo, blockhead! Then I will read it to you. The writing on that\nplacard in those letters red as fire is:\n\n     \"THE GREAT PUPPET THEATER.\"\n\n\"Has the play begun long?\"\n\n\"It is beginning now.\"\n\n\"How much does it cost to go in?\"\n\n\"A dime.\"\n\nPinocchio, who was in a fever of curiosity, lost all control of himself,\nand without any shame he said to the little boy to whom he was talking:\n\n\"Would you lend me a dime until tomorrow?\"\n\n\"I would lend it to you willingly,\" said the other, \"but it so happens\nthat today I cannot give it to you.\"\n\n\"I will sell you my jacket for a dime,\" the puppet then said to him.\n\n\"What do you think that I could do with a jacket of flowered paper? If\nthere were rain and it got wet, it would be impossible to get it off my\nback.\"\n\n\"Will you buy my shoes?\"\n\n\"They would only be of use to light the fire.\"\n\n\"How much will you give me for my cap?\"\n\n\"That would be a wonderful acquisition indeed! A cap of bread crumb!\nThere would be a risk of the mice coming to eat it whilst it was on my\nhead.\"\n\nPinocchio was on thorns. He was on the point of making another offer,\nbut he had not the courage. He hesitated, felt irresolute and\nremorseful. At last he said:\n\n\"Will you give me a dime for this new spelling-book?\"\n\n\"I am a boy and I don't buy from boys,\" replied his little interlocutor,\nwho had much more sense than he had.\n\n\"I will buy the spelling-book for a dime,\" called out a hawker of old\nclothes, who had been listening to the conversation.\n\nAnd the book was sold there and then. And to think that poor Geppetto\nhad remained at home trembling with cold in his shirt-sleeves in order\nthat his son should have a spelling-book.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE PUPPETS RECOGNIZE THEIR BROTHER PINOCCHIO\n\n\nWhen Pinocchio came into the little puppet theater, an incident occurred\nthat almost produced a revolution.\n\nThe curtain had gone up and the play had already begun.\n\nOn the stage Harlequin and Punch were as usual quarrelling with each\nother and threatening every moment to come to blows.\n\nAll at once Harlequin stopped short and, turning to the public, he\npointed with his hand to some one far down in the pit and exclaimed in a\ndramatic tone:\n\n\"Gods of the firmament! Do I dream or am I awake? But surely that is\nPinocchio!\"\n\n\"It is indeed Pinocchio!\" cried Punch.\n\n\"It is indeed himself!\" screamed Miss Rose, peeping from behind the\nscenes.\n\n\"It is Pinocchio! it is Pinocchio!\" shouted all the puppets in chorus,\nleaping from all sides on to the stage. \"It is Pinocchio! It is our\nbrother Pinocchio! Long live Pinocchio!\"\n\n\"Pinocchio, come up here to me,\" cried Harlequin, \"and throw yourself\ninto the arms of your wooden brothers!\"\n\nAt this affectionate invitation Pinocchio made a leap from the end of\nthe pit into the reserved seats; another leap landed him on the head of\nthe leader of the orchestra, and he then sprang upon the stage.\n\nThe embraces, the friendly pinches, and the demonstrations of warm\nbrotherly affection that Pinocchio received from the excited crowd of\nactors and actresses of the puppet dramatic company are beyond\ndescription.\n\nThe sight was doubtless a moving one, but the public in the pit, finding\nthat the play was stopped, became impatient and began to shout: \"We will\nhave the play--go on with the play!\"\n\nIt was all breath thrown away. The puppets, instead of continuing the\nrecital, redoubled their noise and outcries, and, putting Pinocchio on\ntheir shoulders, they carried him in triumph before the footlights.\n\nAt that moment out came the showman. He was very big, and so ugly that\nthe sight of him was enough to frighten anyone. His beard was as black\nas ink, and so long that it reached from his chin to the ground. I need\nonly say that he trod upon it when he walked. His mouth was as big as an\noven, and his eyes were like two lanterns of red glass with lights\nburning inside them. He carried a large whip made of snakes and foxes'\ntails twisted together, which he cracked constantly.\n\nAt his unexpected appearance there was a profound silence: no one dared\nto breathe. A fly might have been heard in the stillness. The poor\npuppets of both sexes trembled like so many leaves.\n\n\"Why have you come to raise a disturbance in my theater?\" asked the\nshowman of Pinocchio, in the gruff voice of a hobgoblin suffering from a\nsevere cold in the head.\n\n\"Believe me, honored sir, it was not my fault!\"\n\n\"That is enough! Tonight we will settle our accounts.\"\n\nAs soon as the play was over the showman went into the kitchen, where a\nfine sheep, preparing for his supper, was turning slowly on the spit in\nfront of the fire. As there was not enough wood to finish roasting and\nbrowning it, he called Harlequin and Punch, and said to them:\n\n\"Bring that puppet here: you will find him hanging on a nail. It seems\nto me that he is made of very dry wood and I am sure that if he were\nthrown on the fire he would make a beautiful blaze for the roast.\"\n\nAt first Harlequin and Punch hesitated; but, appalled by a severe glance\nfrom their master, they obeyed. In a short time they returned to the\nkitchen carrying poor Pinocchio, who was wriggling like an eel taken out\nof water and screaming desperately: \"Papa! papa! save me! I will not\ndie, I will not die!\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nFIRE-EATER SNEEZES AND PARDONS PINOCCHIO\n\n\nThe showman, Fire-Eater--for that was his name--looked like a wicked\nman, especially with his black beard that covered his chest and legs\nlike an apron. On the whole, however, he had not a bad heart. In proof\nof this, when he saw poor Pinocchio brought before him, struggling and\nscreaming \"I will not die, I will not die!\" he was quite moved and felt\nvery sorry for him. He tried to hold out, but after a little he could\nstand it no longer and he sneezed violently. When he heard the sneeze,\nHarlequin, who up to that moment had been in the deepest affliction and\nbowed down like a weeping willow, became quite cheerful and, leaning\ntowards Pinocchio, he whispered to him softly:\n\n\"Good news, brother. The showman has sneezed and that is a sign that he\npities you, and consequently you are saved.\"\n\nMost men, when they feel compassion for somebody, either weep or at\nleast pretend to dry their eyes. Fire-Eater, on the contrary, whenever\nhe was really overcome, had the habit of sneezing.\n\nAfter he had sneezed, the showman, still acting the ruffian, shouted to\nPinocchio:\n\n\"Have done crying! Your lamentations have given me a pain in my stomach.\nI feel a spasm that almost--Etchoo! etchoo!\" and he sneezed again twice.\n\n\"Bless you!\" said Pinocchio.\n\n\"Thank you! And your papa and your mamma, are they still alive?\" asked\nFire-Eater.\n\n\"Papa, yes; my mamma I have never known.\"\n\n\"Who can say what a sorrow it would be for your poor old father if I\nwere to have you thrown amongst those burning coals! Poor old man! I\npity him! Etchoo! etchoo! etchoo!\" and he sneezed again three times.\n\n\"Bless you\" said Pinocchio.\n\n\"Thank you! All the same, some compassion is due to me, for as you see I\nhave no more wood with which to finish roasting my mutton, and, to tell\nyou the truth, under the circumstances you would have been of great use\nto me! However, I have had pity on you, so I must have patience. Instead\nof you I will burn under the spit one of the puppets belonging to my\ncompany. Ho there, gendarmes!\"\n\nAt this call two wooden gendarmes immediately appeared. They were very\nlong and very thin, and had on cocked hats, and held unsheathed swords\nin their hands.\n\nThe showman said to them in a hoarse voice:\n\n\"Take Harlequin, bind him securely, and then throw him on the fire to\nburn. I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.\"\n\nOnly imagine that poor Harlequin! His terror was so great that his legs\nbent under him, and he fell with his face on the ground.\n\nAt this agonizing sight Pinocchio, weeping bitterly, threw himself at\nthe showman's feet and, bathing his long beard with his tears, he began\nto say, in a supplicating voice:\n\n\"Have pity, Sir Fire-Eater!\"\n\n\"Here there are no sirs,\" the showman answered severely.\n\n\"Have pity, Sir Knight!\"\n\n\"Here there are no knights!\"\n\n\"Have pity, Commander!\"\n\n\"Here there are no commanders!\"\n\n\"Have pity, Excellence!\"\n\nUpon hearing himself called Excellence the showman began to smile and\nbecame at once kinder and more tractable. Turning to Pinocchio, he\nasked:\n\n\"Well, what do you want from me?\"\n\n\"I implore you to pardon poor Harlequin.\"\n\n\"For him there can be no pardon. As I have spared you he must be put on\nthe fire, for I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" cried Pinocchio proudly, rising and throwing away his\ncap of bread crumb--\"in that case I know my duty. Come on, gendarmes!\nBind me and throw me amongst the flames. No, it is not just that poor\nHarlequin, my true friend, should die for me!\"\n\nThese words, pronounced in a loud, heroic voice, made all the puppets\nwho were present cry. Even the gendarmes, although they were made of\nwood, wept like two newly born lambs.\n\nFire-Eater at first remained as hard and unmoved as ice, but little by\nlittle he began to melt and to sneeze. And, having sneezed four or five\ntimes, he opened his arms affectionately and said to Pinocchio:\n\n\"You are a good, brave boy! Come here and give me a kiss.\"\n\nPinocchio ran at once and, climbing like a squirrel up the showman's\nbeard, he deposited a hearty kiss on the point of his nose.\n\n\"Then the pardon is granted?\" asked poor Harlequin in a faint voice that\nwas scarcely audible.\n\n\"The pardon is granted!\" answered Fire-Eater; he then added, sighing and\nshaking his head:\n\n\"I must have patience! Tonight I shall have to resign myself to eat the\nmutton half raw; but another time, woe to him who displeases me!\"\n\nAt the news of the pardon the puppets all ran to the stage and, having\nlighted the lamps and chandeliers as if for a full-dress performance,\nthey began to leap and to dance merrily. At dawn they were still\ndancing.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nPINOCCHIO RECEIVES A PRESENT OF FIVE GOLD PIECES\n\n\nThe following day Fire-Eater called Pinocchio to one side and asked him:\n\n\"What is your father's name?\"\n\n\"Geppetto.\"\n\n\"And what trade does he follow?\"\n\n\"He is a beggar.\"\n\n\"Does he gain much?\"\n\n\"Gain much? Why, he has never a penny in his pocket. Only think, in\norder to buy a spelling-book so that I could go to school he was obliged\nto sell the only coat he had to wear--a coat that, between patches and\ndarns, was not fit to be seen.\"\n\n\"Poor devil! I feel almost sorry for him! Here are five gold pieces. Go\nat once and take them to him with my compliments.\"\n\nPinocchio was overjoyed and thanked the showman a thousand times. He\nembraced all the puppets of the company one by one, even to the\ngendarmes, and set out to return home.\n\nBut he had not gone far when he met on the road a Fox lame of one foot,\nand a Cat blind of both eyes, and they were going along helping each\nother like good companions in misfortune. The Fox, who was lame, walked\nleaning on the Cat; and the Cat, who was blind, was guided by the Fox.\n\n\"Good-day, Pinocchio,\" said the Fox, greeting him politely.\n\n\"How do you come to know my name?\" asked the puppet.\n\n\"I know your father well.\"\n\n\"Where did you see him?\"\n\n\"I saw him yesterday at the door of his house.\"\n\n\"And what was he doing?\"\n\n\"He was in his shirt-sleeves and shivering with cold.\"\n\n\"Poor papa! But that is over; for the future he shall shiver no more!\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because I have become a gentleman.\"\n\n\"A gentleman--you!\" said the Fox, and he began to laugh rudely and\nscornfully. The Cat also began to laugh, but to conceal it she combed\nher whiskers with her forepaws.\n\n[Illustration: Splash! Splash! They fell Into the Very Middle of the\nDitch]\n\n\"There is little to laugh at,\" cried Pinocchio angrily. \"I am really\nsorry to make your mouth water, but if you know anything about it, you\ncan see that these are five gold pieces.\"\n\nAnd he pulled out the money that Fire-Eater had given him.\n\nAt the jingling of the money the Fox, with an involuntary movement,\nstretched out the paw that seemed crippled, and the Cat opened wide two\neyes that looked like two green lanterns. It is true that she shut them\nagain, and so quickly that Pinocchio observed nothing.\n\n\"And now,\" asked the Fox, \"what are you going to do with all that\nmoney?\"\n\n\"First of all,\" answered the puppet, \"I intend to buy a new coat for my\npapa, made of gold and silver, and with diamond buttons; and then I will\nbuy a spelling-book for myself.\"\n\n\"For yourself?\"\n\n\"Yes indeed, for I wish to go to school to study in earnest.\"\n\n\"Look at me!\" said the Fox. \"Through my foolish passion for study I have\nlost a leg.\"\n\n\"Look at me!\" said the Cat. \"Through my foolish passion for study I have\nlost the sight of both my eyes.\"\n\nAt that moment a white Blackbird, that was perched on the hedge by the\nroad, began his usual song, and said:\n\n\"Pinocchio, don't listen to the advice of bad companions; if you do you\nwill repent it!\"\n\nPoor Blackbird! If only he had not spoken! The Cat, with a great leap,\nsprang upon him, and without even giving him time to say \"Oh!\" ate him\nin a mouthful, feathers and all.\n\nHaving eaten him and cleaned her mouth she shut her eyes again and\nfeigned blindness as before.\n\n\"Poor Blackbird!\" said Pinocchio to the Cat, \"why did you treat him so\nbadly?\"\n\n\"I did it to give him a lesson. He will learn another time not to\nmeddle in other people's conversation.\"\n\nThey had gone almost half-way when the Fox, halting suddenly, said to\nthe puppet:\n\n\"Would you like to double your money?\"\n\n\"In what way?\"\n\n\"Would you like to make out of your five miserable sovereigns, a\nhundred, a thousand, two thousand?\"\n\n\"I should think so! but in what way?\"\n\n\"The way is easy enough. Instead of returning home you must go with us.\"\n\n\"And where do you wish to take me?\"\n\n\"To the land of the Owls.\"\n\nPinocchio reflected a moment, and then he said resolutely:\n\n\"No, I will not go. I am already close to the house, and I will return\nhome to my papa, who is waiting for me. Who can tell how often the poor\nold man must have sighed yesterday when I did not come back! I have\nindeed been a bad son, and the Talking-Cricket was right when he said:\n'Disobedient boys never come to any good in the world.' I have found it\nto be true, for many misfortunes have happened to me. Even yesterday in\nFire-Eater's house I ran the risk--Oh! it makes me shudder only to think\nof it!\"\n\n\"Well, then,\" said the Fox, \"you are quite decided to go home? Go, then,\nand so much the worse for you.\"\n\n\"So much the worse for you!\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"Think well of it, Pinocchio, for you are giving a kick to fortune.\"\n\n\"To fortune!\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"Between today and tomorrow your five sovereigns would have become two\nthousand.\"\n\n\"Two thousand!\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"But how is it possible that they could become so many?\" asked\nPinocchio, remaining with his mouth open from astonishment.\n\n\"I will explain it to you at once,\" said the Fox. \"You must know that in\nthe land of the Owls there is a sacred field called by everybody the\nField of Miracles. In this field you must dig a little hole, and you put\ninto it, we will say, one gold sovereign. You then cover up the hole\nwith a little earth; you must water it with two pails of water from the\nfountain, then sprinkle it with two pinches of salt, and when night\ncomes you can go quietly to bed. In the meanwhile, during the night, the\ngold piece will grow and flower, and in the morning when you get up and\nreturn to the field, what do you find? You find a beautiful tree laden\nwith as many gold sovereigns as a fine ear of corn has grains in the\nmonth of June.\"\n\n\"So that,\" said Pinocchio, more and more bewildered, \"supposing I buried\nmy five sovereigns in that field, how many should I find there the\nfollowing morning?\"\n\n\"That is an exceedingly easy calculation,\" replied the Fox, \"a\ncalculation that you can make on the ends of your fingers. Every\nsovereign will give you an increase of five hundred; multiply five\nhundred by five, and the following morning will find you with two\nthousand five hundred shining gold pieces in your pocket.\"\n\n\"Oh! how delightful!\" cried Pinocchio, dancing for joy. \"As soon as ever\nI have obtained those sovereigns, I will keep two thousand for myself\nand the other five hundred I will make a present of to you two.\"\n\n\"A present to us?\" cried the Fox with indignation and appearing much\noffended. \"What are you dreaming of?\"\n\n\"What are you dreaming of?\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"We do not work,\" said the Fox, \"for interest: we work solely to enrich\nothers.\"\n\n\"Others!\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"What good people!\" thought Pinocchio to himself, and, forgetting there\nand then his papa, the new coat, the spelling-book, and all his good\nresolutions, he said to the Fox and the Cat:\n\n\"Let us be off at once. I will go with you.\"\n\n[Illustration: A LITTLE CHICKEN POPPED OUT, VERY GAY AND POLITE]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE INN OF THE RED CRAW-FISH\n\n\nThey walked, and walked, and walked, until at last, towards evening,\nthey arrived, all tired out, at the inn of The Red Craw-Fish.\n\n\"Let us stop here a little,\" said the Fox, \"that we may have something\nto eat, and rest ourselves for an hour or two. We will start again at\nmidnight, so as to arrive at the Field of Miracles by dawn tomorrow\nmorning.\"\n\nHaving gone into the inn they all three sat down to table, but none of\nthem had any appetite.\n\nThe Cat, who was suffering from indigestion and feeling seriously\nindisposed, could only eat thirty-five fish with tomato sauce and four\nportions of tripe with Parmesan cheese; and because she thought the\ntripe was not seasoned enough, she asked three times for the butter and\ngrated cheese!\n\nThe Fox would also willingly have picked a little, but as his doctor had\nordered him a strict diet, he was forced to content himself simply with\na hare dressed with a sweet and sour sauce, and garnished lightly with\nfat chickens and early pullets. After the hare he sent for a made dish\nof partridges, rabbits, frogs, lizards and other delicacies; he could\nnot touch anything else. He cared so little for food, he said, that he\ncould put nothing to his lips.\n\nThe one who ate the least was Pinocchio. He asked for some walnuts and a\nhunch of bread, and left everything on his plate. The poor boy's\nthoughts were continually fixed on the Field of Miracles.\n\nWhen they had supped, the Fox said to the host:\n\n\"Give us two good rooms, one for Mr. Pinocchio, and the other for me and\nmy companion. We will snatch a little sleep before we leave. Remember,\nhowever, that at midnight we wish to be called to continue our journey.\"\n\n\"Yes, gentlemen,\" answered the host, and he winked at the Fox and the\nCat, as much as to say: \"I know what you are up to. We understand one\nanother!\"\n\nNo sooner had Pinocchio got into bed than he fell asleep at once and\nbegan to dream. And he dreamed that he was in the middle of a field, and\nthe field was full of shrubs covered with clusters of gold sovereigns,\nand as they swung in the wind they went zin, zin, zin, almost as if they\nwould say: \"Let who will, come and take us.\" But just as Pinocchio was\nstretching out his hand to pick handfuls of those beautiful gold pieces\nand to put them in his pocket, he was suddenly awakened by three violent\nblows on the door of his room.\n\nIt was the host who had come to tell him that midnight had struck.\n\n\"Are my companions ready?\" asked the puppet.\n\n\"Ready! Why, they left two hours ago.\"\n\n\"Why were they in such a hurry?\"\n\n\"Because the Cat had received a message to say that her eldest kitten\nwas ill with chilblains on his feet and was in danger of death.\"\n\n\"Did they pay for the supper?\"\n\n\"What are you thinking of? They are too well educated to dream of\noffering such an insult to a gentleman like you.\"\n\n\"What a pity! It is an insult that would have given me so much\npleasure!\" said Pinocchio, scratching his head. He then asked:\n\n\"And where did my good friends say they would wait for me?\"\n\n\"At the Field of Miracles, tomorrow morning at daybreak.\"\n\nPinocchio paid a sovereign for his supper and that of his companions,\nand then left.\n\nOutside the inn it was so pitch dark that he had almost to grope his\nway, for it was impossible to see a hand's breadth in front of him. Some\nnight-birds flying across the road from one hedge to the other brushed\nPinocchio's nose with their wings as they passed, which caused him so\nmuch terror that, springing back, he shouted: \"Who goes there?\" and the\necho in the surrounding hills repeated in the distance: \"Who goes there?\nWho goes there?\"\n\nAs he was walking along he saw a little insect shining dimly on the\ntrunk of a tree, like a night-light in a lamp of transparent china.\n\n\"Who are you?\" asked Pinocchio.\n\n\"I am the ghost of the Talking-Cricket,\" answered the insect in a low\nvoice, so weak and faint that it seemed to come from the other world.\n\n\"What do you want with me?\" said the puppet.\n\n\"I want to give you some advice. Go back and take the four sovereigns\nthat you have left to your poor father, who is weeping and in despair\nbecause you have not returned to him.\"\n\n\"By tomorrow my papa will be a gentleman, for these four sovereigns will\nhave become two thousand.\"\n\n\"Don't trust to those who promise to make you rich in a day. Usually\nthey are either mad or rogues! Give ear to me, and go back, my boy.\"\n\n\"On the contrary, I am determined to go on.\"\n\n\"The hour is late!\"\n\n\"I am determined to go on.\"\n\n\"The night is dark!\"\n\n\"I am determined to go on.\"\n\n\"The road is dangerous!\"\n\n\"I am determined to go on.\"\n\n\"Remember that boys who are bent on following their caprices, and will\nhave their own way, sooner or later repent it.\"\n\n\"Always the same stories. Good-night, Cricket.\"\n\n\"Good-night, Pinocchio, and may Heaven preserve you from dangers and\nfrom assassins.\"\n\nNo sooner had he said these words than the Talking-Cricket vanished\nsuddenly like a light that has been blown out, and the road became\ndarker than ever.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nPINOCCHIO FALLS AMONGST ASSASSINS\n\n\n\"Really,\" said the puppet to himself, as he resumed his journey, \"how\nunfortunate we poor boys are. Everybody scolds us and gives us good\nadvice. See now; because I don't choose to listen to that tiresome\nCricket, who knows, according to him, how many misfortunes are to happen\nto me! I am even to meet with assassins! That is, however, of little\nconsequence, for I don't believe in assassins--I have never believed in\nthem. For me, I think that assassins have been invented purposely by\npapas to frighten boys who want to go out at night. Besides, supposing I\nwas to come across them here in the road, do you imagine they would\nfrighten me? Not the least in the world. I should go to meet them and\ncry: 'Gentlemen assassins, what do you want with me? Remember that with\nme there is no joking. Therefore go about your business and be quiet!'\nAt this speech they would run away like the wind. If, however, they were\nso badly educated as not to run away, why, then I would run away myself\nand there would be an end of it.\"\n\nBut Pinocchio had not time to finish his reasoning, for at that moment\nhe thought that he heard a slight rustle of leaves behind him.\n\nHe turned to look and saw in the gloom two evil-looking black figures\ncompletely enveloped in charcoal sacks. They were running after him on\ntiptoe and making great leaps like two phantoms.\n\n\"Here they are in reality!\" he said to himself and, not knowing where to\nhide his gold pieces, he put them in his mouth precisely under his\ntongue.\n\nThen he tried to escape. But he had not gone a step when he felt himself\nseized by the arm and heard two horrid, sepulchral voices saying to him:\n\n\"Your money or your life!\"\n\nPinocchio, not being able to answer in words, owing to the money that\nwas in his mouth, made a thousand low bows and a thousand pantomimes. He\ntried thus to make the two muffled figures, whose eyes were only visible\nthrough the holes in their sacks, understand that he was a poor puppet,\nand that he had not as much as a counterfeit nickel in his pocket.\n\n\"Come, now! Less nonsense and out with the money!\" cried the two\nbrigands threateningly.\n\nAnd the puppet made a gesture with his hands to signify: \"I have none.\"\n\n\"Deliver up your money or you are dead,\" said the tallest of the\nbrigands.\n\n\"Dead!\" repeated the other.\n\n\"And after we have killed you, we will also kill your father!\"\n\n\"Also your father!\"\n\n\"No, no, no, not my poor papa!\" cried Pinocchio in a despairing voice,\nand as he said it the sovereigns clinked in his mouth.\n\n\"Ah! you rascal! Then you have hidden your money under your tongue! Spit\nit out at once!\"\n\nPinocchio was obstinate.\n\n\"Ah! you pretend to be deaf, do you? Wait a moment, leave it to us to\nfind a means to make you give it up.\"\n\nAnd one of them seized the puppet by the end of his nose, and the other\ntook him by the chin, and began to pull them brutally, the one up and\nthe other down, to force him to open his mouth. But it was all to no\npurpose. Pinocchio's mouth seemed to be nailed and riveted together.\n\nThen the shorter assassin drew out an ugly knife and tried to put it\nbetween his lips like a lever or chisel. But Pinocchio, as quick as\nlightning, caught his hand with his teeth, and with one bite bit it\nclear off and spat it out. Imagine his astonishment when instead of a\nhand he perceived that a cat's paw lay on the ground.\n\nEncouraged by this first victory he used his nails to such purpose that\nhe succeeded in liberating himself from his assailants, and, jumping the\nhedge by the roadside, he began to fly across the country. The assassins\nran after him like two dogs chasing a hare, and the one who had lost a\npaw ran on one leg, and no one ever knew how he managed it.\n\nAfter a race of some miles Pinocchio could go no more. Giving himself\nup for lost, he climbed the trunk of a very high pine tree and seated\nhimself in the topmost branches. The assassins attempted to climb after\nhim, but when they had reached half-way up they slid down again and\narrived on the ground with the skin grazed from their hands and knees.\n\nBut they were not to be beaten by so little; collecting a quantity of\ndry wood, they piled it beneath the pine and set fire to it. In less\ntime than it takes to tell, the pine began to burn and to flame like a\ncandle blown by the wind. Pinocchio, seeing that the flames were\nmounting higher every instant, and not wishing to end his life like a\nroasted pigeon, made a stupendous leap from the top of the tree and\nstarted afresh across the fields and vineyards. The assassins followed\nhim, and kept behind him without once giving up.\n\nThe day began to break and they were still pursuing him. Suddenly\nPinocchio found his way barred by a wide, deep ditch full of stagnant\nwater the color of coffee. What was he to do? \"One! two! three!\" cried\nthe puppet, and, making a rush, he sprang to the other side. The\nassassins also jumped, but not having measured the distance\nproperly--splash! splash! they fell into the very middle of the ditch.\nPinocchio, who heard the plunge and the splashing of the water, shouted\nout, laughing, and without stopping:\n\n\"A fine bath to you, gentleman assassins.\"\n\nAnd he felt convinced that they were drowned, when, turning to look, he\nperceived that, on the contrary, they were both running after him, still\nenveloped in their sacks, with the water dripping from them as if they\nhad been two hollow baskets.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nTHE ASSASSINS HANG PINOCCHIO TO THE BIG OAK\n\n\nAt this sight the puppet's courage failed him and he was on the point of\nthrowing himself on the ground and giving himself over for lost.\nTurning, however, his eyes in every direction, he saw, at some distance,\na small house as white as snow.\n\n\"If only I had breath to reach that house,\" he said to himself, \"perhaps\nI should be saved.\"\n\nAnd, without delaying an instant, he recommenced running for his life\nthrough the wood, and the assassins after him.\n\nAt last, after a desperate race of nearly two hours, he arrived quite\nbreathless at the door of the house, and knocked.\n\nNo one answered.\n\nHe knocked again with great violence, for he heard the sound of steps\napproaching him and the heavy panting of his persecutors. The same\nsilence.\n\nSeeing that knocking was useless, he began in desperation to kick and\npommel the door with all his might. The window then opened and a\nbeautiful Child appeared at it. She had blue hair and a face as white as\na waxen image; her eyes were closed and her hands were crossed on her\nbreast. Without moving her lips in the least, she said, in a voice that\nseemed to come from the other world:\n\n\"In this house there is no one. They are all dead.\"\n\n\"Then at least open the door for me yourself,\" shouted Pinocchio, crying\nand imploring.\n\n\"I am dead also.\"\n\n\"Dead? Then what are you doing there at the window?\"\n\n\"I am waiting for the bier to come to carry me away.\"\n\nHaving said this she immediately disappeared and the window was closed\nagain without the slightest noise.\n\n\"Oh! beautiful Child with blue hair,\" cried Pinocchio, \"open the door,\nfor pity's sake! Have compassion on a poor boy pursued by assas--\"\n\nBut he could not finish the word, for he felt himself seized by the\ncollar and the same two horrible voices said to him threateningly:\n\n\"You shall not escape from us again!\"\n\nThe puppet, seeing death staring him in the face, was taken with such a\nviolent fit of trembling that the joints of his wooden legs began to\ncreak, and the sovereigns hidden under his tongue to clink.\n\n\"Now, then,\" demanded the assassins, \"will you open your mouth--yes or\nno? Ah! no answer? Leave it to us: this time we will force you to open\nit!\"\n\nAnd, drawing out two long, horrid knives as sharp as razors,\nclash!--they attempted to stab him twice.\n\nBut the puppet, luckily for him, was made of very hard wood; the knives\ntherefore broke into a thousand pieces and the assassins were left with\nthe handles in their hands, staring at each other.\n\n\"I see what we must do,\" said one of them. \"He must be hung! let us hang\nhim!\"\n\n\"Let us hang him!\" repeated the other.\n\nWithout loss of time they tied his arms behind him, passed a running\nnoose round his throat, and hung him to the branch of a tree called the\nBig Oak.\n\nThey then sat down on the grass and waited for his last struggle. But at\nthe end of three hours the puppet's eyes were still open, his mouth\nclosed, and he was kicking more than ever.\n\nLosing patience, they turned to Pinocchio and said in a bantering tone:\n\n\"Good-bye till tomorrow. Let us hope that when we return you will be\npolite enough to allow yourself to be found quite dead, and with your\nmouth wide open.\"\n\nAnd they walked off.\n\nIn the meantime a tempestuous northerly wind began to blow and roar\nangrily, and it beat the poor puppet from side to side, making him swing\nviolently, like the clatter of a bell ringing for a wedding. And the\nswinging gave him atrocious spasms, and the running noose, becoming\nstill tighter round his throat, took away his breath.\n\nLittle by little his eyes began to grow dim, but although he felt that\ndeath was near he still continued to hope that some charitable person\nwould come to his assistance before it was too late. But when, after\nwaiting and waiting, he found that no one came, absolutely no one, then\nhe remembered his poor father, and, thinking he was dying, he stammered\nout:\n\n\"Oh, papa! papa! if only you were here!\"\n\n[Illustration: Four Rabbits as Black as Ink Entered Carrying a Little\nBier]\n\nHis breath failed him and he could say no more. He shut his eyes, opened\nhis mouth, stretched his legs, gave a long shudder, and hung stiff and\ninsensible.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nTHE BEAUTIFUL CHILD RESCUES THE PUPPET\n\n\nWhile poor Pinocchio, suspended to a branch of the Big Oak, was\napparently more dead than alive, the beautiful Child with blue hair came\nagain to the window. When she saw the unhappy puppet hanging by his\nthroat, and dancing up and down in the gusts of the north wind, she was\nmoved by compassion. Striking her hands together, she gave three little\nclaps.\n\nAt this signal there came a sound of the sweep of wings flying rapidly\nand a large Falcon flew on to the window-sill.\n\n\"What are your orders, gracious Fairy?\" he asked, inclining his beak in\nsign of reverence.\n\n\"Do you see that puppet dangling from a branch of the Big Oak?\"\n\n\"I see him.\"\n\n\"Very well. Fly there at once: with your strong beak break the knot that\nkeeps him suspended in the air, and lay him gently on the grass at the\nfoot of the tree.\"\n\nThe Falcon flew away and after two minutes he returned, saying:\n\n\"I have done as you commanded.\"\n\n\"And how did you find him?\"\n\n\"To see him he appeared dead, but he cannot really be quite dead, for I\nhad no sooner loosened the running noose that tightened his throat than,\ngiving a sigh, he muttered in a faint voice: 'Now I feel better!'\"\n\nThe Fairy then struck her hands together twice and a magnificent Poodle\nappeared, walking upright on his hind legs exactly as if he had been a\nman.\n\nHe was in the full-dress livery of a coachman. On his head he had a\nthree-cornered cap braided with gold, his curly white wig came down on\nto his shoulders, he had a chocolate-colored waistcoat with diamond\nbuttons, and two large pockets to contain the bones that his mistress\ngave him at dinner. He had, besides, a pair of short crimson velvet\nbreeches, silk stockings, cut-down shoes, and hanging behind him a\nspecies of umbrella case made of blue satin, to put his tail into when\nthe weather was rainy.\n\n\"Be quick, Medoro, like a good dog!\" said the Fairy to the Poodle. \"Have\nthe most beautiful carriage in my coach-house harnessed, and take the\nroad to the wood. When you come to the Big Oak you will find a poor\npuppet stretched on the grass half dead. Pick him up gently and lay him\nflat on the cushions of the carriage and bring him here to me. Do you\nunderstand?\"\n\nThe Poodle, to show that he had understood, shook the case of blue\nsatin three or four times and ran off like a race-horse.\n\nShortly afterwards a beautiful little carriage came out of the\ncoach-house. The cushions were stuffed with canary feathers and it was\nlined on the inside with whipped cream, custard and vanilla wafers. The\nlittle carriage was drawn by a hundred pairs of white mice, and the\nPoodle, seated on the coach-box, cracked his whip from side to side like\na driver when he is afraid that he is behind time.\n\nScarcely had a quarter of an hour passed, when the carriage returned.\nThe Fairy, who was waiting at the door of the house, took the poor\npuppet in her arms and carried him into a little room that was\nwainscoted with mother-of-pearl. She sent at once to summon the most\nfamous doctors in the neighborhood.\n\nThey came immediately, one after the other: namely, a Crow, an Owl, and\na Talking-Cricket.\n\n\"I wish to know from you, gentlemen,\" said the Fairy, \"if this\nunfortunate puppet is alive or dead!\"\n\nAt this request the Crow, advancing first, felt Pinocchio's pulse; he\nthen felt his nose and then the little toe of his foot: and, having done\nthis carefully, he pronounced solemnly the following words:\n\n\"To my belief the puppet is already quite dead; but, if unfortunately he\nshould not be dead, then it would be a sign that he is still alive!\"\n\n\"I regret,\" said the Owl, \"to be obliged to contradict the Crow, my\nillustrious friend and colleague; but, in my opinion the puppet is still\nalive; but, if unfortunately he should not be alive, then it would be a\nsign that he is dead indeed!\"\n\n\"And you--have you nothing to say?\" asked the Fairy of the\nTalking-Cricket.\n\n\"In my opinion, the wisest thing a prudent doctor can do, when he does\nnot know what he is talking about, is to be silent. For the rest, that\npuppet there has a face that is not new to me. I have known him for some\ntime!\"\n\nPinocchio, who up to that moment had lain immovable, like a real piece\nof wood, was seized with a fit of convulsive trembling that shook the\nwhole bed.\n\n\"That puppet there,\" continued the Talking-Cricket, \"is a confirmed\nrogue.\"\n\nPinocchio opened his eyes, but shut them again immediately.\n\n\"He is a ragamuffin, a do-nothing, a vagabond.\"\n\nPinocchio hid his face beneath the clothes.\n\n\"That puppet there is a disobedient son who will make his poor father\ndie of a broken heart!\"\n\nAt that instant a suffocated sound of sobs and crying was heard in the\nroom. Imagine everybody's astonishment when, having raised the sheets a\nlittle, it was discovered that the sounds came from Pinocchio.\n\n\"When a dead person cries, it is a sign that he is on the road to get\nwell,\" said the Crow solemnly.\n\n\"I grieve to contradict my illustrious friend and colleague,\" added the\nOwl; \"but for me, when the dead person cries, it is a sign that he is\nsorry to die.\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nPINOCCHIO WILL NOT TAKE HIS MEDICINE\n\n\nAs soon as the three doctors had left the room the Fairy approached\nPinocchio and, having touched his forehead, she perceived that he was in\na high fever.\n\nShe therefore dissolved a certain white powder in half a tumbler of\nwater and, offering it to the puppet, she said to him lovingly:\n\n\"Drink it and in a few days you will be cured.\"\n\nPinocchio looked at the tumbler, made a wry face, and then asked in a\nplaintive voice:\n\n\"Is it sweet or bitter?\"\n\n\"It is bitter, but it will do you good.\"\n\n\"If it is bitter, I will not take it.\"\n\n\"Listen to me: drink it.\"\n\n\"I don't like anything bitter.\"\n\n\"Drink it, and when you have drunk it I will give you a lump of sugar to\ntake away the taste.\"\n\n\"Where is the lump of sugar?\"\n\n\"Here it is,\" said the Fairy, taking a piece from a gold sugar-basin.\n\n\"Give me first the lump of sugar and then I will drink that bad bitter\nwater.\"\n\n\"Do you promise me?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\nThe Fairy gave him the sugar and Pinocchio, having crunched it up and\nswallowed it in a second, said, licking his lips:\n\n\"It would be a fine thing if sugar were medicine! I would take it every\nday.\"\n\n\"Now keep your promise and drink these few drops of water, which will\nrestore you to health.\"\n\nPinocchio took the tumbler unwillingly in his hand and put the point of\nhis nose to it: he then approached it to his lips: he then again put his\nnose to it, and at last said:\n\n\"It is too bitter! too bitter! I cannot drink it.\"\n\n\"How can you tell that, when you have not even tasted it?\"\n\n\"I can imagine it! I know it from the smell. I want first another lump\nof sugar and then I will drink it!\"\n\nThe Fairy then, with all the patience of a good mamma, put another lump\nof sugar in his mouth, and again presented the tumbler to him.\n\n\"I cannot drink it so!\" said the puppet, making a thousand grimaces.\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because that pillow that is down there on my feet bothers me.\"\n\nThe Fairy removed the pillow.\n\n\"It is useless. Even so I cannot drink it.\"\n\n\"What is the matter now?\"\n\n\"The door of the room, which is half open, bothers me.\"\n\nThe Fairy went and closed the door.\n\n\"In short,\" cried Pinocchio, bursting into tears, \"I will not drink that\nbitter water--no, no, no!\"\n\n\"My boy, you will repent it.\"\n\n\"I don't care.\"\n\n\"Your illness is serious.\"\n\n\"I don't care.\"\n\n\"The fever in a few hours will carry you into the other world.\"\n\n\"I don't care.\"\n\n\"Are you not afraid of death?\"\n\n\"I am not in the least afraid! I would rather die than drink that bitter\nmedicine.\"\n\nAt that moment the door of the room flew open and four rabbits as black\nas ink entered carrying on their shoulders a little bier.\n\n\"What do you want with me?\" cried Pinocchio, sitting up in bed in a\ngreat fright.\n\n\"We have come to take you,\" said the biggest rabbit.\n\n\"To take me? But I am not yet dead!\"\n\n\"No, not yet? but you have only a few minutes to live, as you have\nrefused the medicine that would have cured you of the fever.\"\n\n\"Oh, Fairy, Fairy!\" the puppet then began to scream, \"give me the\ntumbler at once; be quick, for pity's sake, for I will not die--no, I\nwill not die.\"\n\nAnd, taking the tumbler in both hands, he emptied it at a gulp.\n\n\"We must have patience!\" said the rabbits; \"this time we have made our\njourney in vain.\" And, taking the little bier again on their shoulders,\nthey left the room, grumbling and murmuring between their teeth.\n\nIn fact, a few minutes afterwards, Pinocchio jumped down from the bed\nquite well, because wooden puppets have the privilege of being seldom\nill and of being cured very quickly.\n\nThe Fairy, seeing him running and rushing about the room as gay and as\nlively as a young cock, said to him:\n\n\"Then my medicine has really done you good?\"\n\n\"Good? I should think so! It has restored me to life!\"\n\n\"Then why on earth did you require so much persuasion to take it?\"\n\n\"Because you see that we boys are all like that! We are more afraid of\nmedicine than of the illness.\"\n\n\"Disgraceful! Boys ought to know that a good remedy taken in time may\nsave them from a serious illness, and perhaps even from death.\"\n\n\"Oh! but another time I shall not require so much persuasion. I shall\nremember those black rabbits with the bier on their shoulders and then I\nshall immediately take the tumbler in my hand, and down it will go!\"\n\n\"Now, come here to me and tell me how it came about that you fell into\nthe hands of those assassins.\"\n\n\"You see, the showman, Fire-Eater, gave me some gold pieces and said to\nme: 'Go, and take them to your father!' and instead I met on the road a\nFox and a Cat, who said to me: 'Would you like those pieces of gold to\nbecome a thousand or two? Come with us and we will take you to the Field\nof Miracles,' and I said: 'Let us go.' And they said: 'Let us stop at\nthe inn of The Red Craw-Fish,' and after midnight they left. And when I\nawoke I found that they were no longer there, because they had gone\naway. Then I began to travel by night, for you cannot imagine how dark\nit was; and on that account I met on the road two assassins in charcoal\nsacks who said to me: 'Out with your money,' and I said to them: 'I have\ngot none,' because I had hidden the four gold pieces in my mouth, and\none of the assassins tried to put his hand in my mouth, and I bit his\nhand off and spat it out, but instead of a hand it was a cat's paw. And\nthe assassins ran after me, and I ran, and ran, until at last they\ncaught me and tied me by the neck to a tree in this wood, and said to\nme: 'Tomorrow we shall return here and then you will be dead with your\nmouth open and we shall be able to carry off the pieces of gold that you\nhave hidden under your tongue.\"\n\n\"And the four pieces--where have you put them?\" asked the Fairy.\n\n\"I have lost them!\" said Pinocchio, but he was telling a lie, for he had\nthem in his pocket.\n\nHe had scarcely told the lie when his nose, which was already long, grew\nat once two inches longer.\n\n\"And where did you lose them?\"\n\n\"In the wood near here.\"\n\nAt this second lie his nose went on growing.\n\n\"If you have lost them in the wood near here,\" said the Fairy, \"we will\nlook for them and we shall find them: because everything that is lost in\nthat wood is always found.\"\n\n\"Ah! now I remember all about it,\" replied the puppet, getting quite\nconfused; \"I didn't lose the four gold pieces, I swallowed them whilst I\nwas drinking your medicine.\"\n\nAt this lie his nose grew to such an extraordinary length that poor\nPinocchio could not move in any direction. If he turned to one side he\nstruck his nose against the bed or the window-panes, if he turned to the\nother he struck it against the walls or the door, if he raised his head\na little he ran the risk of sticking it into one of the Fairy's eyes.\n\nAnd the Fairy looked at him and laughed.\n\n\"What are you laughing at?\" asked the puppet, very confused and anxious\nat finding his nose growing so prodigiously.\n\n\"I am laughing at the lie you have told.\"\n\n\"And how can you possibly know that I have told a lie?\"\n\n\"Lies, my dear boy, are found out immediately, because they are of two\nsorts. There are lies that have short legs, and lies that have long\nnoses. Your lie, as it happens, is one of those that have a long nose.\"\n\nPinocchio, not knowing where to hide himself for shame, tried to run out\nof the room; but he did not succeed, for his nose had increased so much\nthat it could no longer pass through the door.\n\n[Illustration: SPLASH! SPLASH! THEY FELL INTO THE VERY MIDDLE OF THE\nDITCH]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nPINOCCHIO AGAIN MEETS THE FOX AND THE CAT\n\n\nThe Fairy allowed the puppet to cry for a good half-hour over his nose,\nwhich could no longer pass through the door of the room. This she did to\ngive him a severe lesson, and to correct him of the disgraceful fault of\ntelling lies--the most disgraceful fault that a boy can have. But when\nshe saw him quite disfigured and his eyes swollen out of his head from\nweeping, she felt full of compassion for him. She therefore beat her\nhands together and at that signal a thousand large birds called\nWoodpeckers flew in at the window. They immediately perched on\nPinocchio's nose and began to peck at it with such zeal that in a few\nminutes his enormous and ridiculous nose was reduced to its usual\ndimensions.\n\n\"What a good Fairy you are,\" said the puppet, drying his eyes, \"and how\nmuch I love you!\"\n\n\"I love you also,\" answered the Fairy; \"and if you will remain with me\nyou shall be my little brother and I will be your good little sister.\"\n\n\"I would remain willingly if it were not for my poor papa.\"\n\n\"I have thought of everything. I have already let your father know, and\nhe will be here tonight.\"\n\n\"Really?\" shouted Pinocchio, jumping for joy. \"Then, little Fairy, if\nyou consent, I should like to go and meet him. I am so anxious to give a\nkiss to that poor old man, who has suffered so much on my account, that\nI am counting the minutes.\"\n\n\"Go, then, but be careful not to lose yourself. Take the road through\nthe wood and I am sure that you will meet him.\"\n\nPinocchio set out, and as soon as he was in the wood he began to run\nlike a kid. But when he had reached a certain spot, almost in front of\nthe Big Oak, he stopped, because he thought he heard people amongst the\nbushes. In fact, two persons came out on to the road. Can you guess who\nthey were? His two traveling companions, the Fox and the Cat, with whom\nhe had supped at the inn of The Red Craw-Fish.\n\n\"Why, here is our dear Pinocchio!\" cried the Fox, kissing and embracing\nhim. \"How came you to be here?\"\n\n\"How come you to be here?\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"It is a long story,\" answered the puppet, \"which I will tell you when I\nhave time. But do you know that the other night, when you left me alone\nat the inn, I met with assassins on the road?\"\n\n\"Assassins! Oh, poor Pinocchio! And what did they want?\"\n\n\"They wanted to rob me of my gold pieces.\"\n\n\"Villains!\" said the Fox.\n\n\"Infamous villains!\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"But I ran away from them,\" continued the puppet, \"and they followed me,\nand at last they overtook me and hung me to a branch of that oak tree.\"\n\nAnd Pinocchio pointed to the Big Oak, which was two steps from them.\n\n\"Is it possible to hear of anything more dreadful?\" said the Fox. \"In\nwhat a world we are condemned to live! Where can respectable people like\nus find a safe refuge?\"\n\nWhilst they were thus talking Pinocchio observed that the Cat was lame\nof her front right leg, for in fact she had lost her paw with all its\nclaws. He therefore asked her:\n\n\"What have you done with your paw?\"\n\nThe Cat tried to answer, but became confused. Therefore the Fox said\nimmediately:\n\n\"My friend is too modest, and that is why she doesn't speak. I will\nanswer for her. I must tell you that an hour ago we met an old wolf on\nthe road, almost fainting from want of food, who asked alms of us. Not\nhaving so much as a fish-bone to give him, what did my friend, who has\nreally the heart of a Caesar, do? She bit off one of her fore paws and\nthrew it to that poor beast that he might appease his hunger.\"\n\nAnd the Fox, in relating this, dried a tear.\n\nPinocchio was also touched and, approaching the Cat, he whispered into\nher ear:\n\n\"If all cats resembled you, how fortunate the mice would be!\"\n\n\"And now, what are you doing here?\" asked the Fox of the puppet.\n\n\"I am waiting for my papa, whom I expect to arrive every moment.\"\n\n\"And your gold pieces?\"\n\n\"I have got them in my pocket, all but one that I spent at the inn of\nThe Red Craw-Fish.\"\n\n\"And to think that, instead of four pieces, by tomorrow they might\nbecome one or two thousand! Why do you not listen to my advice? Why will\nyou not go and bury them in the Field of Miracles?\"\n\n\"Today it is impossible; I will go another day.\"\n\n\"Another day it will be too late!\" said the Fox.\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because the field has been bought by a gentleman and after tomorrow no\none will be allowed to bury money there.\"\n\n\"How far off is the Field of Miracles?\"\n\n\"Not two miles. Will you come with us? In half an hour you will be\nthere. You can bury your money at once, and in a few minutes you will\ncollect two thousand, and this evening you will return with your pockets\nfull. Will you come with us?\"\n\nPinocchio thought of the good Fairy, old Geppetto, and the warnings of\nthe Talking-Cricket, and he hesitated a little before answering. He\nended, however, by doing as all boys do who have not a grain of sense\nand who have no heart--he ended by giving his head a little shake and\nsaying to the Fox and the Cat:\n\n\"Let us go: I will come with you.\"\n\nAnd they went.\n\nAfter having walked half the day they reached a town that was called\n\"Trap for Blockheads.\" As soon as Pinocchio entered this town he saw\nthat the streets were crowded with dogs who were yawning from hunger,\nshorn sheep trembling with cold, cocks without combs begging for a grain\nof Indian corn, large butterflies that could no longer fly because they\nhad sold their beautiful colored wings, peacocks which had no tails and\nwere ashamed to be seen, and pheasants that went scratching about in a\nsubdued fashion, mourning for their brilliant gold and silver feathers\ngone forever.\n\nIn the midst of this crowd of beggars and shamefaced creatures some\nlordly carriage passed from time to time containing a Fox, or a thieving\nMagpie, or some other ravenous bird of prey.\n\n\"And where is the Field of Miracles?\" asked Pinocchio.\n\n\"It is here, not two steps from us.\"\n\nThey crossed the town and, having gone beyond the walls, they came to a\nsolitary field.\n\n\"Here we are,\" said the Fox to the puppet. \"Now stoop down and dig with\nyour hands a little hole in the ground and put your gold pieces into\nit.\"\n\nPinocchio obeyed. He dug a hole, put into it the four gold pieces that\nhe had left, and then filled up the hole with a little earth.\n\n\"Now, then,\" said the Fox, \"go to that canal close to us, fetch a can of\nwater, and water the ground where you have sowed them.\"\n\nPinocchio went to the canal, and, as he had no can, he took off one of\nhis old shoes and filling it with water he watered the ground over the\nhole.\n\nHe then asked:\n\n\"Is there anything else to be done?\"\n\n\"Nothing else,\" answered the Fox. \"We can now go away. You can return in\nabout twenty minutes and you will find a shrub already pushing through\nthe ground, with its branches quite loaded with money.\"\n\nThe poor puppet, beside himself with joy, thanked the Fox and the Cat a\nthousand times, and promised them a beautiful present.\n\n\"We wish for no presents,\" answered the two rascals. \"It is enough for\nus to have taught you the way to enrich yourself without undergoing hard\nwork, and we are as happy as people out for a holiday.\"\n\nThus saying, they took leave of Pinocchio, and, wishing him a good\nharvest, went about their business.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nPINOCCHIO IS ROBBED OF HIS MONEY\n\n\nThe puppet returned to the town and began to count the minutes one by\none, and when he thought that it must be time he took the road leading\nto the Field of Miracles.\n\nAnd as he walked along with hurried steps his heart beat fast--tic, tac,\ntic, tac--like a drawing-room clock when it is really going well.\nMeanwhile he was thinking to himself:\n\n\"And if, instead of a thousand gold pieces, I were to find on the\nbranches of the tree two thousand? And instead of two thousand,\nsupposing I found five thousand? and instead of five thousand, that I\nfound a hundred thousand? Oh! what a fine gentleman I should then\nbecome! I would have a beautiful palace, a thousand little wooden horses\nand a thousand stables to amuse myself with, a cellar full of currant\nwine and sweet syrups, and a library quite full of candies, tarts,\nplum-cakes, macaroons, and biscuits with cream.\"\n\nWhilst he was building these castles in the air he had arrived in the\nneighborhood of the field, and he stopped to look about for a tree with\nits branches laden with money, but he saw nothing. He advanced another\nhundred steps--nothing; he entered the field and went right up to the\nlittle hole where he had buried his sovereigns--and nothing. He then\nbecame very thoughtful and, forgetting the rules of society and good\nmanners, he took his hands out of his pocket and gave his head a long\nscratch.\n\nAt that moment he heard an explosion of laughter close to him and,\nlooking up, he saw a large Parrot perched on a tree, who was pruning the\nfew feathers he had left.\n\n\"Why are you laughing?\" asked Pinocchio in an angry voice.\n\n\"I am laughing because in pruning my feathers I tickled myself under my\nwings.\"\n\nThe puppet did not answer, but went to the canal and, filling the same\nold shoe full of water, he proceeded to water the earth afresh that\ncovered his gold pieces.\n\nWhile he was thus occupied another laugh, still more impertinent than\nthe first, rang out in the silence of that solitary place.\n\n\"Once for all,\" shouted Pinocchio in a rage, \"may I know, you\nill-educated Parrot, what you are laughing at?\"\n\n\"I am laughing at those simpletons who believe in all the foolish things\nthat are told them, and who allow themselves to be entrapped by those\nwho are more cunning than they are.\"\n\n\"Are you perhaps speaking of me?\"\n\n\"Yes, I am speaking of you, poor Pinocchio--of you who are simple\nenough to believe that money can be sown and gathered in fields in the\nsame way as beans and gourds. I also believed it once and today I am\nsuffering for it. Today--but it is too late--I have at last learned that\nto put a few pennies honestly together it is necessary to know how to\nearn them, either by the work of our own hands or by the cleverness of\nour own brains.\"\n\n\"I don't understand you,\" said the puppet, who was already trembling\nwith fear.\n\n\"Have patience! I will explain myself better,\" rejoined the Parrot. \"You\nmust know, then, that while you were in the town the Fox and the Cat\nreturned to the field; they took the buried money and then fled like the\nwind. And now he that catches them will be clever.\"\n\nPinocchio remained with his mouth open and, not choosing to believe the\nParrot's words, he began with his hands and nails to dig up the earth\nthat he had watered. And he dug, and dug, and dug, and made such a deep\nhole that a rick of straw might have stood upright in it, but the money\nwas no longer there.\n\nHe rushed back to the town in a state of desperation and went at once to\nthe Courts of Justice to denounce the two knaves who had robbed him to\nthe judge.\n\nThe judge was a big ape of the gorilla tribe, an old ape respectable for\nhis age, his white beard, but especially for his gold spectacles without\nglasses that he was always obliged to wear, on account of an\ninflammation of the eyes that had tormented him for many years.\n\nPinocchio related in the presence of the judge all the particulars of\nthe infamous fraud of which he had been the victim. He gave the names,\nthe surnames, and other details, of the two rascals, and ended by\ndemanding justice.\n\nThe judge listened with great benignity; took a lively interest in the\nstory; was much touched and moved; and when the puppet had nothing\nfurther to say he stretched out his hand and rang a bell.\n\nAt this summons two mastiffs immediately appeared dressed as gendarmes.\nThe judge then, pointing to Pinocchio, said to them:\n\n\"That poor devil has been robbed of four gold pieces; take him away and\nput him immediately into prison.\"\n\nThe puppet was petrified on hearing this unexpected sentence and tried\nto protest; but the gendarmes, to avoid losing time, stopped his mouth\nand carried him off to the lockup.\n\nAnd there he remained for four months--four long months--and he would\nhave remained longer still if a fortunate chance had not released him.\nThe young Emperor who reigned over the town of \"Trap for Blockheads,\"\nhaving won a splendid victory over his enemies, ordered great public\nrejoicings. There were illuminations, fireworks, horse races and\nvelocipede races, and as a further sign of triumph he commanded that the\nprisons should be opened and all the prisoners freed.\n\n\"If the others are to be let out of prison, I will go also,\" said\nPinocchio to the jailor.\n\n\"No, not you,\" said the jailor, \"because you do not belong to the\nfortunate class.\"\n\n\"I beg your pardon,\" replied Pinocchio, \"I am also a criminal.\"\n\n\"In that case you are perfectly right,\" said the jailor, and, taking off\nhis hat and bowing to him respectfully, he opened the prison doors and\nlet him escape.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nPINOCCHIO STARTS BACK TO THE FAIRY'S HOUSE\n\n\nYou can imagine Pinocchio's joy when he found himself free. Without\nstopping to take breath he immediately left the town and took the road\nthat led to the Fairy's house.\n\nOn account of the rainy weather the road had become a marsh into which\nhe sank knee-deep. But the puppet would not give in. Tormented by the\ndesire of seeing his father and his little sister with blue hair again,\nhe ran on like a greyhound, and as he ran he was splashed with mud from\nhead to foot. And he said to himself as he went along: \"How many\nmisfortunes have happened to me. But I deserved them, for I am an\nobstinate, passionate puppet. I am always bent upon having my own way,\nwithout listening to those who wish me well, and who have a thousand\ntimes more sense than I have! But from this time forth I am determined\nto change and to become orderly and obedient. For at last I have seen\nthat disobedient boys come to no good and gain nothing. And has my papa\nwaited for me? Shall I find him at the Fairy's house? Poor man, it is so\nlong since I last saw him: I am dying to embrace him and to cover him\nwith kisses! And will the Fairy forgive me my bad conduct to her? To\nthink of all the kindness and loving care I received from her, to think\nthat if I am now alive I owe it to her! Would it be possible to find a\nmore ungrateful boy, or one with less heart than I have?\"\n\nWhilst he was saying this he stopped suddenly, frightened to death, and\nmade four steps backwards.\n\nWhat had he seen?\n\nHe had seen an immense Serpent stretched across the road. Its skin was\ngreen, it had red eyes, and a pointed tail that was smoking like a\nchimney.\n\nIt would be impossible to imagine the puppet's terror. He walked away to\na safe distance and, sitting down on a heap of stones, waited until the\nSerpent should have gone about its business and left the road clear.\n\nHe waited an hour; two hours; three hours; but the Serpent was always\nthere, and even from a distance he could see the red light of his fiery\neyes and the column of smoke that ascended from the end of his tail.\n\nAt last Pinocchio, trying to feel courageous, approached to within a few\nsteps, and said to the Serpent in a little soft, insinuating voice:\n\n\"Excuse me. Sir Serpent, but would you be so good as to move a little to\none side--just enough to allow me to pass?\"\n\nHe might as well have spoken to the wall. Nobody moved.\n\nHe began again in the same soft voice:\n\n\"You must know. Sir Serpent, that I am on my way home, where my father\nis waiting for me, and it is such a long time since I saw him last! Will\nyou, therefore, allow me to continue my road?\"\n\nHe waited for a sign in answer to this request, but there was none; in\nfact, the Serpent, who up to that moment had been sprightly and full of\nlife, became motionless and almost rigid. He shut his eyes and his tail\nceased smoking.\n\n\"Can he really be dead?\" said Pinocchio, rubbing his hands with delight.\nHe determined to jump over him and reach the other side of the road.\nBut, just as he was going to leap, the Serpent raised himself suddenly\non end, like a spring set in motion; and the puppet, drawing back, in\nhis terror caught his feet and fell to the ground.\n\nAnd he fell so awkwardly that his head stuck in the mud and his legs\nwent into the air.\n\nAt the sight of the puppet kicking violently with his head in the mud,\nthe Serpent went into convulsions of laughter, and laughed, and laughed,\nuntil he broke a blood-vessel in his chest and died. And that time he\nwas really dead.\n\nPinocchio then set off running, in hopes that he should reach the\nFairy's house before dark. But before long he began to suffer so\ndreadfully from hunger that he could not bear it, and he jumped into a\nfield by the wayside, intending to pick some bunches of Muscatel grapes.\nOh, that he had never done it!\n\nHe had scarcely reached the vines when crack--his legs were caught\nbetween two cutting iron bars and he became so giddy with pain that\nstars of every color danced before his eyes.\n\nThe poor puppet had been taken in a trap put there to capture some big\npolecats which were the scourge of the poultry-yards in the\nneighborhood.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nPINOCCHIO ACTS AS WATCH-DOG\n\n\nPinocchio began to cry and scream, but his tears and groans were\nuseless, for there was not a house to be seen, and not a living soul\npassed down the road.\n\nAt last night came on.\n\nPartly from the pain of the trap, that cut his legs, and a little from\nfear at finding himself alone in the dark in the midst of the fields,\nthe puppet was on the point of fainting. Just at that moment he saw a\nFirefly flitting over his head. He called to it and said:\n\n\"Oh, little Firefly, will you have pity on me and liberate me from this\ntorture?\"\n\n\"Poor boy!\" said the Firefly, stopping and looking at him with\ncompassion; \"but how could your legs have been caught by those sharp\nirons?\"\n\n\"I came into the field to pick two bunches of these Muscatel grapes,\nand--\"\n\n\"But were the grapes yours?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Then who taught you to carry off other people's property?\"\n\n\"I was so hungry.\"\n\n\"Hunger, my boy, is not a good reason for appropriating what does not\nbelong to us.\"\n\n\"That is true, that is true!\" said Pinocchio, crying. \"I will never do\nit again.\"\n\nAt this moment their conversation was interrupted by a slight sound of\napproaching footsteps. It was the owner of the field coming on tiptoe to\nsee if one of the polecats that ate his chickens during the night had\nbeen caught in his trap.\n\nHis astonishment was great when, having brought out his lantern from\nunder his coat, he perceived that instead of a polecat a boy had been\ntaken.\n\n\"Ah, little thief,\" said the angry peasant, \"then it is you who carries\noff my chickens?\"\n\n\"No, it is not I; indeed it is not!\" cried Pinocchio, sobbing. \"I only\ncame into the field to take two bunches of grapes!\"\n\n\"He who steals grapes is quite capable of stealing chickens. Leave it to\nme, I will give you a lesson that you will not forget in a hurry.\"\n\nOpening the trap, he seized the puppet by the collar and carried him to\nhis house as if he had been a young lamb.\n\nWhen he reached the yard in front of the house he threw him roughly on\nthe ground and, putting his foot on his neck, he said to him:\n\n\"It is late and I want to go to bed; we will settle our accounts\ntomorrow. In the meanwhile, as the dog who kept guard at night died\ntoday, you shall take his place at once. You shall be my watch-dog.\"\n\nAnd, taking a great collar covered with brass knobs, he strapped it so\ntightly round his throat that he was not able to draw his head out of\nit. A heavy chain attached to the collar was fastened to the wall.\n\n\"If it should rain tonight,\" he then said to him, \"you can go and lie\ndown in the kennel; the straw that has served as a bed for my poor dog\nfor the last four years is still there. If unfortunately robbers should\ncome, remember to keep your ears pricked and to bark.\"\n\nAfter giving him this last injunction the man went into the house, shut\nthe door, and put up the chain.\n\nPoor Pinocchio remained lying on the ground more dead than alive from\nthe effects of cold, hunger and fear. From time to time he put his hands\nangrily to the collar that tightened his throat and said, crying:\n\n\"It serves me right! Decidedly, it serves me right! I was determined to\nbe a vagabond and a good-for-nothing. I would listen to bad companions,\nand that is why I always meet with misfortunes. If I had been a good\nlittle boy, as so many are; if I had remained at home with my poor papa,\nI should not now be in the midst of the fields and obliged to be the\nwatch-dog to a peasant's house. Oh, if I could be born again! But now it\nis too late and I must have patience!\"\n\nRelieved by this little outburst, which came straight from his heart, he\nwent into the dog-kennel and fell asleep.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nPINOCCHIO DISCOVERS THE ROBBERS\n\n\nHe had been sleeping heavily for about two hours when, towards midnight, he\nwas aroused by a whispering of strange voices that seemed to come from the\ncourtyard. Putting the point of his nose out of the kennel, he saw four\nlittle beasts with dark fur, that looked like cats, standing consulting\ntogether. But they were not cats; they were polecats--carnivorous little\nanimals, especially greedy for eggs and young chickens. One of the\npolecats, leaving his companions, came to the opening of the kennel and\nsaid in a low voice:\n\n\"Good evening, Melampo.\"\n\n\"My name is not Melampo,\" answered the puppet.\n\n\"Oh! then who are you?\"\n\n\"I am Pinocchio.\"\n\n\"And what are you doing here?\"\n\n\"I am acting as watch-dog.\"\n\n\"Then where is Melampo? Where is the old dog who lived in this kennel?\"\n\n\"He died this morning.\"\n\n\"Is he dead? Poor beast! He was so good. But, judging you by your face,\nI should say that you were also a good dog.\"\n\n\"I beg your pardon, I am not a dog.\"\n\n\"Not a dog? Then what are you?\"\n\n\"I am a puppet.\"\n\n\"And you are acting as watch-dog?\"\n\n\"That is only too true--as a punishment.\"\n\n\"Well, then, I will offer you the same conditions that we made with the\ndeceased Melampo, and I am sure you will be satisfied with them.\"\n\n\"What are these conditions?\"\n\n\"One night in every week you are to permit us to visit this poultry-yard\nas we have hitherto done, and to carry off eight chickens. Of these\nchickens seven are to be eaten by us, and one we will give to you, on\nthe express understanding, however, that you pretend to be asleep, and\nthat it never enters your head to bark and to waken the peasant.\"\n\n\"Did Melampo act in this manner?\" asked Pinocchio.\n\n\"Certainly, and we were always on the best terms with him. Sleep\nquietly, and rest assured that before we go we will leave by the kennel\na beautiful chicken ready plucked for your breakfast tomorrow. Have we\nunderstood each other clearly?\"\n\n\"Only too clearly!\" answered Pinocchio, and he shook his head\nthreateningly, as much as to say: \"You shall hear of this shortly!\"\n\nThe four polecats, thinking themselves safe, repaired to the\npoultry-yard, which was close to the kennel, and, having opened the\nwooden gate with their teeth and claws, they slipped in one by one. But\nthey had only just passed through when they heard the gate shut behind\nthem with great violence.\n\nIt was Pinocchio who had shut it, and for greater security he put a\nlarge stone against it to keep it closed.\n\nHe then began to bark, and he barked exactly like a watch-dog: \"Bow-wow,\nbow-wow.\"\n\nHearing the barking, the peasant jumped out of bed and, taking his gun,\nhe came to the window and asked:\n\n\"What is the matter?\"\n\n\"There are robbers!\" answered Pinocchio.\n\n\"Where are they?\"\n\n\"In the poultry-yard.\"\n\n\"I will come down directly.\"\n\nIn fact, in less time than it takes to say \"Amen!\" the peasant came\ndown. He rushed into the poultry-yard, caught the polecats, and, having\nput them into a sack, he said to them in a tone of great satisfaction:\n\n\"At last you have fallen into my hands! I might punish you, but I am not\nso cruel. I will content myself instead by carrying you in the morning\nto the innkeeper of the neighboring village, who will skin and cook you\nas hares with a sweet and sour sauce. It is an honor that you don't\ndeserve, but generous people like me don't consider such trifles!\"\n\nHe then approached Pinocchio and began to caress him, and amongst other\nthings he asked him:\n\n\"How did you manage to discover the four thieves? To think that Melampo,\nmy faithful Melampo, never found out anything!\"\n\nThe puppet might then have told him the whole story; he might have\ninformed him of the disgraceful conditions that had been made between\nthe dog and the polecats; but he remembered that the dog was dead and he\nthought to himself:\n\n\"What is the good of accusing the dead? The dead are dead, and the best\nthing to be done is to leave them in peace!\"\n\n\"When the thieves got into the yard, were you asleep or awake?\" the\npeasant went on to ask him.\n\n\"I was asleep,\" answered Pinocchio, \"but the polecats woke me with their\nchatter and one of them came to the kennel and said to me: 'If you\npromise not to bark, and not to wake the master, we will make you a\npresent of a fine chicken ready plucked!' To think that they should have\nhad the audacity to make such a proposal to me! For, although I am a\npuppet, possessing perhaps nearly all the faults in the world, there is\none that I certainly will never be guilty of, that of making terms with,\nand sharing the gains of, dishonest people!\"\n\n\"Well said, my boy!\" cried the peasant, slapping him on the shoulder.\n\"Such sentiments do you honor; and as a proof of my gratitude I will at\nonce set you at liberty, and you may return home.\"\n\nAnd he removed the dog-collar.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nPINOCCHIO FLIES TO THE SEASHORE\n\n\nAs soon as Pinocchio was released from the heavy and humiliating weight\nof the dog-collar he started off across the fields and never stopped\nuntil he had reached the high road that led to the Fairy's house. He\ncould see amongst the trees the top of the Big Oak to which he had been\nhung, but, although he looked in every direction, the little house\nbelonging to the beautiful Child with the blue hair was nowhere visible.\n\nSeized with a sad presentiment, he began to run with all the strength he\nhad left and in a few minutes he reached the field where the little\nwhite house had once stood. But it was no longer there. Instead of the\nhouse he saw a marble stone, on which were engraved these sad words:\n\n              HERE LIES\n    THE CHILD WITH THE BLUE HAIR\n         WHO DIED FROM SORROW\n    BECAUSE SHE WAS ABANDONED BY HER\n        LITTLE BROTHER PINOCCHIO\n\nI leave you to imagine the puppet's feelings when he had with difficulty\nspelled out this epitaph. He fell with his face on the ground and,\ncovering the tombstone with a thousand kisses, burst into an agony of\ntears. He cried all night and when morning came he was still crying,\nalthough he had no tears left, and his sobs and lamentations were so\nacute and heart-breaking that they aroused the echoes in the surrounding\nhills.\n\nAnd as he wept he said:\n\n\"Oh, little Fairy, why did you die? Why did I not die instead of you, I\nwho am so wicked, whilst you were so good? And my papa? Where can he be?\nOh, little Fairy, tell me where I can find him, for I want to remain\nwith him always and never leave him again, never again! Oh, little\nFairy, tell me that it is not true that you are dead! If you really love\nyour little brother, come to life again. Does it not grieve you to see\nme alone and abandoned by everybody? If assassins come they will hang me\nagain to the branch of a tree, and then I should die indeed. What do you\nimagine that I can do here alone in the world? Now that I have lost you\nand my papa, who will give me food? Where shall I go to sleep at night?\nWho will make me a new jacket? Oh, it would be better, a hundred times\nbetter, for me to die also! Yes, I want to die--oh! oh! oh!\"\n\n[Illustration: An Immense Serpent Stretched Across the Road]\n\nAnd in his despair he tried to tear his hair, but his hair was made\nof wood so he could not even have the satisfaction of sticking his\nfingers into it.\n\nJust then a large Pigeon flew over his head and, stopping with distended\nwings, called down to him from a great height:\n\n\"Tell me, child, what are you doing there?\"\n\n\"Don't you see? I am crying!\" said Pinocchio, raising his head towards\nthe voice and rubbing his eyes with his jacket.\n\n\"Tell me,\" continued the Pigeon, \"amongst your companions, do you happen\nto know a puppet who is called Pinocchio?\"\n\n\"Pinocchio? Did you say Pinocchio?\" repeated the puppet, jumping quickly\nto his feet. \"I am Pinocchio!\"\n\nAt this answer the Pigeon descended rapidly to the ground. He was larger\nthan a turkey.\n\n\"Do you also know Geppetto?\" he asked.\n\n\"Do I know him! He is my poor papa! Has he perhaps spoken to you of me?\nWill you take me to him? Is he still alive? Answer me, for pity's sake:\nis he still alive?\"\n\n\"I left him three days ago on the seashore.\"\n\n\"What was he doing?\"\n\n\"He was building a little boat for himself, to cross the ocean. For more\nthan three months that poor man has been going all round the world\nlooking for you. Not having succeeded in finding you, he has now taken\nit into his head to go to the distant countries of the New World in\nsearch of you.\"\n\n\"How far is it from here to the shore?\" asked Pinocchio breathlessly.\n\n\"More than six hundred miles.\"\n\n\"Six hundred miles? Oh, beautiful Pigeon, what a fine thing it would be\nto have your wings!\"\n\n\"If you wish to go, I will carry you there.\"\n\n\"How?\"\n\n\"On my back. Do you weigh much?\"\n\n\"I weigh next to nothing. I am as light as a feather.\"\n\nAnd without waiting for more Pinocchio jumped at once on the Pigeon's\nback and, putting a leg on each side of him as men do on horseback, he\nexclaimed joyfully:\n\n\"Gallop, gallop, my little horse, for I am anxious to arrive quickly!\"\n\nThe Pigeon took flight and in a few minutes had soared so high that they\nalmost touched the clouds. Finding himself at such an immense height the\npuppet had the curiosity to turn and look down; but his head spun round\nand he became so frightened to save himself from the danger of falling\nhe wound his arms tightly round the neck of his feathered steed.\n\nThey flew all day. Towards evening the Pigeon said:\n\n\"I am very thirsty!\"\n\n\"And I am very hungry!\" rejoined Pinocchio.\n\n\"Let us stop at that dovecote for a few minutes and then we will\ncontinue our journey, so that we may reach the seashore by dawn\ntomorrow.\"\n\nThey went into a deserted dovecote, where they found nothing but a basin\nfull of water and a basket full of vetch.\n\nThe puppet had never in his life been able to eat vetch: according to\nhim it made him sick. That evening, however, he ate to repletion, and\nwhen he had nearly emptied the basket he turned to the Pigeon and said\nto him:\n\n\"I never could have believed that vetch was so good!\"\n\n\"Be assured, my boy,\" replied the Pigeon, \"that when hunger is real, and\nthere is nothing else to eat, even vetch becomes delicious. Hunger\nknows neither caprice nor greediness.\"\n\nHaving quickly finished their little meal they recommenced their journey\nand flew away. The following morning they reached the seashore.\n\nThe Pigeon placed Pinocchio on the ground and, not wishing to be\ntroubled with thanks for having done a good action, flew quickly away\nand disappeared.\n\nThe shore was crowded with people who were looking out to sea, shouting\nand gesticulating.\n\n\"What has happened?\" asked Pinocchio of an old woman.\n\n\"A poor father who has lost his son has gone away in a boat to search\nfor him on the other side of the water, and today the sea is tempestuous\nand the little boat is in danger of sinking.\"\n\n\"Where is the little boat?\"\n\n\"It is out there in a line with my finger,\" said the old woman, pointing\nto a little boat which, seen at that distance, looked like a nutshell\nwith a very little man in it.\n\nPinocchio fixed his eyes on it and after looking attentively he gave a\npiercing scream, crying:\n\n\"It is my papa! It is my papa!\"\n\nThe boat, meanwhile, beaten by the fury of the waves, at one moment\ndisappeared in the trough of the sea, and the next came again to the\nsurface. Pinocchio, standing on the top of a high rock, kept calling to\nhis father by name, and making every kind of signal to him with his\nhands, his handkerchief, and his cap.\n\nAnd, although he was so far off, Geppetto appeared to recognize his son,\nfor he also took off his cap and waved it, and tried by gestures to\nmake him understand that he would have returned if it had been possible,\nbut that the sea was so tempestuous that he could not use his oars or\napproach the shore.\n\nSuddenly a tremendous wave rose and the boat disappeared. They waited,\nhoping it would come again to the surface, but it was seen no more.\n\n\"Poor man!\" said the fishermen who were assembled on the shore;\nmurmuring a prayer, they turned to go home.\n\nJust then they heard a desperate cry and, looking back, they saw a\nlittle boy who exclaimed, as he jumped from a rock into the sea:\n\n\"I will save my papa!\"\n\nPinocchio, being made of wood, floated easily and he swam like a fish.\nAt one moment they saw him disappear under the water, carried down by\nthe fury of the waves, and next he reappeared struggling with a leg or\nan arm. At last they lost sight of him and he was seen no more.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nPINOCCHIO FINDS THE FAIRY AGAIN\n\n\nPinocchio, hoping to be in time to help his father, swam the whole\nnight.\n\nAnd what a horrible night it was! The rain came down in torrents, it\nhailed, the thunder was frightful, and the flashes of lightning made it\nas light as day.\n\nTowards morning he saw a long strip of land not far off. It was an\nisland in the midst of the sea.\n\nHe tried his utmost to reach the shore, but it was all in vain. The\nwaves, racing and tumbling over each other, knocked him about as if he\nhad been a stick or a wisp of straw. At last, fortunately for him, a\nbillow rolled up with such fury and impetuosity that he was lifted up\nand thrown far on to the sands.\n\nHe fell with such force that, as he struck the ground, his ribs and all\nhis joints cracked, but he comforted himself, saying:\n\n\"This time also I have made a wonderful escape!\"\n\nLittle by little the sky cleared, the sun shone out in all his splendor,\nand the sea became as quiet and as smooth as oil.\n\nThe puppet put his clothes in the sun to dry and began to look in every\ndirection in hopes of seeing on the vast expanse of water a little boat\nwith a little man in it. But, although he looked and looked, he could\nsee nothing but the sky, and the sea, and the sail of some ship, but so\nfar away that it seemed no bigger than a fly.\n\n\"If I only knew what this island was called!\" he said to himself. \"If I\nonly knew whether it was inhabited by civilized people--I mean, by\npeople who have not the bad habit of hanging boys to the branches of the\ntrees. But whom can I ask? Whom, if there is nobody?\"\n\nThis idea of finding himself alone, alone, all alone, in the midst of\nthis great uninhabited country, made him so melancholy that he was just\nbeginning to cry. But at that moment, at a short distance from the\nshore, he saw a big fish swimming by; it was going quietly on its own\nbusiness with its head out of the water.\n\nNot knowing its name, the puppet called to it in a loud voice to make\nhimself heard:\n\n\"Eh, Sir Fish, will you permit me a word with you?\"\n\n\"Two if you like,\" answered the fish, who was a Dolphin, and so polite\nthat few similar are to be found in any sea in the world.\n\n\"Will you be kind enough to tell me if there are villages in this island\nwhere it would be possible to obtain something to eat, without running\nthe danger of being eaten?\"\n\n\"Certainly there are,\" replied the Dolphin. \"Indeed, you will find one\nat a short distance from here.\"\n\n\"And what road must I take to go there?\"\n\n\"You must take that path to your left and follow your nose. You cannot\nmake a mistake.\"\n\n\"Will you tell me another thing? You who swim about the sea all day and\nall night, have you by chance met a little boat with my papa in it?\"\n\n\"And who is your papa?\"\n\n\"He is the best papa in the world, whilst it would be difficult to find\na worse son than I am.\"\n\n\"During the terrible storm last night,\" answered the Dolphin, \"the\nlittle boat must have gone to the bottom.\"\n\n\"And my papa?\"\n\n\"He must have been swallowed by the terrible Dog-Fish, who for some days\npast has been spreading devastation and ruin in our waters.\"\n\n\"Is this Dog-Fish very big?\" asked Pinocchio, who was already beginning\nto quake with fear.\n\n\"Big!\" replied the Dolphin. \"That you may form some idea of his size, I\nneed only tell you that he is bigger than a five-storied house, and that\nhis mouth is so enormous and so deep that a railway train with its\nsmoking engine could pass down his throat.\"\n\n\"Mercy upon us!\" exclaimed the terrified puppet; and, putting on his\nclothes with the greatest haste, he said to the Dolphin:\n\n\"Good-bye, Sir Fish; excuse the trouble I have given you, and many\nthanks for your politeness.\"\n\nHe then took the path that had been pointed out to him and began to\nwalk fast--so fast, indeed, that he was almost running. And at the\nslightest noise he turned to look behind him, fearing that he might see\nthe terrible Dog-Fish with a railway train in its mouth following him.\n\nAfter a walk of half an hour he reached a little village called \"The\nVillage of the Industrious Bees.\" The road was alive with people running\nhere and there to attend to their business; all were at work, all had\nsomething to do. You could not have found an idler or a vagabond, not\neven if you had searched for him with a lighted lamp.\n\n\"Ah!\" said that lazy Pinocchio at once, \"I see that this village will\nnever suit me! I wasn't born to work!\"\n\nIn the meanwhile he was tormented by hunger, for he had eaten nothing\nfor twenty-four hours--not even vetch. What was he to do?\n\nThere were only two ways by which he could obtain food--either by asking\nfor a little work, or by begging for a nickel or for a mouthful of\nbread.\n\nHe was ashamed to beg, for his father had always preached to him that no\none had a right to beg except the aged and the infirm. The really poor\nin this world, deserving of compassion and assistance, are only those\nwho from age or sickness are no longer able to earn their own bread with\nthe labor of their hands. It is the duty of every one else to work; and\nif they will not work, so much the worse for them if they suffer from\nhunger.\n\nAt that moment a man came down the road, tired and panting for breath.\nHe was dragging, alone, with fatigue and difficulty, two carts full of\ncharcoal.\n\nPinocchio, judging by his face that he was a kind man, approached him\nand, casting down his eyes with shame, he said to him in a low voice:\n\n\"Would you have the charity to give me a nickel, for I am dying of\nhunger?\"\n\n\"You shall have not only a nickel,\" said the man, \"but I will give you a\nquarter, provided that you help me to drag home these two carts of\ncharcoal.\"\n\n\"I am surprised at you!\" answered the puppet in a tone of offense. \"Let\nme tell you that I am not accustomed to do the work of a donkey: I have\nnever drawn a cart!\"\n\n\"So much the better for you,\" answered the man. \"Then, my boy, if you\nare really dying of hunger, eat two fine slices of your pride, and be\ncareful not to get indigestion.\"\n\nA few minutes afterwards a mason passed down the road carrying on his\nshoulders a basket of lime.\n\n\"Would you have the charity, good man, to give a nickel to a poor boy\nwho is yawning for want of food?\"\n\n\"Willingly,\" answered the man. \"Come with me and carry the lime, and\ninstead of a nickel I will give you a quarter.\"\n\n\"But the lime is heavy,\" objected Pinocchio, \"and I don't want to tire\nmyself.\"\n\n\"If you don't want to tire yourself, then, my boy, amuse yourself with\nyawning, and much good may it do you.\"\n\nIn less than half an hour twenty other people went by, and Pinocchio\nasked charity of them all, but they all answered:\n\n\"Are you not ashamed to beg? Instead of idling about the roads, go and\nlook for a little work and learn to earn your bread.\"\n\nAt last a nice little woman carrying two cans of water came by.\n\n\"Will you let me drink a little water out of your can?\" asked Pinocchio,\nwho was burning with thirst.\n\n\"Drink, my boy, if you wish it!\" said the little woman, setting down the\ntwo cans.\n\nPinocchio drank like a fish, and as he dried his mouth he mumbled:\n\n\"I have quenched my thirst. If I could only appease my hunger!\"\n\nThe good woman, hearing these words, said at once:\n\n\"If you will help me to carry home these two cans of water I will give\nyou a fine piece of bread.\"\n\nPinocchio looked at the can and answered neither yes nor no.\n\n\"And besides the bread you shall have a nice dish of cauliflower dressed\nwith oil and vinegar,\" added the good woman.\n\nPinocchio gave another look at the can and answered neither yes nor no.\n\n\"And after the cauliflower I will give you a beautiful bonbon full of\nsyrup.\"\n\nThe temptation of this last dainty was so great that Pinocchio could\nresist no longer and with an air of decision he said:\n\n\"I must have patience! I will carry the can to your house.\"\n\nThe can was heavy and the puppet, not being strong enough to carry it in\nhis hand, had to resign himself to carry it on his head.\n\nWhen they reached the house the good little woman made Pinocchio sit\ndown at a small table already laid and she placed before him the bread,\nthe cauliflower and the bonbon.\n\nPinocchio did not eat, he devoured. His stomach was like an apartment\nthat had been left empty and uninhabited for five months.\n\nWhen his ravenous hunger was somewhat appeased he raised his head to\nthank his benefactress, but he had no sooner looked at her than he gave\na prolonged \"Oh-h!\" of astonishment and continued staring at her with\nwide open eyes, his fork in the air, and his mouth full of bread and\ncauliflower, as if he had been bewitched.\n\n\"What has surprised you so much?\" asked the good woman, laughing.\n\n\"It is--\" answered the puppet, \"it is--it is--that you are like--that\nyou remind me--yes, yes, yes, the same voice--the same eyes--the same\nhair--yes, yes, yes--you also have blue hair--as she had--Oh, little\nFairy! tell me that it is you, really you! Do not make me cry any more!\nIf you knew--I have cried so much, I have suffered so much.\"\n\nAnd, throwing himself at her feet on the floor, Pinocchio embraced the\nknees of the mysterious little woman and began to cry bitterly.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nPINOCCHIO PROMISES THE FAIRY TO BE GOOD\n\n\nAt first the good little woman maintained that she was not the little\nFairy with blue hair, but, seeing that she was found out and not wishing\nto continue the comedy any longer, she ended by making herself known,\nand she said to Pinocchio:\n\n\"You little rogue! how did you ever discover who I was?\"\n\n\"It was my great affection for you that told me.\"\n\n\"Do you remember? You left me a child, and now that you have found me\nagain I am a woman--a woman almost old enough to be your mamma.\"\n\n\"I am delighted at that, for now, instead of calling you little sister,\nI will call you mamma. I have wished for such a long time to have a\nmamma like other boys! But how did you manage to grow so fast?\"\n\n\"That is a secret.\"\n\n\"Teach it to me, for I should also like to grow. Don't you see? I always\nremain no bigger than a ninepin.\"\n\n\"But you cannot grow,\" replied the Fairy.\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because puppets never grow. They are born puppets, live puppets, and\ndie puppets.\"\n\n\"Oh, I am sick of being a puppet!\" cried Pinocchio, giving himself a\nslap. \"It is time that I became a man.\"\n\n\"And you will become one, if you know how to deserve it.\"\n\n\"Not really? And what can I do to deserve it?\"\n\n\"A very easy thing: by learning to be a good boy.\"\n\n\"And you think I am not?\"\n\n\"You are quite the contrary. Good boys are obedient, and you--\"\n\n\"And I never obey.\"\n\n\"Good boys like to learn and to work, and you--\"\n\n\"And I instead lead an idle, vagabond life the year through.\"\n\n\"Good boys always speak the truth.\"\n\n\"And I always tell lies.\"\n\n\"Good boys go willingly to school.\"\n\n\"And school gives me pain all over the body. But from today I will\nchange my life.\"\n\n\"Do you promise me?\"\n\n\"I promise you. I will become a good little boy, and I will be the\nconsolation of my papa. Where is my poor papa at this moment?\"\n\n\"I do not know.\"\n\n\"Shall I ever have the happiness of seeing him again and kissing him?\"\n\n\"I think so; indeed, I am sure of it.\"\n\nAt this answer Pinocchio was so delighted that he took the Fairy's hands\nand began to kiss them with such fervor that he seemed beside himself.\nThen, raising his face and looking at her lovingly, he asked:\n\n\"Tell me, little mamma: then it was not true that you were dead?\"\n\n\"It seems not,\" said the Fairy, smiling.\n\n\"If you only knew the sorrow I felt and the tightening of my throat when\nI read, 'Here lies--'\"\n\n\"I know it, and it is on that account that I have forgiven you. I saw\nfrom the sincerity of your grief that you had a good heart; and when\nboys have good hearts, even if they are scamps and have got bad habits,\nthere is always something to hope for; that is, there is always hope\nthat they will turn to better ways. That is why I came to look for you\nhere. I will be your mamma.\"\n\n\"Oh, how delightful!\" shouted Pinocchio, jumping for joy.\n\n\"You must obey me and do everything that I bid you.\"\n\n\"Willingly, willingly, willingly!\"\n\n\"Tomorrow,\" rejoined the Fairy, \"you will begin to go to school.\"\n\nPinocchio became at once a little less joyful.\n\n\"Then you must choose an art, or a trade, according to your own wishes.\"\n\nPinocchio became very grave.\n\n\"What are you muttering between your teeth?\" asked the Fairy in an\nangry voice.\n\n\"I was saying,\" moaned the puppet in a low voice, \"that it seemed to me\ntoo late for me to go to school now.\"\n\n\"No, sir. Keep it in mind that it is never too late to learn and to\ninstruct ourselves.\"\n\n\"But I do not wish to follow either an art or a trade.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because it tires me to work.\"\n\n\"My boy,\" said the Fairy, \"those who talk in that way end almost always\neither in prison or in the hospital. Let me tell you that every man,\nwhether he is born rich or poor, is obliged to do something in this\nworld--to occupy himself, to work. Woe to those who lead slothful lives.\nSloth is a dreadful illness and must be cured at once, in childhood. If\nnot, when we are old it can never be cured.\"\n\nPinocchio was touched by these words and, lifting his head quickly, he\nsaid to the Fairy:\n\n\"I will study, I will work, I will do all that you tell me, for indeed I\nhave become weary of being a puppet, and I wish at any price to become a\nboy. You promised me that I should, did you not?\"\n\n\"I did promise you, and it now depends upon yourself.\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\nTHE TERRIBLE DOG-FISH\n\n\nThe following day Pinocchio went to the government school. Imagine the\ndelight of all the little rogues, when they saw a puppet walk into their\nschool! They set up a roar of laughter that never ended. They played him\nall sorts of tricks. One boy carried off his cap, another pulled his\njacket behind; one tried to give him a pair of inky mustachios just\nunder his nose, and another attempted to tie strings to his feet and\nhands to make him dance.\n\nFor a short time Pinocchio pretended not to care and got on as well as\nhe could; but at last, losing all patience, he turned to those who were\nteasing him most and making game of him, and said to them, looking very\nangry:\n\n\"Beware, boys! I have not come here to be your buffoon. I respect\nothers, and I intend to be respected.\"\n\n[Illustration: \"Oh, I Am Sick of Being a Puppet!\" Cried Pinocchio]\n\n\"Well said, boaster! You have spoken like a book!\" howled the young\nrascals, convulsed with mad laughter, and one of them, more impertinent\nthan the others, stretched out his hand, intending to seize the puppet\nby the end of his nose.\n\nBut he was not in time, for Pinocchio stuck his leg out from under the\ntable and gave him a great kick on his shins.\n\n\"Oh, what hard feet!\" roared the boy, rubbing the bruise that the puppet\nhad given him.\n\n\"And what elbows! even harder than his feet!\" said another, who for his\nrude tricks had received a blow in the stomach.\n\nBut, nevertheless, the kick and the blow acquired at once for Pinocchio\nthe sympathy and the esteem of all the boys in the school. They all made\nfriends with him and liked him heartily.\n\nAnd even the master praised him, for he found him attentive, studious\nand intelligent--always the first to come to school, and the last to\nleave when school was over.\n\nBut he had one fault: he made too many friends, and amongst them were\nseveral young rascals well known for their dislike to study and love of\nmischief.\n\nThe master warned him every day, and even the good Fairy never failed to\ntell him and to repeat constantly:\n\n\"Take care, Pinocchio! Those bad school-fellows of yours will end sooner\nor later by making you lose all love of study, and perhaps they may even\nbring upon you some great misfortune.\"\n\n\"There is no fear of that!\" answered the puppet, shrugging his shoulders\nand touching his forehead as much as to say: \"There is so much sense\nhere!\"\n\nNow it happened that one fine day, as he was on his way to school, he\nmet several of his usual companions who, coming up to him, asked:\n\n\"Have you heard the great news?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"In the sea near here a Dog-Fish has appeared as big as a mountain.\"\n\n\"Not really? Can it be the same Dog-Fish that was there when my papa was\ndrowned?\"\n\n\"We are going to the shore to see him. Will you come with us?\"\n\n\"No; I am going to school.\"\n\n\"What matters school? We can go to school tomorrow. Whether we have a\nlesson more or a lesson less, we shall always remain the same donkeys.\"\n\n\"But what will the master say?\"\n\n\"The master may say what he likes. He is paid on purpose to grumble all\nday.\"\n\n\"And my mamma?\"\n\n\"Mammas know nothing,\" answered those bad little boys.\n\n\"Do you know what I will do?\" said Pinocchio. \"I have reasons for\nwishing to see the Dog-Fish, but I will go and see him when school is\nover.\"\n\n\"Poor donkey!\" exclaimed one of the number. \"Do you suppose that a fish\nof that size will wait your convenience? As soon as he is tired of being\nhere he will start for another place, and then it will be too late.\"\n\n\"How long does it take to go from here to the shore?\" asked the puppet.\n\n\"We can be there and back in an hour.\"\n\n\"Then away!\" shouted Pinocchio, \"and he who runs fastest is the best!\"\n\nHaving thus given the signal to start, the boys, with their books and\ncopy-books under their arms, rushed off across the fields, and Pinocchio\nwas always the first--he seemed to have wings to his feet.\n\nFrom time to time he turned to jeer at his companions, who were some\ndistance behind, and, seeing them panting for breath, covered with dust,\nand their tongues hanging out of their mouths, he laughed heartily. The\nunfortunate boy little knew what terrors and horrible disasters he was\ngoing to meet with!\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\nPINOCCHIO IS ARRESTED BY THE GENDARMES\n\n\nWhen he arrived on the shore Pinocchio looked out to sea, but he saw no\nDog-Fish. The sea was as smooth as a great crystal mirror.\n\n\"Where is the Dog-Fish?\" he asked, turning to his companions.\n\n\"He must have gone to have his breakfast,\" said one of them, laughing.\n\n\"Or he has thrown himself on to his bed to have a little nap,\" added\nanother, laughing still louder.\n\nFrom their absurd answers and silly laughter Pinocchio perceived that\nhis companions had been making a fool of him, in inducing him to believe\na tale with no truth in it. Taking it very badly, he said to them\nangrily:\n\n\"And now, may I ask what fun you could find in deceiving me with the\nstory of the Dog-Fish?\"\n\n\"Oh, it was great fun!\" answered the little rascals in chorus.\n\n\"And in what did it consist?\"\n\n\"In making you miss school and persuading you to come with us. Are you\nnot ashamed of being always so punctual and so diligent with your\nlessons? Are you not ashamed of studying so hard?\"\n\n\"And if I study hard, what concern is it of yours?\"\n\n\"It concerns us excessively, because it makes us appear in a bad light\nto the master.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because boys who study make those who, like us, have no wish to learn,\nseem worse by comparison. And that is too bad. We, too, have our pride!\"\n\n\"Then what must I do to please you?\"\n\n\"You must follow our example and hate school, lessons, and the\nmaster--our three greatest enemies.\"\n\n\"And if I wish to continue my studies?\"\n\n\"In that case we will have nothing more to do with you, and at the first\nopportunity we will make you pay for it.\"\n\n\"Really,\" said the puppet, shaking his head, \"you make me inclined to\nlaugh.\"\n\n\"Eh, Pinocchio\" shouted the biggest of the boys, confronting him. \"None\nof your superior airs: don't come here to crow over us, for if you are\nnot afraid of us, we are not afraid of you. Remember that you are one\nagainst seven of us.\"\n\n\"Seven, like the seven deadly sins,\" said Pinocchio, with a shout of\nlaughter.\n\n\"Listen to him! He has insulted us all! He called us the seven deadly\nsins!\"\n\n\"Take that to begin with and keep it for your supper tonight,\" said one\nof the boys.\n\nAnd, so saying, he gave him a blow on the head with his fist.\n\nBut it was give and take; for the puppet, as was to be expected,\nimmediately returned the blow, and the fight in a moment became general\nand desperate.\n\nPinocchio, although he was one alone, defended himself like a hero. He\nused his feet, which were of the hardest wood, to such purpose that he\nkept his enemies at a respectful distance. Wherever they touched they\nleft a bruise by way of reminder.\n\nThe boys, becoming furious at not being able to measure themselves hand\nto hand with the puppet, had recourse to other weapons. Loosening their\nsatchels, they commenced throwing their school-books at him--grammars,\ndictionaries, spelling-books, geography books, and other scholastic\nworks. But Pinocchio was quick and had sharp eyes, and always managed to\nduck in time, so that the books passed over his head and all fell into\nthe sea.\n\nImagine the astonishment of the fish! Thinking that the books were\nsomething to eat they all arrived in shoals, but, having tasted a page\nor two, or a frontispiece, they spat it quickly out and made a wry face\nthat seemed to say: \"It isn't food for us; we are accustomed to\nsomething much better!\"\n\nThe battle meantime had become fiercer than ever, when a big crab, who\nhad come out of the water and had climbed slowly up on the shore, called\nout in a hoarse voice that sounded like a trumpet with a bad cold:\n\n[Illustration: FOUR RABBITS AS BLACK AS INK ENTERED CARRYING A LITTLE\nBIER]\n\n\"Have done with that, you young ruffians, for you are nothing else!\nThese hand-to-hand fights between boys seldom finish well. Some disaster\nis sure to happen!\"\n\nPoor crab! He might as well have preached to the wind. Even that young\nrascal, Pinocchio, turning around, looked at him mockingly and said\nrudely:\n\n\"Hold your tongue, you tiresome crab! You had better suck some liquorice\nlozenges to cure that cold in your throat.\"\n\nJust then the boys, who had no more books of their own to throw, spied\nat a little distance the satchel that belonged to Pinocchio, and took\npossession of it.\n\nAmongst the books there was one bound in strong cardboard with the back\nand points of parchment. It was a Treatise on Arithmetic.\n\nOne of the boys seized this volume and, aiming at Pinocchio's head,\nthrew it at him with all the force he could muster. But instead of\nhitting the puppet it struck one of his companions on the temple, who,\nturning as white as a sheet, said only:\n\n\"Oh, mother! help, I am dying!\" and fell his whole length on the sand.\nThinking he was dead, the terrified boys ran off as hard as their legs\ncould carry them and in a few minutes they were out of sight.\n\nBut Pinocchio remained. Although from grief and fright he was more dead\nthan alive, nevertheless he ran and soaked his handkerchief in the sea\nand began to bathe the temples of his poor school-fellow. Crying\nbitterly in his despair, he kept calling him by name and saying to him:\n\n\"Eugene! my poor Eugene! Open your eyes and look at me! Why do you not\nanswer? I did not do it; indeed it was not I that hurt you so! believe\nme, it was not! Open your eyes, Eugene. If you keep your eyes shut I\nshall die, too. Oh! what shall I do? how shall I ever return home? How\ncan I ever have the courage to go back to my good mamma? What will\nbecome of me? Where can I fly to? Oh! how much better it would have\nbeen, a thousand times better, if I had only gone to school! Why did I\nlisten to my companions? they have been my ruin. The master said to me,\nand my mamma repeated it often: 'Beware of bad companions!' Oh, dear!\nwhat will become of me, what will become of me, what will become of me?\"\n\nAnd Pinocchio began to cry and sob, and to strike his head with his\nfists, and to call poor Eugene by his name. Suddenly he heard the sound\nof approaching footsteps.\n\nHe turned and saw two soldiers.\n\n\"What are you doing there, lying on the ground?\" they asked Pinocchio.\n\n\"I am helping my school-fellow.\"\n\n\"Has he been hurt?\"\n\n\"So it seems.\"\n\n\"Hurt indeed!\" said one of them, stooping down and examining Eugene\nclosely.\n\n\"This boy has been wounded in the temple. Who wounded him?\"\n\n\"Not I,\" stammered the puppet breathlessly.\n\n\"If it was not you, who then did it?\"\n\n\"Not I,\" repeated Pinocchio.\n\n\"And with what was he wounded?\"\n\n\"With this book.\" And the puppet picked up from the ground the Treatise\non Arithmetic, bound in cardboard and parchment, and showed it to the\nsoldier.\n\n\"And to whom does this belong?\"\n\n\"To me.\"\n\n\"That is enough, nothing more is wanted. Get up and come with us at\nonce.\"\n\n\"But I--\"\n\n\"Come along with us!\"\n\n\"But I am innocent.\"\n\n\"Come along with us!\"\n\nBefore they left, the soldiers called some fishermen who were passing at\nthat moment near the shore in their boat, and said to them:\n\n\"We give this boy who has been wounded in the head in your charge. Carry\nhim to your house and nurse him. Tomorrow we will come and see him.\"\n\nThey then turned to Pinocchio and, having placed him between them, they\nsaid to him in a commanding voice:\n\n\"Forward! and walk quickly, or it will be the worse for you.\"\n\nWithout requiring it to be repeated, the puppet set out along the road\nleading to the village. But the poor little devil hardly knew where he\nwas. He thought he must be dreaming, and what a dreadful dream! He was\nbeside himself. He saw double; his legs shook; his tongue clung to the\nroof of his mouth, and he could not utter a word. And yet, in the midst\nof his stupefaction and apathy, his heart was pierced by a cruel\nthorn--the thought that he would pass under the windows of the good\nFairy's house between the soldiers. He would rather have died.\n\nThey had already reached the village when a gust of wind blew\nPinocchio's cap off his head and carried it ten yards off.\n\n\"Will you permit me,\" said the puppet to the soldiers, \"to go and get\nmy cap?\"\n\n\"Go, then; but be quick about it.\"\n\nThe puppet went and picked up his cap, but instead of putting it on his\nhead he took it between his teeth and began to run as hard as he could\ntowards the seashore.\n\nThe soldiers, thinking it would be difficult to overtake him, sent after\nhim a large mastiff who had won the first prizes at all the dog races.\nPinocchio ran, but the dog ran faster. The people came to their windows\nand crowded into the street in their anxiety to see the end of the\ndesperate race.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII\n\nPINOCCHIO ESCAPES BEING FRIED LIKE A FISH\n\n\nThere came a moment in this desperate race--a terrible moment--when\nPinocchio thought himself lost: for Alidoro, the mastiff, had run so\nswiftly that he had nearly come up with him.\n\nThe puppet could hear the panting of the dreadful beast close behind\nhim; there was not a hand's breadth between them, he could even feel the\ndog's hot breath.\n\nFortunately the shore was close and the sea but a few steps off.\n\nAs soon as he reached the sands the puppet made a wonderful leap--a frog\ncould have done no better--and plunged into the water.\n\nAlidoro, on the contrary, wished to stop himself, but, carried away by\nthe impetus of the race, he also went into the sea. The unfortunate dog\ncould not swim, but he made great efforts to keep himself afloat with\nhis paws; but the more he struggled the farther he sank head downwards\nunder the water.\n\nWhen he rose to the surface again his eyes were rolling with terror, and\nhe barked out:\n\n\"I am drowning! I am drowning!\"\n\n\"Drown!\" shouted Pinocchio from a distance, seeing himself safe from all\ndanger.\n\n\"Help me, dear Pinocchio! Save me from death!\"\n\nAt that agonizing cry the puppet, who had in reality an excellent heart,\nwas moved with compassion, and, turning to the dog, he said:\n\n\"But if I save your life, will you promise to give me no further\nannoyance, and not to run after me?\"\n\n\"I promise! I promise! Be quick, for pity's sake, for if you delay\nanother half-minute I shall be dead.\"\n\nPinocchio hesitated; but, remembering that his father had often told him\nthat a good action is never lost, he swam to Alidoro, and, taking hold\nof his tail with both hands, brought him safe and sound on to the dry\nsand of the beach.\n\nThe poor dog could not stand. He had drunk so much salt water that he\nwas like a balloon. The puppet, however, not wishing to trust him too\nfar, thought it more prudent to jump again into the water. When he had\nswum some distance from the shore he called out to the friend he had\nrescued:\n\n\"Good-bye, Alidoro; a good journey to you, and take my compliments to\nall at home.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, Pinocchio,\" answered the dog; \"a thousand thanks for having\nsaved my life. You have done me a great service, and in this world what\nis given is returned. If an occasion offers I shall not forget it.\"\n\nPinocchio swam on, keeping always near the land. At last he thought that\nhe had reached a safe place. Giving a look along the shore, he saw\namongst the rocks a kind of cave from which a cloud of smoke was\nascending.\n\n\"In that cave,\" he said to himself, \"there must be a fire. So much the\nbetter. I will go and dry and warm myself, and then? and then we shall\nsee.\"\n\nHaving taken the resolution he approached the rocks, but, as he was\ngoing to climb up, he felt something under the water that rose higher\nand higher and carried him into the air. He tried to escape, but it was\ntoo late, for, to his extreme surprise, he found himself enclosed in a\ngreat net, together with a swarm of fish of every size and shape, who\nwere flapping and struggling like so many despairing souls.\n\nAt the same moment a fisherman came out of the cave; he was so ugly, so\nhorribly ugly, that he looked like a sea monster. Instead of hair his\nhead was covered with a thick bush of green grass, his skin was green,\nhis eyes were green, his long beard that came down to the ground was\nalso green. He had the appearance of an immense lizard standing on its\nhind-paws.\n\nWhen the fisherman had drawn his net out of the sea, he exclaimed with\ngreat satisfaction:\n\n\"Thank Heaven! Again today I shall have a splendid feast of fish!\"\n\n\"What a mercy that I am not a fish!\" said Pinocchio to himself,\nregaining a little courage.\n\nThe netful of fish was carried into the cave, which was dark and smoky.\nIn the middle of the cave a large frying-pan full of oil was frying and\nsending out a smell of mushrooms that was suffocating.\n\n\"Now we will see what fish we have taken!\" said the green fisherman,\nand, putting into the net an enormous hand, so out of all proportion\nthat it looked like a baker's shovel, he pulled out a handful of fish.\n\n\"These fish are good!\" he said, looking at them and smelling them\ncomplacently. And after he had smelled them he threw them into a pan\nwithout water.\n\nHe repeated the same operation many times, and as he drew out the fish\nhis mouth watered and he said, chuckling to himself:\n\n\"What good whiting!\"\n\n\"What exquisite sardines!\"\n\n\"These soles are delicious!\"\n\n\"And these crabs excellent!\"\n\n\"What dear little anchovies!\"\n\nThe last to remain in the net was Pinocchio.\n\nNo sooner had the fisherman taken him out than he opened his big green\neyes with astonishment and cried, half frightened:\n\n\"What species of fish is this? Fish of this kind I never remember to\nhave eaten.\"\n\nAnd he looked at him again attentively and, having examined him well all\nover, he ended by saying:\n\n\"I know: he must be a craw-fish.\"\n\nPinocchio, mortified at being mistaken for a craw-fish, said in an angry\nvoice:\n\n\"A craw-fish indeed! Do you take me for a craw-fish? what treatment! Let\nme tell you that I am a puppet.\"\n\n\"A puppet?\" replied the fisherman. \"To tell the truth, a puppet is\nquite a new fish for me. All the better! I shall eat you with greater\npleasure.\"\n\n\"Eat me! but will you understand that I am not a fish? Do you hear that\nI talk and reason as you do?\"\n\n\"That is quite true,\" said the fisherman; \"and as I see that you are a\nfish possessed of the talent of talking and reasoning as I do, I will\ntreat you with all the attention that is your due.\"\n\n\"And this attention?\"\n\n\"In token of my friendship and particular regard, I will leave you the\nchoice of how you would like to be cooked. Would you like to be fried in\nthe frying-pan, or would you prefer to be stewed with tomato sauce?\"\n\n\"To tell the truth,\" answered Pinocchio, \"if I am to choose, I should\nprefer to be set at liberty and to return home.\"\n\n\"You are joking! Do you imagine that I would lose the opportunity of\ntasting such a rare fish? It is not every day, I assure you, that a\npuppet fish is caught in these waters. Leave it to me. I will fry you in\nthe frying-pan with the other fish, and you will be quite satisfied. It\nis always consolation to be fried in company.\"\n\nAt this speech the unhappy Pinocchio began to cry and scream and to\nimplore for mercy, and he said, sobbing: \"How much better it would have\nbeen if I had gone to school! I would listen to my companions and now I\nam paying for it.\"\n\nAnd he wriggled like an eel and made indescribable efforts to slip out\nof the clutches of the green fisherman. But it was useless: the\nfisherman took a long strip of rush and, having bound his hands and feet\nas if he had been a sausage, he threw him into the pan with the other\nfish.\n\nHe then fetched a wooden bowl full of flour and began to flour them\neach in turn, and as soon as they were ready he threw them into the\nfrying-pan.\n\nThe first to dance in the boiling oil were the poor whitings; the crabs\nfollowed, then the sardines, then the soles, then the anchovies, and at\nlast it was Pinocchio's turn. Seeing himself so near death, and such a\nhorrible death, he was so frightened, and trembled so violently, that he\nhad neither voice nor breath left for further entreaties.\n\nBut the poor boy implored with his eyes! The green fisherman, however,\nwithout caring in the least, plunged him five or six times in the flour,\nuntil he was white from head to foot and looked like a puppet made of\nplaster.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXIX\n\nHE RETURNS TO THE FAIRY'S HOUSE\n\n\nJust as the fisherman was on the point of throwing Pinocchio into the\nfrying-pan a large dog entered the cave, enticed there by the strong and\nsavory odor of fried fish.\n\n\"Get out!\" shouted the fisherman, threateningly, holding the floured\npuppet in his hand.\n\nBut the poor dog, who was as hungry as a wolf, whined and wagged his\ntail as much as to say:\n\n\"Give me a mouthful of fish and I will leave you in peace.\"\n\n\"Get out, I tell you!\" repeated the fisherman and he stretched out his\nleg to give him a kick.\n\nBut the dog, who, when he was really hungry, would not stand trifling,\nturned upon him, growling and showing his terrible tusks.\n\nAt that moment a little feeble voice was heard in the cave, saying\nentreatingly:\n\n\"Save me, Alidoro! If you do not save me I shall be fried!\"\n\nThe dog recognized Pinocchio's voice and, to his extreme surprise,\nperceived that it proceeded from the floured bundle that the fisherman\nheld in his hand.\n\nSo what do you think he did? He made a spring, seized the bundle in his\nmouth, and, holding it gently between his teeth, he rushed out of the\ncave and was gone like a flash of lightning.\n\nThe fisherman, furious at seeing a fish he was so anxious to eat\nsnatched from him, ran after the dog, but he had not gone many steps\nwhen he was taken with a fit of coughing and had to give it up.\n\nAlidoro, when he had reached the path that led to the village, stopped\nand put his friend Pinocchio gently on the ground.\n\n\"How much I have to thank you for!\" said the puppet.\n\n\"There is no necessity,\" replied the dog. \"You saved me and I have now\nreturned it. You know that we must all help each other in this world.\"\n\n\"But how came you to come to the cave?\"\n\n\"I was lying on the shore more dead than alive when the wind brought to\nme the smell of fried fish. The smell excited my appetite and I followed\nit up. If I had arrived a second later--\"\n\n\"Do not mention it!\" groaned Pinocchio, who was still trembling with\nfright. \"Do not mention it! If you had arrived a second later I should\nby this time have been fried, eaten and digested. Brrr! It makes me\nshudder only to think of it!\"\n\nAlidoro, laughing, extended his right paw to the puppet, who shook it\nheartily in token of great friendship, and they then separated.\n\nThe dog took the road home, and Pinocchio, left alone, went to a cottage\nnot far off and said to a little old man who was warming himself in the\nsun:\n\n\"Tell me, good man, do you know anything of a poor boy called Eugene who\nwas wounded in the head?\"\n\n\"The boy was brought by some fishermen to this cottage, and now--\"\n\n\"And now he is dead!\" interrupted Pinocchio with great sorrow.\n\n\"No, he is alive and has returned to his home.\"\n\n\"Not really? not really?\" cried the puppet, dancing with delight. \"Then\nthe wound was not serious?\"\n\n\"It might have been very serious and even fatal,\" answered the little\nold man, \"for they threw a thick book bound in cardboard at his head.\"\n\n\"And who threw it at him?\"\n\n\"One of his school-fellows, a certain Pinocchio.\"\n\n\"And who is this Pinocchio?\" asked the puppet, pretending ignorance.\n\n\"They say that he is a bad boy, a vagabond, a regular good-for-nothing.\"\n\n\"Calumnies! all calumnies!\"\n\n\"Do you know this Pinocchio?\"\n\n\"By sight!\" answered the puppet.\n\n\"And what is your opinion of him?\" asked the little man.\n\n\"He seems to me to be a very good boy, anxious to learn, and obedient\nand affectionate to his father and family.\"\n\nWhilst the puppet was firing off all these lies, he touched his nose and\nperceived that it had lengthened more than a hand. Very much alarmed he\nbegan to cry out:\n\n\"Don't believe, good man, what I have been telling you. I know Pinocchio\nvery well and I can assure you that he is a very bad boy, disobedient\nand idle, who, instead of going to school, runs off with his companions\nto amuse himself.\"\n\nHe had hardly finished speaking when his nose became shorter and\nreturned to the same size that it was before.\n\n\"And why are you all covered with white?\" asked the old man suddenly.\n\n\"I will tell you. Without observing it I rubbed myself against a wall\nwhich had been freshly whitewashed,\" answered the puppet, ashamed to\nconfess that he had been floured like a fish prepared for the\nfrying-pan.\n\n\"And what have you done with your jacket, your trousers, and your cap?\"\n\n\"I met with robbers, who took them from me. Tell me, good old man, could\nyou perhaps give me some clothes to return home in?\"\n\n\"My boy, as to clothes, I have nothing but a little sack in which I keep\nbeans. If you wish for it, take it; there it is.\"\n\nPinocchio did not wait to be told twice. He took the sack at once and\nwith a pair of scissors he cut a hole at the end and at each side, and\nput it on like a shirt. And with this slight clothing he set off for the\nvillage.\n\nBut as he went he did not feel at all comfortable--so little so, indeed,\nthat for a step forward he took another backwards, and he said, talking\nto himself:\n\n\"How shall I ever present myself to my good little Fairy? What will she\nsay when she sees me? Will she forgive me this second escapade? Oh, I am\nsure that she will not forgive me! And it serves me right, for I am a\nrascal. I am always promising to correct myself and I never keep my\nword!\"\n\nWhen he reached the village it was night and very dark. A storm had come\non and as the rain was coming down in torrents he went straight to the\nFairy's house, resolved to knock at the door.\n\nBut when he was there his courage failed him and instead of knocking he\nran away some twenty paces. He returned to the door a second time and\nlaid hold of the knocker, and, trembling, gave a little knock.\n\nHe waited and waited. At last, after half an hour had passed, a window\non the top floor was opened--the house was four stories high--and\nPinocchio saw a big Snail with a lighted candle on her head looking out.\nShe called to him:\n\n\"Who is there at this hour?\"\n\n\"Is the Fairy at home?\" asked the puppet.\n\n\"The Fairy is asleep and must not be awakened; but who are you?\"\n\n\"It is I.\"\n\n\"Who is I?\"\n\n\"Pinocchio.\"\n\n\"And who is Pinocchio?\"\n\n\"The puppet who lives in the Fairy's house.\"\n\n\"Ah, I understand!\" said the Snail. \"Wait for me there. I will come down\nand open the door directly.\"\n\n\"Be quick, for pity's sake, for I am dying of cold.\"\n\n\"My boy, I am a snail, and snails are never in a hurry.\"\n\nAn hour passed, and then two, and the door was not opened. Pinocchio,\nwho was wet through and through, and trembling from cold and fear, at\nlast took courage and knocked again, and this time he knocked louder.\n\nAt this second knock a window on the lower story opened and the same\nSnail appeared at it.\n\n\"Beautiful little Snail,\" cried Pinocchio from the street, \"I have been\nwaiting for two hours! And two hours on such a bad night seem longer\nthan two years. Be quick, for pity's sake.\"\n\n\"My boy,\" answered the calm little animal--\"my boy, I am a snail, and\nsnails are never in a hurry.\"\n\nAnd the window was shut again.\n\nShortly afterwards midnight struck; then one o'clock, then two o'clock,\nand the door remained still closed.\n\nPinocchio at last, losing all patience, seized the knocker in a rage,\nintending to give a blow that would resound through the house. But the\nknocker, which was iron, turned suddenly into an eel and, slipping out\nof his hands, disappeared in the stream of water that ran down the\nmiddle of the street.\n\n\"Ah! is that it?\" shouted Pinocchio, blind with rage. \"Since the knocker\nhas disappeared, I will kick instead with all my might.\"\n\nAnd, drawing a little back, he gave a tremendous kick against the house\ndoor. The blow was indeed so violent that his foot went through the wood\nand stuck; and when he tried to draw it back again it was trouble thrown\naway, for it remained fixed like a nail that has been hammered down.\n\nThink of poor Pinocchio! He was obliged to spend the remainder of the\nnight with one foot on the ground and the other in the air.\n\nThe following morning at daybreak the door was at last opened. The\nclever little Snail had taken only nine hours to come down from the\nfourth story to the house-door. It is evident that her exertions must\nhave been great.\n\n\"What are you doing with your foot stuck in the door?\" she asked the\npuppet.\n\n\"It was an accident. Do try, beautiful little Snail, if you cannot\nrelease me from this torture.\"\n\n\"My boy, that is the work of a carpenter, and I have never been a\ncarpenter.\"\n\n\"Beg the Fairy from me!\"\n\n\"The Fairy is asleep and must not be awakened.\"\n\n\"But what do you suppose that I can do all day nailed to this door?\"\n\n\"Amuse yourself by counting the ants that pass down the street.\"\n\n\"Bring me at least something to eat, for I am quite exhausted.\"\n\n\"At once,\" said the Snail.\n\nIn fact, after three hours and a half she returned to Pinocchio carrying\na silver tray on her head. The tray contained a loaf of bread, a roast\nchicken, and four ripe apricots.\n\n\"Here is the breakfast that the Fairy has sent you,\" said the Snail.\n\nThe puppet felt very much comforted at the sight of these good things.\nBut when he began to eat them, what was his disgust at making the\ndiscovery that the bread was plaster, the chicken cardboard, and the\nfour apricots painted alabaster.\n\nHe wanted to cry. In his desperation he tried to throw away the tray and\nall that was on it; but instead, either from grief or exhaustion, he\nfainted away.\n\nWhen he came to himself he found that he was lying on a sofa, and the\nFairy was beside him.\n\n\"I will pardon you once more,\" the Fairy said, \"but woe to you if you\nbehave badly a third time!\"\n\nPinocchio promised and swore that he would study, and that for the\nfuture he would always conduct himself well.\n\nAnd he kept his word for the remainder of the year. Indeed, at the\nexaminations before the holidays, he had the honor of being the first in\nthe school, and his behavior in general was so satisfactory and\npraiseworthy that the Fairy was very much pleased, and said to him:\n\n\"Tomorrow your wish shall be gratified.\"\n\n\"And that is?\"\n\n\"Tomorrow you shall cease to be a wooden puppet and you shall become a\nboy.\"\n\nNo one who had not witnessed it could ever imagine Pinocchio's joy at\nthis long-sighed-for good fortune. All his school-fellows were to be\ninvited for the following day to a grand breakfast at the Fairy's house,\nthat they might celebrate together the great event. The Fairy had\nprepared two hundred cups of coffee and milk, and four hundred rolls cut\nand buttered on each side. The day promised to be most happy and\ndelightful, but--\n\nUnfortunately in the lives of puppets there is always a \"but\" that\nspoils everything.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXX\n\nTHE \"LAND OF BOOBIES\"\n\n\nPinocchio, as was natural, asked the Fairy's permission to go round the\ntown to give out the invitations, and the Fairy said to him:\n\n\"Go, if you like, and invite your companions for the breakfast tomorrow,\nbut remember to return home before dark. Have you understood?\"\n\n\"I promise to be back in an hour,\" answered the puppet.\n\n\"Take care, Pinocchio! Boys are always very ready to promise, but\ngenerally they are little given to keep their word.\"\n\n\"But I am not like other boys. When I say a thing, I do it.\"\n\n\"We shall see. If you are disobedient, so much the worse for you.\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"Because boys who do not listen to the advice of those who know more\nthan they do always meet with some misfortune or other.\"\n\n\"I have experienced that,\" said Pinocchio, \"but I shall never make that\nmistake again.\"\n\n\"We shall see if that is true.\"\n\nWithout saying more the puppet took leave of his good Fairy, who was\nlike a mamma to him, and went out of the house singing and dancing.\n\nIn less than an hour all his friends were invited. Some accepted at once\nheartily; others at first required pressing; but when they heard that\nthe rolls to be eaten with the coffee were to be buttered on both sides\nthey ended by saying:\n\n\"We will come also, to do you a pleasure.\"\n\nNow I must tell you that amongst Pinocchio's friends and school-fellows\nthere was one that he greatly preferred and was very fond of. This boy's\nname was Romeo, but he always went by the nickname of Candlewick,\nbecause he was so thin, straight and bright, like the new wick of a\nlittle nightlight.\n\nCandlewick was the laziest and the naughtiest boy in the school, but\nPinocchio was devoted to him. He had indeed gone at once to his house to\ninvite him to the breakfast, but he had not found him. He returned a\nsecond time, but Candlewick was not there. He went a third time, but it\nwas in vain. Where could he search for him? He looked here, there, and\neverywhere, and at last he saw him hiding on the porch of a peasant's\ncottage.\n\n\"What are you doing there?\" asked Pinocchio, coming up to him.\n\n\"I am waiting for midnight, to start away.\"\n\n\"And where are you going?\"\n\n\"I am going to live in a country--the most delightful country in the\nworld: a real land of sweetmeats!\"\n\n\"And what is it called?\"\n\n\"It is called the 'Land of Boobies.' Why do you not come, too?\"\n\n\"I? No, never!\"\n\n\"You are wrong, Pinocchio. If you do not come you will repent it. Where\ncould you find a better country for us boys? There are no schools there;\nthere are no masters; there are no books. In that delightful land nobody\never studies. On Saturday there is never school, and every week consists\nof six Saturdays and one Sunday. Only think, the autumn holidays begin\non the first of January and finish on the last day of December. That is\nthe country for me! That is what all civilized countries should be\nlike!\"\n\n\"But how are the days spent in the 'Land of Boobies'?\"\n\nThey are spent in play and amusement from morning till night. When night\ncomes you go to bed, and recommence the same life in the morning. What\ndo you think of it?\"\n\n\"Hum!\" said Pinocchio, and he shook his head slightly, as much as to\nsay, \"That is a life that I also would willingly lead.\"\n\n\"Well, will you go with me? Yes or no? Resolve quickly.\"\n\n\"No, no, no, and again no. I promised my good Fairy to become a well\nconducted boy, and I will keep my word. And as I see that the sun is\nsetting I must leave you at once and run away. Good-bye, and a pleasant\njourney to you.\"\n\n\"Where are you rushing off to in such a hurry?\"\n\n\"Home. My good Fairy wishes me to be back before dark.\"\n\n\"Wait another two minutes.\"\n\n\"It will make me too late.\"\n\n\"Only two minutes.\"\n\n\"And if the Fairy scolds me?\"\n\n\"Let her scold. When she has scolded well she will hold her tongue,\"\nsaid that rascal Candlewick.\n\n\"And what are you going to do? Are you going alone or with companions?\"\n\n\"Alone? Indeed not, there will be more than a hundred boys.\"\n\n\"And do you make the journey on foot?\"\n\n\"A coach will pass by shortly which is to take me to that happy\ncountry.\"\n\n\"What would I not give for the coach to pass by now!\"\n\n\"Why?\"\n\n\"That I might see you all start together.\"\n\n\"Stay here a little longer and you will see us.\"\n\n\"No, no, I must go home.\"\n\n\"Wait another two minutes.\"\n\n\"I have already delayed too long. The Fairy will be anxious about me.\"\n\n\"Poor Fairy! Is she afraid that the bats will eat you?\"\n\n\"But now,\" continued Pinocchio, \"are you really certain that there are\nno schools in that country?\"\n\n\"Not even the shadow of one.\"\n\n\"And no masters either?\"\n\n\"Not one.\"\n\n\"And no one is ever made to study?\"\n\n\"Never, never, never!\"\n\n\"What a delightful country!\" said Pinocchio, his mouth watering. \"What a\ndelightful country! I have never been there, but I can quite imagine\nit.\"\n\n\"Why will you not come also?\"\n\n\"It is useless to tempt me. I promised my good Fairy to become a\nsensible boy, and I will not break my word.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, then, and give my compliments to all the boys at school, if\nyou meet them in the street.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, Candlewick; a pleasant journey to you; amuse yourself, and\nthink sometimes of your friends.\"\n\nThus saying, the puppet made two steps to go, but then stopped, and,\nturning to his friend, he inquired:\n\n\"But are you quite certain that in that country all the weeks consist of\nsix Saturdays and one Sunday?\"\n\n\"Most certainly.\"\n\n\"But do you know for certain that the holidays begin on the first of\nJanuary and finish on the last day of December?\"\n\n\"Assuredly.\"\n\n\"What a delightful country!\" repeated Pinocchio, looking enchanted.\nThen, with a resolute air, he added in a great hurry:\n\n\"This time really good-bye, and a pleasant journey to you.\"\n\n\"Good-bye.\"\n\n\"When do you start?\"\n\n\"Shortly.\"\n\n\"What a pity! If really it wanted only an hour to the time of your\nstart, I should almost be tempted to wait.\"\n\n\"And the Fairy?\"\n\n\"It is already late. If I return home an hour sooner or later it will\nbe all the same.\"\n\n\"Poor Pinocchio! And if the Fairy scolds you?\"\n\n\"I must have patience! I will let her scold. When she has scolded well\nshe will hold her tongue.\"\n\nIn the meantime night had come on and it was quite dark. Suddenly they\nsaw in the distance a small light moving and they heard a noise of\ntalking, and the sound of a trumpet, but so small and feeble that it\nresembled the hum of a mosquito.\n\n\"Here it is!\" shouted Candlewick, jumping to his feet.\n\n\"What is it?\" asked Pinocchio in a whisper.\n\n\"It is the coach coming to take me. Now will you come, yes or no?\"\n\n\"But is it really true,\" asked the puppet, \"that in that country boys\nare never obliged to study?\"\n\n\"Never, never, never!\"\n\n\"What a delightful country! What a delightful country! What a delightful\ncountry!\"\n\n[Illustration: THEY THOUGHT IT WOULD BE MORE COMFORTABLE TO GET ON THE\nTUNNY'S BACK]\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXI\n\nPINOCCHIO ENJOYS FIVE MONTHS OF HAPPINESS\n\n\nAt last the coach arrived, and it arrived without making the slightest\nnoise, for its wheels were bound round with flax and rags.\n\nIt was drawn by twelve pairs of donkeys, all the same size but of\ndifferent colors.\n\nSome were gray, some white, some brindled like pepper and salt, and\nothers had large stripes of yellow and blue.\n\nBut the most extraordinary thing was this: the twelve pairs, that is,\nthe twenty-four donkeys, instead of being shod like other beasts of\nburden, had on their feet men's boots made of white kid.\n\nAnd the coachman?\n\nPicture to yourself a little man broader than he was long, flabby and\ngreasy like a lump of butter, with a small round face like an orange, a\nlittle mouth that was always laughing, and a soft, caressing voice like\na cat when she is trying to insinuate herself into the good graces of\nthe mistress of the house.\n\nAll the boys vied with each other in taking places in his coach, to be\nconducted to the \"Land of Boobies.\"\n\nThe coach was, in fact, quite full of boys between eight and fourteen\nyears old, heaped one upon another like herrings in a barrel. They were\nuncomfortable, packed closely together and could hardly breathe; but\nnobody said \"Oh!\"--nobody grumbled. The consolation of knowing that in a\nfew hours they would reach a country where there were no books, no\nschools, and no masters, made them so happy and resigned that they felt\nneither fatigue nor inconvenience, neither hunger, nor thirst, nor want\nof sleep.\n\nAs soon as the coach had drawn up the little man turned to Candlewick\nand with a thousand smirks and grimaces said to him, smiling:\n\n\"Tell me, my fine boy, would you also like to go to that fortunate\ncountry?\"\n\n\"I certainly wish to go.\"\n\n\"But I must warn you, my dear child, that there is not a place left in\nthe coach. You can see for yourself that it is quite full.\"\n\n\"No matter,\" replied Candlewick, \"if there is no place inside, I will\nmanage to sit on the springs.\"\n\nAnd, giving a leap, he seated himself astride on the springs.\n\n\"And you, my love!\" said the little man, turning in a flattering manner\nto Pinocchio, \"what do you intend to do? Are you coming with us or are\nyou going to remain behind?\"\n\n\"I remain behind,\" answered Pinocchio. \"I am going home. I intend to\nstudy, as all well conducted boys do.\"\n\n\"Much good may it do you!\"\n\n\"Pinocchio!\" called out Candlewick, \"listen to me: come with us and we\nshall have such fun.\"\n\n\"No, no, no!\"\n\n\"Come with us and we shall have such fun,\" shouted in chorus a hundred\nvoices from the inside of the coach.\n\n\"But if I come with you, what will my good Fairy say?\" said the puppet,\nwho was beginning to yield.\n\n\"Do not trouble your head with melancholy thoughts. Consider only that\nwe are going to a country where we shall be at liberty to run riot from\nmorning till night.\"\n\nPinocchio did not answer, but he sighed; he sighed again; he sighed for\nthe third time, and he said finally:\n\n\"Make a little room for me, for I am coming, too.\"\n\n\"The places are all full,\" replied the little man; \"but, to show you how\nwelcome you are, you shall have my seat on the box.\"\n\n\"And you?\"\n\n\"Oh, I will go on foot.\"\n\n\"No, indeed, I could not allow that. I would rather mount one of these\ndonkeys,\" cried Pinocchio.\n\nApproaching the right-hand donkey of the first pair, he attempted to\nmount him, but the animal turned on him and, giving him a great blow in\nthe stomach, rolled him over with his legs in the air.\n\nYou can imagine the impertinent and immoderate laughter of all the boys\nwho witnessed this scene.\n\nBut the little man did not laugh. He approached the rebellious donkey\nand, pretending to give him a kiss, bit off half of his ear.\n\nPinocchio in the meantime had gotten up from the ground in a fury and,\nwith a spring, he seated himself on the poor animal's back. And he\nsprang so well that the boys stopped laughing and began to shout:\n\"Hurrah, Pinocchio!\" and they clapped their hands and applauded him as\nif they would never finish.\n\nNow that Pinocchio was mounted, the coach started. Whilst the donkeys\nwere galloping and the coach was rattling over the stones of the high\nroad, the puppet thought that he heard a low voice that was scarcely\naudible saying to him:\n\n\"Poor fool! you would follow your own way, but you will repent it!\"\n\nPinocchio, feeling almost frightened, looked from side to side to try\nand discover where these words could come from, but he saw nobody. The\ndonkeys galloped, the coach rattled, the boys inside slept, Candlewick\nsnored like a dormouse, and the little man seated on the box sang\nbetween his teeth:\n\n    \"During the night all sleep,\n        But I sleep never.\"\n\nAfter they had gone another mile, Pinocchio heard the same little low\nvoice saying to him:\n\n\"Bear it in mind, simpleton! Boys who refuse to study and turn their\nbacks upon books, schools and masters, to pass their time in play and\namusement, sooner or later come to a bad end. I know it by experience,\nand I can tell you. A day will come when you will weep as I am weeping\nnow, but then it will be too late!\"\n\nOn hearing these words whispered very softly, the puppet, more\nfrightened than ever, sprang down from the back of his donkey and went\nand took hold of his mouth.\n\nImagine his surprise when he found that the donkey was crying--crying\nlike a boy!\n\n\"Eh! Sir Coachman,\" cried Pinocchio to the little man, \"here is an\nextraordinary thing! This donkey is crying.\"\n\n\"Let him cry; he will laugh when he is a bridegroom.\"\n\n\"But have you by chance taught him to talk?\"\n\n\"No; but he spent three years in a company of learned dogs, and he\nlearned to mutter a few words.\"\n\n\"Poor beast!\"\n\n\"Come, come,\" said the little man, \"don't let us waste time in seeing a\ndonkey cry. Mount him and let us go on: the night is cold and the road\nis long.\"\n\nPinocchio obeyed without another word. In the morning about daybreak\nthey arrived safely in the \"Land of Boobies.\"\n\nIt was a country unlike any other country in the world. The population\nwas composed entirely of boys. The oldest were fourteen, and the\nyoungest scarcely eight years old. In the streets there was such\nmerriment, noise and shouting that it was enough to turn anybody's head.\nThere were troops of boys everywhere. Some were playing with nuts, some\nwith battledores, some with balls. Some rode velocipedes, others wooden\nhorses. A party were playing at hide and seek, a few were chasing each\nother. Some were reciting, some singing, some leaping. Some were amusing\nthemselves with walking on their hands with their feet in the air;\nothers were trundling hoops or strutting about dressed as generals,\nwearing leaf helmets and commanding a squadron of cardboard soldiers.\nSome were laughing, some shouting, some were calling out; others clapped\ntheir hands, or whistled, or clucked like a hen who has just laid an\negg.\n\nIn every square, canvas theaters had been erected and they were crowded\nwith boys from morning till evening. On the walls of the houses there\nwere inscriptions written in charcoal: \"Long live playthings, we will\nhave no more schools; down with arithmetic,\" and similar other fine\nsentiments, all in bad spelling.\n\nPinocchio, Candlewick and the other boys who had made the journey with\nthe little man, had scarcely set foot in the town before they were in\nthe thick of the tumult, and I need not tell you that in a few minutes\nthey had made acquaintance with everybody. Where could happier or more\ncontented boys be found?\n\nIn the midst of continual games and every variety of amusement, the\nhours, the days and the weeks passed like lightning.\n\n\"Oh, what a delightful life!\" said Pinocchio, whenever by chance he met\nCandlewick.\n\n\"See, then, if I was not right?\" replied the other. \"And to think that\nyou did not want to come! To think that you had taken it into your head\nto return home to your Fairy, and to lose your time in studying! If you\nare this moment free from the bother of books and school, you must\nacknowledge that you owe it to me, to my advice, and to my persuasions.\nIt is only friends who know how to render such great services.\"\n\n\"It is true, Candlewick! If I am now a really happy boy, it is all your\ndoing. But do you know what the master used to say when he talked to me\nof you? He always said to me: 'Do not associate with that rascal\nCandlewick, for he is a bad companion, and will only lead you into\nmischief!'\"\n\n\"Poor master!\" replied the other, shaking his head. \"I know only too\nwell that he disliked me, and amused himself by calumniating me; but I\nam generous and I forgive him!\"\n\n\"Noble soul!\" said Pinocchio, embracing his friend affectionately and\nkissing him between the eyes.\n\nThis delightful life had gone on for five months. The days had been\nentirely spent in play and amusement, without a thought of books or\nschool, when one morning Pinocchio awoke to a most disagreeable surprise\nthat put him into a very bad humor.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXII\n\nPINOCCHIO TURNS INTO A DONKEY\n\n\nThe surprise was that Pinocchio, when he awoke, scratched his head, and\nin scratching his head he discovered, to his great astonishment, that\nhis ears had grown more than a hand.\n\nYou know that the puppet from his birth had always had very small\nears--so small that they were not visible to the naked eye. You can\nimagine then what he felt when he found that during the night his ears\nhad become so long that they seemed like two brooms.\n\nHe went at once in search of a glass that he might look at himself, but,\nnot being able to find one, he filled the basin of his washing-stand\nwith water, and he saw reflected what he certainly would never have\nwished to see. He saw his head embellished with a magnificent pair of\ndonkey's ears!\n\nOnly think of poor Pinocchio's sorrow, shame and despair!\n\nHe began to cry and roar, and he beat his head against the wall, but the\nmore he cried the longer his ears grew; they grew, and grew, and became\nhairy towards the points.\n\nAt the sound of his loud outcries a beautiful little Marmot that lived\non the first floor came into the room. Seeing the puppet in such grief\nshe asked earnestly:\n\n\"What has happened to you, my dear fellow-lodger?\"\n\n\"I am ill, my dear little Marmot, very ill, and my illness frightens me.\nDo you understand counting a pulse?\"\n\n\"A little.\"\n\n\"Then feel and see if by chance I have got fever.\"\n\nThe little Marmot raised her right fore-paw, and, after having felt\nPinocchio's pulse, she said to him, sighing:\n\n\"My friend, I am grieved to be obliged to give you bad news!\"\n\n\"What is it?\"\n\n\"You have got a very bad fever!\"\n\n\"What fever is it?\"\n\n\"It is donkey fever.\"\n\n\"That is a fever that I do not understand,\" said the puppet, but he\nunderstood it only too well.\n\n\"Then I will explain it to you,\" said the Marmot. \"You must know that in\ntwo or three hours you will be no longer a puppet, or a boy.\"\n\n\"Then what shall I be?\"\n\n\"In two or three hours you will become really and truly a little donkey,\nlike those that draw carts and carry cabbages and salad to market.\"\n\n\"Oh, unfortunate that I am! unfortunate that I am!\" cried Pinocchio,\nseizing his two ears with his hands and pulling them and tearing them\nfuriously as if they had been some one else's ears.\n\n\"My dear boy,\" said the Marmot, by way of consoling him, \"you can do\nnothing. It is destiny. It is written in the decrees of wisdom that all\nboys who are lazy, and who take a dislike to books, to schools, and to\nmasters, and who pass their time in amusement, games, and diversions,\nmust end sooner or later by becoming transformed into so many little\ndonkeys.\"\n\n\"But is it really so?\" asked the puppet, sobbing.\n\n\"It is indeed only too true! And tears are now useless. You should have\nthought of it sooner!\"\n\n\"But it was not my fault; believe me, little Marmot, the fault was all\nCandlewick's!\"\n\n\"And who is this Candlewick?\"\n\n\"One of my school-fellows. I wanted to return home; I wanted to be\nobedient. I wished to study, but Candlewick said to me: 'Why should you\nbother yourself by studying? Why should you go to school? Come with us\ninstead to the \"Land of Boobies\"; there we shall none of us have to\nlearn; there we shall amuse ourselves from morning to night, and we\nshall always be merry'.\"\n\n\"And why did you follow the advice of that false friend? of that bad\ncompanion?\"\n\n\"Why? Because, my dear little Marmot, I am a puppet with no sense, and\nwith no heart. Ah! if I had had the least heart I should never have left\nthat good Fairy who loved me like a mamma, and who had done so much for\nme! And I would be no longer a puppet, for I would by this time have\nbecome a little boy like so many others: But if I meet Candlewick, woe\nto him! He shall hear what I think of him!\"\n\nAnd he turned to go out. But when he reached the door he remembered his\ndonkey's ears, and, feeling ashamed to show them in public, what do you\nthink he did? He took a big cotton cap and, putting it on his head, he\npulled it well down over the point of his nose.\n\nHe then set out and went everywhere in search of Candlewick. He looked\nfor him in the streets, in the squares, in the little theaters, in every\npossible place, but he could not find him. He inquired for him of\neverybody he met, but no one had seen him.\n\nHe then went to seek him at his house and, having reached the door, he\nknocked.\n\n\"Who is there?\" asked Candlewick from within.\n\n\"It is I!\" answered the puppet.\n\n\"Wait a moment and I will let you in.\"\n\nAfter half an hour the door was opened and imagine Pinocchio's feelings\nwhen, upon going into the room, he saw his friend Candlewick with a big\ncotton cap on his head which came down over his nose.\n\nAt the sight of the cap Pinocchio felt almost consoled and thought to\nhimself:\n\n\"Has my friend got the same illness that I have? Is he also suffering\nfrom donkey fever?\"\n\nAnd, pretending to have observed nothing, he asked him, smiling:\n\n\"How are you, my dear Candlewick?\"\n\n\"Very well; as well as a mouse in a Parmesan cheese.\"\n\n\"Are you saying that seriously?\"\n\n\"Why should I tell you a lie?\"\n\n\"Excuse me; but why, then, do you keep that cotton cap on your head\nwhich covers up your ears?\"\n\n\"The doctor ordered me to wear it because I have hurt this knee. And\nyou, dear puppet, why have you got on that cotton cap pulled down over\nyour nose?\"\n\n\"The doctor prescribed it because I have grazed my foot.\"\n\n\"Oh, poor Pinocchio!\"\n\n\"Oh, poor Candlewick!\"\n\nAfter these words a long silence followed, during which the two friends\ndid nothing but look mockingly at each other.\n\nAt last the puppet said in a soft voice to his companion:\n\n\"Satisfy my curiosity, my dear Candlewick: have you ever suffered from\ndisease of the ears?\"\n\n\"Never! And you?\"\n\n\"Never. Only since this morning one of my ears aches.\"\n\n\"Mine is also paining me.\"\n\n\"You also? And which of your ears hurts you?\"\n\n\"Both of them. And you?\"\n\n\"Both of them. Can we have got the same illness?\"\n\n\"I fear so.\"\n\n\"Will you do me a kindness, Candlewick?\"\n\n\"Willingly! With all my heart.\"\n\n\"Will you let me see your ears?\"\n\n\"Why not? But first, my dear Pinocchio, I should like to see yours.\"\n\n\"No: you must be first.\"\n\n\"No, dear. First you and then I!\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the puppet, \"let us come to an agreement like good\nfriends.\"\n\n\"Let us hear it.\"\n\n\"We will both take off our caps at the same moment. Do you agree?\"\n\n\"I agree.\"\n\n\"Then, attention!\"\n\nAnd Pinocchio began to count in a loud voice:\n\n\"One, two, three!\"\n\nAt the word \"Three!\" the two boys took off their caps and threw them\ninto the air.\n\nAnd then a scene followed that would seem incredible if it were not\ntrue. That is, that when Pinocchio and Candlewick discovered that they\nwere both struck with the same misfortune, instead of feeling full of\nmortification and grief, they began to prick their ungainly ears and to\nmake a thousand antics, and they ended by going into bursts of laughter.\n\nAnd they laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until they had to hold\nthemselves together. But in the midst of their merriment Candlewick\nsuddenly stopped, staggered, and, changing color, said to his friend:\n\n\"Help, help, Pinocchio!\"\n\n\"What is the matter with you?\"\n\n\"Alas, I cannot any longer stand upright.\"\n\n\"Neither can I,\" exclaimed Pinocchio, tottering and beginning to cry.\n\nAnd whilst they were talking, they both doubled up and began to run\nround the room on their hands and feet. And as they ran, their hands\nbecame hoofs, their faces lengthened into muzzles, and their backs\nbecame covered with a light gray hairy coat sprinkled with black.\n\nBut do you know what was the worst moment for these two wretched boys?\nThe worst and the most humiliating moment was when their tails grew.\nVanquished by shame and sorrow, they wept and lamented their fate.\n\nOh, if they had but been wiser! But instead of sighs and lamentations\nthey could only bray like asses; and they brayed loudly and said in\nchorus: \"Hee-haw!\"\n\nWhilst this was going on some one knocked at the door and a voice on the\noutside said:\n\n\"Open the door! I am the little man, I am the coachman who brought you\nto this country. Open at once, or it will be the worse for you!\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII\n\nPINOCCHIO IS TRAINED FOR THE CIRCUS\n\n\nFinding that the door remained shut the little man burst it open with a\nviolent kick and, coming into the room, he said to Pinocchio and\nCandlewick with his usual little laugh:\n\n\"Well done, boys! You brayed well, and I recognized you by your voices.\nThat is why I am here.\"\n\nAt these words the two little donkeys were quite stupefied and stood\nwith their heads down, their ears lowered, and their tails between their\nlegs.\n\nAt first the little man stroked and caressed them; then, taking out a\ncurrycomb, he currycombed them well. And when by this process he had\npolished them till they shone like two mirrors, he put a halter round\ntheir necks and led them to the market-place, in hopes of selling them\nand making a good profit.\n\nAnd indeed buyers were not wanting. Candlewick was bought by a peasant\nwhose donkey had died the previous day. Pinocchio was sold to the\ndirector of a company of buffoons and tight-rope dancers, who bought him\nthat he might teach him to leap and to dance with the other animals\nbelonging to the company.\n\nAnd now, my little readers, you will have understood the fine trade that\nlittle man pursued. The wicked little monster, who had a face all milk\nand honey, made frequent journeys round the world with his coach. As he\nwent along he collected, with promises and flattery, all the idle boys\nwho had taken a dislike to books and school. As soon as his coach was\nfull he conducted them to the \"Land of Boobies,\" that they might pass\ntheir time in games, in uproar, and in amusement. When these poor,\ndeluded boys, from continual play and no study, had become so many\nlittle donkeys, he took possession of them with great delight and\nsatisfaction, and carried them off to the fairs and markets to be sold.\nAnd in this way he had in a few years made heaps of money and had become\na millionaire.\n\nWhat became of Candlewick I do not know, but I do know that Pinocchio\nfrom the very first day had to endure a very hard, laborious life.\n\nWhen he was put into his stall his master filled the manger with straw;\nbut Pinocchio, having tried a mouthful, spat it out again.\n\nThen his master, grumbling, filled the manger with hay; but neither did\nthe hay please him.\n\n\"Ah!\" exclaimed his master in a passion. \"Does not hay please you\neither? Leave it to me, my fine donkey; if you are so full of caprices I\nwill find a way to cure you!\"\n\nAnd by way of correcting him he struck his legs with his whip.\n\nPinocchio began to cry and to bray with pain, and he said, braying:\n\n\"Hee-haw! I cannot digest straw!\"\n\n\"Then eat hay!\" said his master, who understood perfectly the asinine\ndialect.\n\n\"Hee-haw! hay gives me a pain in my stomach.\"\n\n\"Do you mean to pretend that a little donkey like you must be kept on\nbreasts of chickens, and capons in jelly?\" asked his master, getting\nmore and more angry, and whipping him again.\n\nAt this second whipping Pinocchio prudently held his tongue and said\nnothing more.\n\nThe stable was then shut and Pinocchio was left alone. He had not eaten\nfor many hours and he began to yawn from hunger. And when he yawned he\nopened a mouth that seemed as wide as an oven.\n\nAt last, finding nothing else in the manger, he resigned himself and\nchewed a little hay; and after he had chewed it well, he shut his eyes\nand swallowed it.\n\n\"This hay is not bad,\" he said to himself; \"but how much better it would\nhave been if I had gone on with my studies! Instead of hay I might now\nbe eating a hunch of new bread and a fine slice of sausage. But I must\nhave patience!\"\n\nThe next morning when he woke he looked in the manger for a little more\nhay; but he found none, for he had eaten it all during the night.\n\nThen he took a mouthful of chopped straw, but whilst he was chewing it\nhe had to acknowledge that the taste of chopped straw did not in the\nleast resemble a savory dish of macaroni or pie.\n\n\"But I must have patience!\" he repeated as he went on chewing. \"May my\nexample serve at least as a warning to all disobedient boys who do not\nwant to study. Patience!\"\n\n\"Patience indeed!\" shouted his master, coming at that moment into the\nstable. \"Do you think, my little donkey, that I bought you only to give\nyou food and drink? I bought you to make you work, and that you might\nearn money for me. Up, then, at once! you must come with me into the\ncircus, and there I will teach you to jump through hoops, to go through\nframes of paper head foremost, to dance waltzes and polkas, and to stand\nupright on your hind legs.\"\n\nPoor Pinocchio, either by love or by force, had to learn all these fine\nthings. But it took him three months before he had learned them, and he\ngot many a whipping that nearly took off his skin.\n\nAt last a day came when his master was able to announce that he would\ngive a really extraordinary representation. The many colored placards\nstuck on the street corners were thus worded:\n\n\n                GREAT FULL DRESS REPRESENTATION\n\n                           TONIGHT\n        WILL TAKE PLACE THE USUAL FEATS AND SURPRISING\n           PERFORMANCES EXECUTED BY ALL THE ARTISTS\n             AND BY ALL THE HORSES OF THE COMPANY\n                         AND MOREOVER\n                          THE FAMOUS\n                   LITTLE DONKEY PINOCCHIO\n                            CALLED\n                    THE STAR OF THE DANCE\n                WILL MAKE HIS FIRST APPEARANCE\n\n         THE THEATER WILL BE BRILLIANTLY ILLUMINATED\n\n[Illustration: In Less Than an Hour All His Friends Were Invited]\n\nOn that evening, as you may imagine, an hour before the play was to\nbegin the theater was crammed.\n\nThere was not a place to be had either in the pit or the stalls, or in\nthe boxes even, by paying its weight in gold.\n\nThe benches round the circus were crowded with children and with boys of\nall ages, who were in a fever of impatience to see the famous little\ndonkey Pinocchio dance.\n\nWhen the first part of the performance was over, the director of the\ncompany, dressed in a black coat, white breeches, and big leather boots\nthat came above his knees, presented himself to the public, and, after\nmaking a profound bow, he began with much solemnity the following\nridiculous speech:\n\n\"Respectable public, ladies and gentlemen! The humble undersigned being\na passer-by in this illustrious city, I have wished to procure for\nmyself the honor, not to say the pleasure, of presenting to this\nintelligent and distinguished audience a celebrated little donkey, who\nhas already had the honor of dancing in the presence of His Majesty the\nEmperor of all the principal courts of Europe.\n\n\"And, thanking you, I beg of you to help us with your inspiring presence\nand to be indulgent to us.\"\n\nThis speech was received with much laughter and applause, but the\napplause redoubled and became tumultuous when the little donkey\nPinocchio made his appearance in the middle of the circus. He was decked\nout for the occasion. He had a new bridle of polished leather with brass\nbuckles and studs, and two white camelias in his ears. His mane was\ndivided and curled, and each curl was tied with bows of colored ribbon.\nHe had a girth of gold and silver round his body, and his tail was\nplaited with amaranth and blue velvet ribbons. He was, in fact, a little\ndonkey to fall in love with!\n\nThe director, in presenting him to the public, added these few words:\n\n\"My respectable auditors! I am not here to tell you falsehoods of the\ngreat difficulties that I have overcome in understanding and subjugating\nthis mammifer, whilst he was grazing at liberty amongst the mountains in\nthe plains of the torrid zone. I beg you will observe the wild rolling\nof his eyes. Every means having been tried in vain to tame him, and to\naccustom him to the life of domestic quadrupeds, I was often forced to\nhave recourse to the convincing argument of the whip. But all my\ngoodness to him, instead of gaining his affections, has, on the\ncontrary, increased his viciousness. However, following the system of\nGall, I discovered in his cranium a bony cartilage that the Faculty of\nMedicine of Paris has itself recognized as the regenerating bulb of the\nhair, and of dance. For this reason I have not only taught him to dance,\nbut also to jump through hoops and through frames covered with paper.\nAdmire him, and then pass your opinion on him! But before taking my\nleave of you, permit me, ladies and gentlemen, to invite you to the\ndaily performance that will take place tomorrow evening; but in case the\nweather should threaten rain, the performance will be postponed till\ntomorrow morning at 11 ante-meridian of post-meridian.\"\n\nHere the director made another profound bow, and, then turning to\nPinocchio, he said:\n\n\"Courage, Pinocchio! before you begin your feats make your bow to this\ndistinguished audience--ladies, gentlemen, and children.\"\n\nPinocchio obeyed, and bent both his knees till they touched the ground,\nand remained kneeling until the director, cracking his whip, shouted to\nhim:\n\n\"At a foot's pace!\"\n\nThen the little donkey raised himself on his four legs and began to walk\nround the theater, keeping at a foot's pace.\n\nAfter a little the director cried:\n\n\"Trot!\" and Pinocchio, obeying the order, changed to a trot.\n\n\"Gallop!\" and Pinocchio broke into a gallop.\n\n\"Full gallop!\" and Pinocchio went full gallop. But whilst he was going\nfull speed like a race horse the director, raising his arm in the air,\nfired off a pistol.\n\nAt the shot the little donkey, pretending to be wounded, fell his whole\nlength in the circus, as if he were really dying.\n\nAs he got up from the ground amidst an outburst of applause, shouts and\nclapping of hands, he naturally raised his head and looked up, and he\nsaw in one of the boxes a beautiful lady who wore round her neck a thick\ngold chain from which hung a medallion. On the medallion was painted the\nportrait of a puppet.\n\n\"That is my portrait! That lady is the Fairy!\" said Pinocchio to\nhimself, recognizing her immediately; and, overcome with delight, he\ntried to cry:\n\n\"Oh, my little Fairy! Oh, my little Fairy!\"\n\nBut instead of these words a bray came from his throat, so sonorous and\nso prolonged that all the spectators laughed, and more especially all\nthe children who were in the theater.\n\nThen the director, to give him a lesson, and to make him understand that\nit is not good manners to bray before the public, gave him a blow on his\nnose with the handle of his whip.\n\nThe poor little donkey put his tongue out an inch and licked his nose\nfor at least five minutes, thinking perhaps that it would ease the pain\nhe felt.\n\nBut what was his despair when, looking up a second time, he saw that the\nbox was empty and that the Fairy had disappeared!\n\nHe thought he was going to die; his eyes filled with tears and he began\nto weep. Nobody, however, noticed it, and least of all the director who,\ncracking his whip, shouted:\n\n\"Courage, Pinocchio! Now let the audience see how gracefully you can\njump through the hoops.\"\n\nPinocchio tried two or three times, but each time that he came in front\nof the hoop, instead of going through it, he found it easier to go under\nit. At last he made a leap and went through it, but his right leg\nunfortunately caught in the hoop, and that caused him to fall to the\nground doubled up in a heap on the other side.\n\nWhen he got up he was lame and it was only with great difficulty that he\nmanaged to return to the stable.\n\n\"Bring out Pinocchio! We want the little donkey! Bring out the little\ndonkey!\" shouted all the boys in the theater, touched and sorry for the\nsad accident.\n\nBut the little donkey was seen no more that evening.\n\nThe following morning the veterinary, that is, the doctor of animals,\npaid him a visit, and declared that he would remain lame for life.\n\nThe director then said to the stable-boy:\n\n\"What do you suppose I can do with a lame donkey? He would eat food\nwithout earning it. Take him to the market and sell him.\"\n\nWhen they reached the market a purchaser was found at once. He asked the\nstable-boy:\n\n\"How much do you want for that lame donkey?\"\n\n\"Twenty dollars.\"\n\n\"I will give you two dollars. Don't suppose that I am buying him to make\nuse of; I am buying him solely for his skin. I see that his skin is very\nhard and I intend to make a drum with it for the band of my village.\"\n\nImagine poor Pinocchio's feelings when he heard that he was destined to\nbecome a drum!\n\nAs soon as the purchaser had paid his two dollars he conducted the\nlittle donkey to the seashore. He then put a stone round his neck and,\ntying a rope, the end of which he held in his hand, round his leg, he\ngave him a sudden push and threw him into the water.\n\nPinocchio, weighted down by the stone, went at once to the bottom, and\nhis owner, keeping tight hold of the cord, sat down quietly on a piece\nof rock to wait until the little donkey was drowned, intending then to\nskin him.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV\n\nPINOCCHIO IS SWALLOWED BY THE DOG-FISH\n\n\nAfter Pinocchio had been fifty minutes under the water, his purchaser\nsaid aloud to himself:\n\n\"My poor little lame donkey must by this time be quite drowned. I will\ntherefore pull him out of the water, and I will make a fine drum of his\nskin.\"\n\nAnd he began to haul in the rope that he had tied to the donkey's leg,\nand he hauled, and hauled, and hauled, until at last--what do you think\nappeared above the water? Instead of a little dead donkey he saw a live\npuppet, who was wriggling like an eel.\n\nSeeing this wooden puppet, the poor man thought he was dreaming, and,\nstruck dumb with astonishment, he remained with his mouth open and his\neyes starting out of his head.\n\nHaving somewhat recovered from his first stupefaction, he asked in a\nquavering voice:\n\n\"And the little donkey that I threw into the sea? What has become of\nhim?\"\n\n\"I am the little donkey!\" said Pinocchio, laughing.\n\n\"You?\"\n\n\"I.\"\n\n\"Ah, you young scamp!! Do you dare to make game of me?\"\n\n\"To make game of you? Quite the contrary, my dear master? I am speaking\nseriously.\"\n\n\"But how can you, who but a short time ago were a little donkey, have\nbecome a wooden puppet, only from having been left in the water?\"\n\n\"It must have been the effect of sea water. The sea makes extraordinary\nchanges.\"\n\n\"Beware, puppet, beware! Don't imagine that you can amuse yourself at my\nexpense. Woe to you if I lose patience!\"\n\n\"Well, master, do you wish to know the true story? If you will set my\nleg free I will tell it you.\"\n\nThe good man, who was curious to hear the true story, immediately untied\nthe knot that kept him bound; and Pinocchio, finding himself free as a\nbird in the air, commenced as follows:\n\n\"You must know that I was once a puppet as I am now, and I was on the\npoint of becoming a boy like the many who are in the world. But instead,\ninduced by my dislike for study and the advice of bad companions, I ran\naway from home. One fine day when I awoke I found myself changed into a\ndonkey with long ears, and a long tail. What a disgrace it was to\nme!--a disgrace, dear master, that even your worst enemy would not\ninflict upon you! Taken to the market to be sold I was bought by the\ndirector of an equestrian company, who took it into his head to make a\nfamous dancer of me, and a famous leaper through hoops. But one night\nduring a performance I had a bad fall in the circus and lamed both my\nlegs. Then the director, not knowing what to do with a lame donkey, sent\nme to be sold, and you were the purchaser!\"\n\n\"Only too true. And I paid two dollars for you. And now, who will give\nme back my good money?\"\n\n\"And why did you buy me? You bought me to make a drum of my skin!\"\n\n\"Only too true! And now, where shall I find another skin?\"\n\n\"Don't despair, master. There are such a number of little donkeys in the\nworld!\"\n\n\"Tell me, you impertinent rascal, does your story end here?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the puppet; \"I have another two words to say and then I\nshall have finished. After you had bought me you brought me to this\nplace to kill me; but then, yielding to a feeling of compassion, you\npreferred to tie a stone round my neck and to throw me into the sea.\nThis humane feeling does you great honor and I shall always be grateful\nto you for it. But, nevertheless, dear master, this time you made your\ncalculations without considering the Fairy!\"\n\n\"And who is the Fairy?\"\n\n\"She is my mamma and she resembles all other good mammas who care for\ntheir children, and who never lose sight of them, but help them\nlovingly, even when, on account of their foolishness and evil conduct,\nthey deserve to be abandoned and left to themselves. Well, then, the\ngood Fairy, as soon as she saw that I was in danger of drowning, sent\nimmediately an immense shoal of fish, who, believing me really to be a\nlittle dead donkey, began to eat me. And what mouthfuls they took; I\nshould never have thought that fish were greedier than boys! Some ate my\nears, some my muzzle, others my neck and mane, some the skin of my legs,\nsome my coat. Amongst them there was a little fish so polite that he\neven condescended to eat my tail.\"\n\n\"From this time forth,\" said his purchaser, horrified, \"I swear that I\nwill never touch fish. It would be too dreadful to open a mullet, or a\nfried whiting, and to find inside a donkey's tail!\"\n\n\"I agree with you,\" said the puppet, laughing. \"However, I must tell you\nthat when the fish had finished eating the donkey's hide that covered me\nfrom head to foot, they naturally reached the bone, or rather the wood,\nfor, as you see, I am made of the hardest wood. But after giving a few\nbites they soon discovered that I was not a morsel for their teeth, and,\ndisgusted with such indigestible food, they went off, some in one\ndirection and some in another, without so much as saying 'Thank you' to\nme. And now, at last, I have told you how it was that when you pulled up\nthe rope you found a live puppet instead of a dead donkey.\"\n\n\"I laugh at your story,\" cried the man in a rage. \"I know only that I\nspent two dollars to buy you, and I will have my money back. Shall I\ntell you what I will do? I will take you back to the market and I will\nsell you by weight as seasoned wood for lighting fires.\"\n\n\"Sell me if you like; I am content,\" said Pinocchio.\n\nBut as he said it he made a spring and plunged into the water. Swimming\ngaily away from the shore, he called to his poor owner:\n\n\"Good-bye, master; if you should be in want of a skin to make a drum,\nremember me.\"\n\nAnd he laughed and went on swimming, and after a while he turned again\nand shouted louder:\n\n\"Good-bye, master; if you should be in want of a little well seasoned\nwood for lighting the fire, remember me.\"\n\nIn the twinkling of an eye he had swum so far off that he was scarcely\nvisible. All that could be seen of him was a little black speck on the\nsurface of the sea that from time to time lifted its legs out of the\nwater and leaped and capered like a dolphin enjoying himself.\n\nWhilst Pinocchio was swimming, he knew not whither, he saw in the midst\nof the sea a rock that seemed to be made of white marble, and on the\nsummit there stood a beautiful little goat who bleated lovingly and made\nsigns to him to approach.\n\nBut the most singular thing was this. The little goat's hair, instead of\nbeing white or black, or a mixture of two colors as is usual with other\ngoats, was blue, and a very vivid blue, greatly resembling the hair of\nthe beautiful Child.\n\nI leave you to imagine how rapidly poor Pinocchio's heart began to beat.\nHe swam with redoubled strength and energy towards the white rock; and\nhe was already half-way there when he saw, rising up out of the water\nand coming to meet him, the horrible head of a sea-monster. His\nwide-open, cavernous mouth and his three rows of enormous teeth would\nhave been terrifying to look at even in a picture.\n\nAnd do you know what this sea-monster was?\n\nThis sea-monster was neither more nor less than that gigantic Dog-Fish,\nwho has been mentioned many times in this story, and who, for his\nslaughter and for his insatiable voracity, had been named the \"Attila of\nFish and Fishermen.\"\n\nOnly to think of poor Pinocchio's terror at the sight of the monster. He\ntried to avoid it, to change his direction; he tried to escape, but that\nimmense, wide-open mouth came towards him with the velocity of an arrow.\n\n\"Be quick, Pinocchio, for pity's sake!\" cried the beautiful little goat,\nbleating.\n\nAnd Pinocchio swam desperately with his arms, his chest, his legs, and\nhis feet.\n\n\"Quick, Pinocchio, the monster is close upon you!\"\n\nAnd Pinocchio swam quicker than ever, and flew on with the rapidity of a\nball from a gun. He had nearly reached the rock, and the little goat,\nleaning over towards the sea, had stretched out her fore-legs to help\nhim out of the water!\n\nBut it was too late! The monster had overtaken him and, drawing in his\nbreath, he sucked in the poor puppet as he would have sucked a hen's\negg; and he swallowed him with such violence and avidity that Pinocchio,\nin falling into the Dog-Fish's stomach, received such a blow that he\nremained unconscious for a quarter of an hour afterwards.\n\nWhen he came to himself again after the shock he could not in the least\nimagine in what world he was. All around him it was quite dark, and the\ndarkness was so black and so profound that it seemed to him that he had\nfallen head downwards into an inkstand full of ink. He listened, but he\ncould hear no noise; only from time to time great gusts of wind blew in\nhis face. At first he could not understand where the wind came from, but\nat last he discovered that it came out of the monster's lungs. For you\nmust know that the Dog-Fish suffered very much from asthma, and when he\nbreathed it was exactly as if a north wind was blowing.\n\nPinocchio at first tried to keep up his courage, but when he had one\nproof after another that he was really shut up in the body of this\nsea-monster he began to cry and scream, and to sob out:\n\n\"Help! help! Oh, how unfortunate I am! Will nobody come to save me?\"\n\n\"Who do you think could save you, unhappy wretch?\" said a voice in the\ndark that sounded like a guitar out of tune.\n\n\"Who is speaking?\" asked Pinocchio, frozen with terror.\n\n\"It is I! I am a poor Tunny who was swallowed by the Dog-Fish at the\nsame time that you were. And what fish are you?\"\n\n\"I have nothing in common with fish. I am a puppet.\"\n\n\"Then, if you are not a fish, why did you let yourself be swallowed by\nthe monster?\"\n\n\"I didn't let myself be swallowed; it was the monster swallowed me! And\nnow, what are we to do here in the dark?\"\n\n\"Resign ourselves and wait until the Dog-Fish has digested us both.\"\n\n\"But I do not want to be digested!\" howled Pinocchio, beginning to cry\nagain.\n\n\"Neither do I want to be digested,\" added the Tunny; \"but I am enough of\na philosopher to console myself by thinking that when one is born a\nTunny it is more dignified to die in the water than in oil.\"\n\n\"That is all nonsense!\" cried Pinocchio.\n\n\"It is my opinion,\" replied the Tunny, \"and opinions, so say the\npolitical Tunnies, ought to be respected.\"\n\n\"To sum it all up, I want to get away from here. I want to escape.\"\n\n\"Escape, if you are able!\"\n\n\"Is this Dog-Fish who has swallowed us very big?\" asked the puppet.\n\n\"Big! Why, only imagine, his body is two miles long without counting his\ntail.\"\n\nWhilst they were holding this conversation in the dark, Pinocchio\nthought that he saw a light a long way off.\n\n\"What is that little light I see in the distance?\" he asked.\n\n\"It is most likely some companion in misfortune who is waiting, like us,\nto be digested.\"\n\n\"I will go and find him. Do you not think that it may by chance be some\nold fish who perhaps could show us how to escape?\"\n\n\"I hope it may be so, with all my heart, dear puppet.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, Tunny.\"\n\n\"Good-bye, puppet, and good fortune attend you.\"\n\n\"Where shall we meet again?\"\n\n\"Who can say? It is better not even to think of it!\"\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXV\n\nA HAPPY SURPRISE FOR PINOCCHIO\n\n\nPinocchio, having taken leave of his friend the Tunny, began to grope\nhis way in the dark through the body of the Dog-Fish, taking a step at a\ntime in the direction of the light that he saw shining dimly at a great\ndistance.\n\nThe farther he advanced the brighter became the light; and he walked and\nwalked until at last he reached it; and when he reached it--what did he\nfind? I will give you a thousand guesses. He found a little table spread\nout and on it a lighted candle stuck into a green glass bottle, and,\nseated at the table, was a little old man. He was eating some live fish,\nand they were so very much alive that whilst he was eating them they\nsometimes even jumped out of his mouth.\n\nAt this sight Pinocchio was filled with such great and unexpected joy\nthat he became almost delirious. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry,\nhe wanted to say a thousand things, and instead he could only stammer\nout a few confused and broken words. At last he succeeded in uttering a\ncry of joy, and, opening his arms, he threw them around the little old\nman's neck, and began to shout:\n\n\"Oh, my dear papa! I have found you at last! I will never leave you\nmore, never more, never more!\"\n\n\"Then my eyes tell me true?\" said the little old man, rubbing his eyes;\n\"then you are really my dear Pinocchio?\"\n\n\"Yes, yes, I am Pinocchio, really Pinocchio! And you have quite forgiven\nme, have you not? Oh, my dear papa, how good you are! And to think that\nI, on the contrary--Oh! but if you only knew what misfortunes have been\npoured on my head, and all that has befallen me! Only imagine, the day\nthat you, poor, dear papa, sold your coat to buy me a spelling-book,\nthat I might go to school, I escaped to see the puppet show, and the\nshowman wanted to put me on the fire, that I might roast his mutton, and\nhe was the same that afterwards gave me five gold pieces to take them to\nyou, but I met the Fox and the Cat, who took me to the inn of The Red\nCraw-Fish, where they ate like wolves, and I left by myself in the\nmiddle of the night, and I encountered assassins who ran after me, and I\nran away, and they followed, and I ran, and they always followed me, and\nI ran, until they hung me to a branch of a Big Oak, and the beautiful\nChild with blue hair sent a little carriage to fetch me, and the doctors\nwhen they saw me said immediately, 'If he is not dead, it is a proof\nthat he is still alive'--and then by chance I told a lie, and my nose\nbegan to grow until I could no longer get through the door of the room,\nfor which reason I went with the Fox and the Cat to bury the four gold\npieces, for one I had spent at the inn, and the Parrot began to laugh,\nand instead of two thousand gold pieces I found none left, for which\nreason the judge when he heard that I had been robbed had me immediately\nput in prison to content the robbers, and then when I was coming away I\nsaw a beautiful bunch of grapes in a field, and I was caught in a trap,\nand the peasant, who was quite right, put a dog-collar round my neck\nthat I might guard the poultry-yard, and acknowledging my innocence let\nme go, and the Serpent with the smoking tail began to laugh and broke a\nblood-vessel in his chest, and so I returned to the house of the\nbeautiful Child, who was dead, and the Pigeon, seeing that I was crying,\nsaid to me, 'I have seen your father who was building a little boat to\ngo in search of you,' and I said to him, 'Oh! if I also had wings,' and\nhe said to me, 'Do you want to go to your father?' and I said, 'Without\ndoubt! but who will take me to him?' and he said to me, 'I will take\nyou,' and I said to him, 'How?' and he said to me, 'Get on my back,' and\nso we flew all night, and then in the morning all the fishermen who were\nlooking out to sea said to me, 'There is a poor man in a boat who is on\nthe point of being drowned,' and I recognized you at once, even at that\ndistance, for my heart told me, and I made signs to you to return to\nland.\"\n\n\"I also recognized you,\" said Geppetto, \"and I would willingly have\nreturned to the shore, but what was I to do! The sea was tremendous and\na great wave upset my boat. Then a horrible Dog-Fish, who was near, as\nsoon as he saw me in the water, came towards me, and, putting out his\ntongue, took hold of me and swallowed me as if I had been a little apple\ntart.\"\n\n\"And how long have you been shut up here?\" asked Pinocchio.\n\n[Illustration: They Thought It Would Be More Comfortable to Get on the\nTunny's Back]\n\n\"Since that day--it must be nearly two years ago; two years, my dear\nPinocchio, that have seemed like two centuries!\"\n\n\"And how have you managed to live? And where did you get the candle? And\nthe matches to light it? Who gave them to you?\"\n\n\"Stop, and I will tell you everything. You must know, then, that in the\nsame storm in which my boat was upset a merchant vessel foundered. The\nsailors were all saved, but the vessel went to the bottom, and the\nDog-Fish, who had that day an excellent appetite, after he had swallowed\nme, swallowed also the vessel.\"\n\n\"How?\"\n\n\"He swallowed it in one mouthful, and the only thing that he spat out\nwas the mainmast, that had stuck between his teeth like a fish-bone.\nFortunately for me, the vessel was laden with preserved meat in tins,\nbiscuit, bottles of wine, dried raisins, cheese, coffee, sugar, candles,\nand boxes of wax matches. With this providential supply I have been able\nto live for two years. But I have arrived at the end of my resources;\nthere is nothing left in the larder, and this candle that you see\nburning is the last that remains.\"\n\n\"And after that?\"\n\n\"After that, dear boy, we shall both remain in the dark.\"\n\n\"Then, dear little papa,\" said Pinocchio, \"there is no time to lose. We\nmust think of escaping.\"\n\n\"Of escaping? How?\"\n\n\"We must escape through the mouth of the Dog-Fish, throw ourselves into\nthe sea and swim away.\"\n\n\"You talk well; but, dear Pinocchio, I don't know how to swim.\"\n\n\"What does that matter? I am a good swimmer, and you can get on my\nshoulders and I will carry you safely to shore.\"\n\n\"All illusions, my boy!\" replied Geppetto, shaking his head, with a\nmelancholy smile. \"Do you suppose it possible that a puppet like you,\nscarcely a yard high, could have the strength to swim with me on his\nshoulders!\"\n\n\"Try it and you will see!\"\n\nWithout another word Pinocchio took the candle in his hand, and, going\nin front to light the way, he said to his father:\n\n\"Follow me, and don't be afraid.\"\n\nAnd they walked for some time and traversed the body and the stomach of\nthe Dog-Fish. But when they had arrived at the point where the monster's\nbig throat began, they thought it better to stop to give a good look\naround and to choose the best moment for escaping.\n\nNow, I must tell you that the Dog-Fish, being very old, and suffering\nfrom asthma and palpitation of the heart, was obliged to sleep with his\nmouth open. Pinocchio, therefore, having approached the entrance to his\nthroat, and, looking up, could see beyond the enormous gaping mouth a\nlarge piece of starry sky and beautiful moonlight.\n\n\"This is the moment to escape,\" he whispered, turning to his father;\n\"the Dog-Fish is sleeping like a dormouse, the sea is calm, and it is as\nlight as day. Follow me, dear papa, and in a short time we shall be in\nsafety.\"\n\nThey immediately climbed up the throat of the sea-monster, and, having\nreached his immense mouth, they began to walk on tiptoe down his tongue.\n\nBefore taking the final leap the puppet said to his father:\n\n\"Get on my shoulders and put your arms tightly around my neck. I will\ntake care of the rest.\"\n\nAs soon as Geppetto was firmly settled on his son's shoulders,\nPinocchio, feeling sure of himself, threw himself into the water and\nbegan to swim. The sea was as smooth as oil, the moon shone brilliantly,\nand the Dog-Fish was sleeping so profoundly that even a cannonade would\nhave failed to wake him.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI\n\nPINOCCHIO AT LAST CEASES TO BE A PUPPET AND BECOMES A BOY\n\n\nWhilst Pinocchio was swimming quickly towards the shore he discovered\nthat his father, who was on his shoulders with his legs in the water,\nwas trembling as violently as if the poor man had an attack of ague\nfever.\n\nWas he trembling from cold or from fear. Perhaps a little from both the\none and the other. But Pinocchio, thinking it was from fear, said, to\ncomfort him:\n\n\"Courage, papa! In a few minutes we shall be safely on shore.\"\n\n\"But where is this blessed shore?\" asked the little old man, becoming\nstill more frightened, and screwing up his eyes as tailors do when they\nwish to thread a needle. \"I have been looking in every direction and I\nsee nothing but the sky and the sea.\"\n\n\"But I see the shore as well,\" said the puppet. \"You must know that I am\nlike a cat: I see better by night than by day.\"\n\nPoor Pinocchio was making a pretense of being in good spirits, but in\nreality he was beginning to feel discouraged; his strength was failing,\nhe was gasping and panting for breath. He could do no more, and the\nshore was still far off.\n\nHe swam until he had no breath left; then he turned his head to Geppetto\nand said in broken words?\n\n\"Papa, help me, I am dying!\"\n\nThe father and son were on the point of drowning when they heard a voice\nlike a guitar out of tune saying:\n\n\"Who is it that is dying?\"\n\n\"It is I, and my poor father!\"\n\n\"I know that voice! You are Pinocchio!\"\n\n\"Precisely; and you?\"\n\n\"I am the Tunny, your prison companion in the body of the Dog-Fish.\"\n\n\"And how did you manage to escape?\"\n\n\"I followed your example. You showed me the road, and I escaped after\nyou.\"\n\n\"Tunny, you have arrived at the right moment! I implore you to help us\nor we are lost.\"\n\n\"Willingly and with all my heart. You must, both of you, take hold of my\ntail and leave it to me to guide you. I will take you on shore in four\nminutes.\"\n\nGeppetto and Pinocchio, as I need not tell you, accepted the offer at\nonce; but, instead of holding on by his tail, they thought it would be\nmore comfortable to get on the Tunny's back.\n\nHaving reached the shore, Pinocchio sprang first on land that he might\nhelp his father to do the same. He then turned to the Tunny and said to\nhim in a voice full of emotion:\n\n\"My friend, you have saved my papa's life. I can find no words with\nwhich to thank you properly. Permit me at least to give you a kiss as a\nsign of my eternal gratitude!\"\n\nThe Tunny put his head out of the water and Pinocchio, kneeling on the\nground, kissed him tenderly on the mouth. At this spontaneous proof of\nwarm affection, the poor Tunny, who was not accustomed to it, felt\nextremely touched, and, ashamed to let himself be seen crying like a\nchild, he plunged under the water and disappeared.\n\nBy this time the day had dawned. Pinocchio, then offering his arm to\nGeppetto, who had scarcely breath to stand, said to him:\n\n\"Lean on my arm, dear papa, and let us go. We will walk very slowly,\nlike the ants, and when we are tired we can rest by the wayside.\"\n\n\"And where shall we go?\" asked Geppetto.\n\n\"In search of some house or cottage, where they will give us for charity\na mouthful of bread, and a little straw to serve as a bed.\"\n\nThey had not gone a hundred yards when they saw by the roadside two\nvillainous-looking individuals begging.\n\nThey were the Cat and the Fox, but they were scarcely recognizable.\nFancy! the Cat had so long feigned blindness that she had become blind\nin reality; and the Fox, old, mangy, and with one side paralyzed, had\nnot even his tail left. That sneaking thief, having fallen into the most\nsqualid misery, one fine day had found himself obliged to sell his\nbeautiful tail to a traveling peddler, who bought it to drive away\nflies.\n\n\"Oh, Pinocchio!\" cried the Fox, \"give a little in charity to two poor,\ninfirm people.\"\n\n\"Infirm people,\" repeated the Cat.\n\n\"Begone, impostors!\" answered the puppet. \"You took me in once, but you\nwill never catch me again.\"\n\n\"Believe me, Pinocchio, we are now poor and unfortunate indeed!\"\n\n\"If you are poor, you deserve it. Recollect the proverb: 'Stolen money\nnever fructifies.' Begone, impostors!\"\n\nAnd, thus saying, Pinocchio and Geppetto went their way in peace. When\nthey had gone another hundred yards they saw, at the end of a path in\nthe middle of the fields, a nice little straw hut with a roof of tiles\nand bricks.\n\n\"That hut must be inhabited by some one,\" said Pinocchio. \"Let us go and\nknock at the door.\"\n\nThey went and knocked.\n\n\"We are a poor father and son without bread and without a roof,\"\nanswered the puppet.\n\n\"Turn the key and the door will open,\" said the same little voice.\n\nPinocchio turned the key and the door opened. They went in and looked\nhere, there, and everywhere, but could see no one.\n\n\"Oh! where is the master of the house?\" said Pinocchio, much surprised.\n\n\"Here I am, up here!\"\n\nThe father and son looked immediately up to the ceiling, and there on a\nbeam they saw the Talking-Cricket.\n\n\"Oh, my dear little Cricket!\" said Pinocchio, bowing politely to him.\n\n\"Ah! now you call me 'Your dear little Cricket.' But do you remember the\ntime when you threw the handle of a hammer at me, to drive me from your\nhouse?\"\n\n\"You are right, Cricket! Drive me away also! Throw the handle of a\nhammer at me, but have pity on my poor papa.\"\n\n\"I will have pity on both father and son, but I wished to remind you of\nthe ill treatment I received from you, to teach you that in this world,\nwhen it is possible, we should show courtesy to everybody, if we wish it\nto be extended to us in our hour of need.\"\n\n\"You are right. Cricket, you are right, and I will bear in mind the\nlesson you have given me. But tell me how you managed to buy this\nbeautiful hut.\"\n\n\"This hut was given to me yesterday by a goat whose wool was of a\nbeautiful blue color.\"\n\n\"And where has the goat gone?\" asked Pinocchio, with lively curiosity.\n\n\"I do not know.\"\n\n\"And when will it come back?\"\n\n\"It will never come back. It went away yesterday in great grief and,\nbleating, it seemed to say: 'Poor Pinocchio! I shall never see him more,\nfor by this time the Dog-Fish must have devoured him!'\"\n\n\"Did it really say that? Then it was she! It was my dear little Fairy,\"\nexclaimed Pinocchio, crying and sobbing.\n\nWhen he had cried for some time he dried his eyes and prepared a\ncomfortable bed of straw for Geppetto to lie down upon. Then he asked\nthe Cricket:\n\n\"Tell me, little Cricket, where can I find a tumbler of milk for my poor\npapa?\"\n\n\"Three fields off from here there lives a gardener called Giangio, who\nkeeps cows. Go to him and you will get the milk you are in want of.\"\n\nPinocchio ran all the way to Giangio's house, and the gardener asked\nhim:\n\n\"How much milk do you want?\"\n\n\"I want a tumblerful.\"\n\n\"A tumbler of milk costs five cents. Begin by giving me the five cents.\"\n\n\"I have not even one cent,\" replied Pinocchio, grieved and mortified.\n\n\"That is bad, puppet,\" answered the gardener. \"If you have not even one\ncent, I have not even a drop of milk.\"\n\n\"I must have patience!\" said Pinocchio, and he turned to go.\n\n\"Wait a little,\" said Giangio. \"We can come to an arrangement together.\nWill you undertake to turn the pumping machine?\"\n\n\"What is the pumping machine?\"\n\n\"It is a wooden pole which serves to draw up the water from the cistern\nto water the vegetables.\"\n\n\"You can try me.\"\n\n\"Well, then, if you will draw a hundred buckets of water, I will give\nyou in compensation a tumbler of milk.\"\n\n\"It is a bargain.\"\n\nGiangio then led Pinocchio to the kitchen garden and taught him how to\nturn the pumping machine. Pinocchio immediately began to work; but\nbefore he had drawn up the hundred buckets of water the perspiration was\npouring from his head to his feet. Never before had he undergone such\nfatigue.\n\n\"Up till now,\" said the gardener, \"the labor of turning the pumping\nmachine was performed by my little donkey, but the poor animal is\ndying.\"\n\n\"Will you take me to see him?\" said Pinocchio.\n\n\"Willingly.\"\n\nWhen Pinocchio went into the stable he saw a beautiful little donkey\nstretched on the straw, worn out from hunger and overwork. After looking\nat him earnestly, he said to himself, much troubled:\n\n\"I am sure I know this little donkey! His face is not new to me.\"\n\nAnd, bending over him, he asked him in asinine language:\n\n\"Who are you?\"\n\nAt this question the little donkey opened his dying eyes, and answered\nin broken words in the same language:\n\n\"I am--Can--dle--wick.\"\n\nAnd, having again closed his eyes, he expired.\n\n\"Oh, poor Candlewick!\" said Pinocchio in a low voice; and, taking a\nhandful of straw, he dried a tear that was rolling down his face.\n\n\"Do you grieve for a donkey that cost you nothing?\" said the gardener.\n\"What must it be to me, who bought him for ready money?\"\n\n\"I must tell you--he was my friend!\"\n\n\"Your friend?\"\n\n\"One of my school-fellows!\"\n\n\"How?\" shouted Giangio, laughing loudly. \"How? had you donkeys for\nschool-fellows? I can imagine what wonderful studies you must have\nmade!\"\n\nThe puppet, who felt much mortified at these words, did not answer; but,\ntaking his tumbler of milk, still quite warm, he returned to the hut.\n\nAnd from that day for more than five months he continued to get up at\ndaybreak every morning to go and turn the pumping machine, to earn the\ntumbler of milk that was of such benefit to his father in his bad state\nof health. Nor was he satisfied with this; for, during the time that he\nhad over, he learned to make hampers and baskets of rushes, and with the\nmoney he obtained by selling them he was able with great economy to\nprovide for all the daily expenses. Amongst other things he constructed\nan elegant little wheel-chair, in which he could take his father out on\nfine days to breathe a mouthful of fresh air.\n\nBy his industry, ingenuity and his anxiety to work and to overcome\ndifficulties, he not only succeeded in maintaining his father, who\ncontinued infirm, in comfort, but he also contrived to put aside five\ndollars to buy himself a new coat.\n\nOne morning he said to his father:\n\n\"I am going to the neighboring market to buy myself a jacket, a cap, and\na pair of shoes. When I return,\" he added, laughing, \"I shall be so well\ndressed that you will take me for a fine gentleman.\"\n\nAnd, leaving the house, he began to run merrily and happily along. All\nat once he heard himself called by name and, turning around, he saw a\nbig Snail crawling out from the hedge.\n\n\"Do you not know me?\" asked the Snail.\n\n\"It seems to me--and yet I am not sure--\"\n\n\"Do you not remember the Snail who was lady's-maid to the Fairy with\nblue hair? Do you not remember the time when I came downstairs to let\nyou in, and you were caught by your foot, which you had stuck through\nthe house-door?\"\n\n\"I remember it all\" shouted Pinocchio. \"Tell me quickly, my beautiful\nlittle Snail, where have you left my good Fairy? What is she doing? Has\nshe forgiven me? Does she still remember me? Does she still wish me\nwell? Is she far from here? Can I go and see her?\"\n\nTo all these rapid, breathless questions the Snail replied in her usual\nphlegmatic manner:\n\n\"My dear Pinocchio, the poor Fairy is lying in bed at the hospital!\"\n\n\"At the hospital?\"\n\n\"It is only too true. Overtaken by a thousand misfortunes, she has\nfallen seriously ill, and she has not even enough to buy herself a\nmouthful of bread.\"\n\n\"Is it really so? Oh, what sorrow you have given me! Oh, poor Fairy!\nPoor Fairy! Poor Fairy! If I had a million I would run and carry it to\nher, but I have only five dollars. Here they are--I was going to buy a\nnew coat. Take them, Snail, and carry them at once to my good Fairy.\"\n\n\"And your new coat?\"\n\n\"What matters my new coat? I would sell even these rags that I have on\nto be able to help her. Go, Snail, and be quick; and in two days return\nto this place, for I hope I shall then be able to give you some more\nmoney. Up to this time I have worked to maintain my papa; from today I\nwill work five hours more that I may also maintain my good mamma.\nGood-bye, Snail, I shall expect you in two days.\"\n\nThe Snail, contrary to her usual habits, began to run like a lizard in a\nhot August sun.\n\nThat evening Pinocchio, instead of going to bed at ten o'clock, sat up\ntill midnight had struck; and instead of making eight baskets of rushes\nhe made sixteen.\n\nThen he went to bed and fell asleep. And whilst he slept he thought that\nhe saw the Fairy, smiling and beautiful, who, after having kissed him,\nsaid to him:\n\n\"Well done, Pinocchio! To reward you for your good heart I will forgive\nyou for all that is past. Boys who minister tenderly to their parents\nand assist them in their misery and infirmities, are deserving of great\npraise and affection, even if they cannot be cited as examples of\nobedience and good behavior. Try and do better in the future and you\nwill be happy.\"\n\nAt this moment his dream ended and Pinocchio opened his eyes and awoke.\n\nBut imagine his astonishment when upon awakening he discovered that he\nwas no longer a wooden puppet, but that he had become instead a boy,\nlike all other boys. He gave a glance round and saw that the straw walls\nof the hut had disappeared, and that he was in a pretty little room\nfurnished and arranged with a simplicity that was almost elegance.\nJumping out of bed he found a new suit of clothes ready for him, a new\ncap, and a pair of new boots, that fitted him beautifully.\n\nHe was hardly dressed when he naturally put his hands in his pockets\nand pulled out a little ivory purse on which these words were written:\n\"The Fairy with blue hair returns the five dollars to her dear\nPinocchio, and thanks him for his good heart.\" He opened the purse and\ninstead of five dollars he saw fifty shining gold pieces fresh from the\nmint.\n\nHe then went and looked at himself in the glass, and he thought he was\nsome one else. For he no longer saw the usual reflection of a wooden\npuppet; he was greeted instead by the image of a bright, intelligent boy\nwith chestnut hair, blue eyes, and looking as happy and joyful as if it\nwere the Easter holidays.\n\nIn the midst of all these wonders succeeding each other, Pinocchio felt\nquite bewildered, and he could not tell if he was really awake or if he\nwas dreaming with his eyes open.\n\n\"Where can my papa be?\" he exclaimed suddenly, and, going into the next\nroom, he found old Geppetto quite well, lively, and in good humor, just\nas he had been formerly. He had already resumed his trade of\nwood-carving, and he was designing a rich and beautiful frame of leaves,\nflowers and the heads of animals.\n\n\"Satisfy my curiosity, dear papa,\" said Pinocchio, throwing his arms\naround his neck and covering him with kisses; \"how can this sudden\nchange be accounted for?\"\n\n\"This sudden change in our home is all your doing,\" answered Geppetto.\n\n\"How my doing?\"\n\n\"Because when boys who have behaved badly turn over a new leaf and\nbecome good, they have the power of bringing contentment and happiness\nto their families.\"\n\n\"And where has the old wooden Pinocchio hidden himself?\"\n\n\"There he is,\" answered Geppetto, and he pointed to a big puppet\nleaning against a chair, with its head on one side, its arms dangling,\nand its legs so crossed and bent that it was really a miracle that it\nremained standing.\n\nPinocchio turned and looked at it; and, after he had looked at it for a\nshort time, he said to himself with great complacency:\n\n\"How ridiculous I was when I was a puppet! And how glad I am that I have\nbecome a well-behaved little boy!\"","title":"Pinocchio: The Tale of a Puppet","tradition":"folklore-oral-tradition","translated_text":null,"word_count":42396}