Бесплатный фрагмент - The Adventures of Pinoccio

I

How it came to pass that Master Cherry the carpenter found a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a child.

There was once upon a time…
«A king!» my little readers will instantly exclaim. No, children, you are wrong. There was once upon a time a piece of wood. This wood was not valuable: it was only a common log like those that are burnt in winter in the stoves and fireplaces to make a cheerful blaze and warm the rooms. I cannot say how it came about, but the fact is, that one fine day this piece of wood was lying in the shop of an old carpenter of the name of Master Antonio. He was, however, called by everybody Master Cherry, on account of the end of his nose, which was always as red and polished as a ripe cherry. No sooner had Master Cherry set eyes on the piece of wood than his face beamed with delight; and, rubbing his hands together with satisfaction, he said softly to himself: «This wood has come at the right moment; it will just do to make the leg of a little table.»
Having said this he immediately took a sharp axe with which to remove the bark and the rough surface. Just, however, as he was going to give the first stroke he remained with his arm suspended in the air, for he heard a very small voice saying imploringly, «Do not strike me so hard!»
Picture to yourselves the astonishment of good old Master Cherry!
He turned his terrified eyes all round the room to try and discover where the little voice could possibly have come from, but he saw nobody! He looked under the bench — nobody; he looked into a cupboard that was always shut — nobody; he looked into a basket of shavings and sawdust — nobody; he even opened the door of the shop and gave a glance into the street — and still nobody. Who, then, could it be?
«I see how it is,» he said, laughing and scratching his wig; ’evidently that little voice was all my imagination. Let us set to work again.»
And taking up the axe he struck a tremendous blow on the piece of wood. «Oh! oh! you have hurt me!» cried the same little voice dolefully. This time Master Cherry was petrified. His eyes started out of his head with fright, his mouth remained open, and his tongue hung out almost to the end of his chin, like a mask on a fountain. As soon as he had recovered the use of his speech, he began to say, stuttering and trembling with fear: «But where on earth can that little voice have come from that said Oh! oh!? … Here there is certainly not a living soul. Is it possible that this piece of wood can have learnt to cry and to lament like a child? I cannot believe it. This piece of wood, here it is; a log for fuel like all the others, and thrown on the fire it would about suffice to boil a saucepan of beans…. How then? Can any one be hidden inside it? If any one is hidden inside, so much the worse for him. I will settle him at once.»
So saying, he seized the poor piece of wood and commenced beating it without mercy against the walls of the room. Then he stopped to listen if he could hear any little voice lamenting. He waited two minutes — nothing; five minutes — nothing; ten minutes — still nothing!
«I see how it is,» he then said, forcing himself to laugh and pushing up his wig; ’evidently the little voice that said Oh! oh! was all my imagination! Let us set to work again.»
But as all the same he was in a great fright, he tried to sing to give himself a little courage. Putting the axe aside he took his plane, to plane and polish the bit of wood; but whilst he was running it up and down he heard the same little voice say, laughing: «Have done! you are tickling me all over!»
This time poor Master Cherry fell down as if he had been struck by lightning. When he at last opened his eyes he found himself seated on the floor. His face was quite changed, even the end of his nose, instead of being crimson, as it was nearly always, had become blue from fright.

II

Master Cherry makes a present of the piece of wood to his friend Geppetto, who takes it to make for himself a wonderful puppet, that shall know how to dance, and to fence, and to leap like an acrobat.

At that moment some one knocked at the door.

«Come in,» said the carpenter, without having the strength to rise to his feet.

A lively little old man immediately walked into the shop. His name was Geppetto, but when the boys of the neighbourhood wished to put him in a passion they called him by the nickname of Polendina,because his yellow wig greatly resembled a pudding made of Indian corn.

Geppetto was very fiery. Woe to him who called him Polendina! He became furious, and there was no holding him.

«Good day, Master Antonio,» said Geppetto; ’what are you doing there on the floor?»

«I am teaching the alphabet to the ants.»

«Much good may that do you.»

«What has brought you to me, neighbour Geppetto?»

«My legs. But to say the truth, Master Antonio, I am come to ask a favour of you.»

«Here I am, ready to serve you,» replied the carpenter, getting on to his knees.

«This morning an idea came into my head.»

«Let us hear it.»

«I thought I would make a beautiful wooden puppet; but a wonderful puppet that should know how to dance, to fence, and to leap like an acrobat. With this puppet I would travel about the world to earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine. What do you think of it?»

«Bravo, Polendina!» exclaimed the same little voice, and it was impossible to say where it came from.

Hearing himself called Polendina Geppetto became as red as a turkey-cock from rage, and turning to the carpenter he said in a fury:

«Why do you insult me?»

«Who insults you?»

«You called me Polendina!…»

«It was not I!»

«Would you have it, then, that it was I? It was you, I say!»

«No!»

«Yes!»

«No!»

«Yes!»

And becoming more and more angry, from words they came to blows, and flying at each other they bit, and fought, and scratched manfully.

When the fight was over Master Antonio was in possession of Geppetto’s yellow wig, and Geppetto discovered that the gray wig belonging to the carpenter had remained between his teeth.

«Give me back my wig,» screamed Master Antonio.

«And you, return me mine, and let us make friends.»

The two old men having each recovered his own wig shook hands, and swore that they would remain friends to the end of their lives.

«Well then, neighbour Geppetto,» said the carpenter, to prove that peace was made, ’what is the favour that you wish of me?»

«I want a little wood to make my puppet; will you give me some?»

Master Antonio was delighted, and he immediately went to the bench and fetched the piece of wood that had caused him so much fear. But just as he was going to give it to his friend the piece of wood gave a shake, and wriggling violently out of his hands struck with all its force against the dried-up shins of poor Geppetto.

«Ah! is that the courteous way in which you make your presents, Master Antonio? You have almost lamed me!…»

«I swear to you that it was not I!…»

«Then you would have it that it was I?…»

«The wood is entirely to blame!…»

«I know that it was the wood; but it was you that hit my legs with it!…»

«I did not hit you with it!…»

«Liar!»

«Geppetto, don’t insult me or I will call you Polendina!…»

«Ass!»

«Polendina!»

«Donkey!»

«Polendina!»

«Baboon!»

«Polendina!»

On hearing himself called Polendina for the third time Geppetto, blind with rage, fell upon the carpenter and they fought desperately.

When the battle was over, Master Antonio had two more scratches on his nose, and his adversary had two buttons too little on his waistcoat. Their accounts being thus squared they shook hands, and swore to remain good friends for the rest of their lives.

Geppetto carried off his fine piece of wood, and thanking Master Antonio returned limping to his house.

III

Geppetto having returned home begins at once to make a puppet, to which he gives the name of Pinocchio. The first tricks played by the puppet.

Geppetto lived in a small ground-floor room that was only lighted from the staircase. The furniture could not have been simpler, — a bad chair, a poor bed, and a broken-down table. At the end of the room there was a fireplace with a lighted fire; but the fire was painted, and by the fire was a painted saucepan that was boiling cheerfully, and sending out a cloud of smoke that looked exactly like real smoke. As soon as he reached home Geppetto took his tools and set to work to cut out and model his puppet. «What name shall I give him?» he said to himself; «I think I will call him Pinocchio. It is a name that will bring him luck. I once knew a whole family so called. There was Pinocchio the father, Pinocchia the mother, and Pinocchi the children, and all of them did well. The richest of them was a beggar.»
Having found a name for his puppet he began to work in good earnest, and he first made his hair, then his forehead, and then his eyes. The eyes being finished, imagine his astonishment when he perceived that they moved and looked fixedly at him. Geppetto seeing himself stared at by those two wooden eyes took it almost in bad part, and said in an angry voice: «Wicked wooden eyes, why do you look at me?»
No one answered. He then proceeded to carve the nose; but no sooner had he made it than it began to grow. And it grew, and grew, and grew, until in a few minutes it had become an immense nose that seemed as if it would never end. Poor Geppetto tired himself out with cutting it off; but the more he cut and shortened it, the longer did that impertinent nose become!
The mouth was not even completed when it began to laugh and deride him. «Stop laughing!» said Geppetto, provoked; but he might as well have spoken to the wall. «Stop laughing, I say!» he roared in a threatening tone.
The mouth then ceased laughing, but put out its tongue as far as it would go. Geppetto, not to spoil his handiwork, pretended not to see, and continued his labours. After the mouth he fashioned the chin, then the throat, then the shoulders, the stomach, the arms and the hands. The hands were scarcely finished when Geppetto felt his wig snatched from his head. He turned round, and what did he see? He saw his yellow wig in the puppet’s hand. «Pinocchio! … Give me back my wig instantly!»
But Pinocchio, instead of returning it, put it on his own head, and was in consequence nearly smothered. Geppetto at this insolent and derisive behaviour felt sadder and more melancholy than he had ever been in his life before; and turning to Pinocchio he said to him: «You young rascal! You are not yet completed, and you are already beginning to show want of respect to your father! That is bad, my boy, very bad!»
And he dried a tear. The legs and the feet remained to be done. When Geppetto had finished the feet he received a kick on the point of his nose. «I deserve it!» he said to himself; «I should have thought of it sooner! Now it is too late!»
He then took the puppet under the arms and placed him on the floor to teach him to walk. Pinocchio’s legs were stiff and he could not move, but Geppetto led him by the hand and showed him how to put one foot before the other. When his legs became flexible Pinocchio began to walk by himself and to run about the room; until, having gone out of the house door, he jumped into the street and escaped. Poor Geppetto rushed after him but was not able to overtake him, for that rascal Pinocchio leapt in front of him like a hare, and knocking his wooden feet together against the pavement made as much clatter as twenty pairs of peasants’ clogs. «Stop him! stop him!» shouted Geppetto; but the people in the street, seeing a wooden puppet running like a racehorse, stood still in astonishment to look at it, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until it beats description. At last, as good luck would have it, a carabineer arrived who, hearing the uproar, imagined that a colt had escaped from his master. Planting himself courageously with his legs apart in the middle of the road, he waited with the determined purpose of stopping him, and thus preventing the chance of worse disasters. When Pinocchio, still at some distance, saw the carabineer barricading the whole street, he endeavoured to take him by surprise and to pass between his legs. But he failed signally. The carabineer without disturbing himself in the least caught him cleverly by the nose — it was an immense nose of ridiculous proportions that seemed made on purpose to be laid hold of by carabineers — and consigned him to Geppetto. Wishing to punish him, Geppetto intended to pull his ears at once. But imagine his feelings when he could not succeed in finding them. And do you know the reason? It was that, in his hurry to model him, he had forgotten to make them. He then took him by the collar, and as he was leading him away he said to him, shaking his head threateningly: «We will go home at once, and as soon as we arrive we will regulate our accounts, never doubt it.»
At this announcement Pinocchio threw himself on the ground and would not take another step. In the meanwhile a crowd of idlers and inquisitive people began to assemble and to make a ring round them. Some of them said one thing, some another. «Poor puppet!» said several, ’he is right not to wish to return home! Who knows how Geppetto, that bad old man, will beat him!…»
And the others added maliciously: «Geppetto seems a good man! but with boys he is a regular tyrant! If that poor puppet is left in his hands he is quite capable of tearing him in pieces!…»
It ended in so much being said and done that the carabineer at last set Pinocchio at liberty and conducted Geppetto to prison. The poor man not being ready with words to defend himself cried like a calf, and as he was being led away to prison sobbed out: «Wretched boy! And to think how I have laboured to make him a well-conducted puppet! But it serves me right! I should have thought of it sooner!…»
What happened afterwards is a story that really is past all belief, but I will relate it to you in the following chapters.

IV

The story of Pinocchio and the Talking-cricket, from which we see that naughty boys cannot endure to be corrected by those who know more than they do.

Well then, children, I must tell you that whilst poor Geppetto was being taken to prison for no fault of his, that imp Pinocchio, finding himself free from the clutches of the carabineer, ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. That he might reach home the quicker he rushed across the fields, and in his mad hurry he jumped high banks, thorn hedges, and ditches full of water, exactly as a kid or a leveret would have done if pursued by hunters.

Having arrived at the house he found the street door ajar. He pushed it open, went in, and having secured the latch threw himself seated on the ground and gave a great sigh of satisfaction.

Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the brazier, and wakes in the morning to find them burnt off.

But his satisfaction did not last long, for he heard some one in the room who was saying:

«Cri-cri-cri!»

«Who calls me?» said Pinocchio in a fright.

«It is I!»

Pinocchio turned round and saw a big cricket crawling slowly up the wall.

«Tell me, Cricket, who may you be?»

«I am the Talking-cricket, and I have lived in this room a hundred years and more.»

«Now, however, this room is mine,» said the puppet, ’and if you would do me a pleasure go away at once, without even turning round.»

«I will not go,» answered the Cricket, ’until I have told you a great truth.»

«Tell it me, then, and be quick about it.»

«Woe to those boys who rebel against their parents, and run away capriciously from home. They will never come to any good in the world, and sooner or later they will repent bitterly.»

«Sing away, Cricket, as you please, and as long as you please. For me, I have made up my mind to run away to-morrow at daybreak, because if I remain I shall not escape the fate of all other boys; I shall be sent to school and shall be made to study either by love or by force. To tell you in confidence, I have no wish to learn; it is much more amusing to run after butterflies, or to climb trees and to take the young birds out of their nests.»

«Poor little goose! But do you not know that in that way you will grow up a perfect donkey, and that every one will make game of you?»

«Hold your tongue, you wicked ill-omened croaker!» shouted Pinocchio.

But the Cricket, who was patient and philosophical, instead of becoming angry at this impertinence, continued in the same tone:

«But if you do not wish to go to school why not at least learn a trade, if only to enable you to earn honestly a piece of bread!»

«Do you want me to tell you?» replied Pinocchio, who was beginning to lose patience. «Amongst all the trades in the world there is only one that really takes my fancy.»

«And that trade — what is it?»

«It is to eat, drink, sleep, and amuse myself, and to lead a vagabond life from morning to night.»

«As a rule,» said the Talking-cricket with the same composure, ’all those who follow that trade end almost always either in a hospital or in prison.»

«Take care, you wicked ill-omened croaker! … Woe to you if I fly into a passion!…»

«Poor Pinocchio! I really pity you!…»

«Why do you pity me?»

«Because you are a puppet and, what is worse, because you have a wooden head.»

At these last words Pinocchio jumped up in a rage, and snatching a wooden hammer from the bench he threw it at the Talking-cricket.

At these last words Pinocchio jumped up in a rage, and snatching a wooden hammer from the bench he threw it at the Talking-cricket.

Geppetto lived in a small ground-floor room that was only lighted from the staircase. The furniture could not have been simpler, — a bad chair, a poor bed, and a broken-down table. At the end of the room there was a fireplace with a lighted fire; but the fire was painted, and by the fire was a painted saucepan that was boiling cheerfully, and sending out a cloud of smoke that looked exactly like real smoke. As soon as he reached home Geppetto took his tools and set to work to cut out and model his puppet. «What name shall I give him?» he said to himself; «I think I will call him Pinocchio. It is a name that will bring him luck. I once knew a whole family so called. There was Pinocchio the father, Pinocchia the mother, and Pinocchi the children, and all of them did well. The richest of them was a beggar.»
Having found a name for his puppet he began to work in good earnest, and he first made his hair, then his forehead, and then his eyes. The eyes being finished, imagine his astonishment when he perceived that they moved and looked fixedly at him. Geppetto seeing himself stared at by those two wooden eyes took it almost in bad part, and said in an angry voice: «Wicked wooden eyes, why do you look at me?»
No one answered. He then proceeded to carve the nose; but no sooner had he made it than it began to grow. And it grew, and grew, and grew, until in a few minutes it had become an immense nose that seemed as if it would never end. Poor Geppetto tired himself out with cutting it off; but the more he cut and shortened it, the longer did that impertinent nose become!
The mouth was not even completed when it began to laugh and deride him. «Stop laughing!» said Geppetto, provoked; but he might as well have spoken to the wall. «Stop laughing, I say!» he roared in a threatening tone.
The mouth then ceased laughing, but put out its tongue as far as it would go. Geppetto, not to spoil his handiwork, pretended not to see, and continued his labours. After the mouth he fashioned the chin, then the throat, then the shoulders, the stomach, the arms and the hands. The hands were scarcely finished when Geppetto felt his wig snatched from his head. He turned round, and what did he see? He saw his yellow wig in the puppet’s hand. «Pinocchio! … Give me back my wig instantly!»
But Pinocchio, instead of returning it, put it on his own head, and was in consequence nearly smothered. Geppetto at this insolent and derisive behaviour felt sadder and more melancholy than he had ever been in his life before; and turning to Pinocchio he said to him: «You young rascal! You are not yet completed, and you are already beginning to show want of respect to your father! That is bad, my boy, very bad!»
And he dried a tear. The legs and the feet remained to be done. When Geppetto had finished the feet he received a kick on the point of his nose. «I deserve it!» he said to himself; «I should have thought of it sooner! Now it is too late!»
He then took the puppet under the arms and placed him on the floor to teach him to walk. Pinocchio’s legs were stiff and he could not move, but Geppetto led him by the hand and showed him how to put one foot before the other. When his legs became flexible Pinocchio began to walk by himself and to run about the room; until, having gone out of the house door, he jumped into the street and escaped. Poor Geppetto rushed after him but was not able to overtake him, for that rascal Pinocchio leapt in front of him like a hare, and knocking his wooden feet together against the pavement made as much clatter as twenty pairs of peasants’ clogs. «Stop him! stop him!» shouted Geppetto; but the people in the street, seeing a wooden puppet running like a racehorse, stood still in astonishment to look at it, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed, until it beats description. At last, as good luck would have it, a carabineer arrived who, hearing the uproar, imagined that a colt had escaped from his master. Planting himself courageously with his legs apart in the middle of the road, he waited with the determined purpose of stopping him, and thus preventing the chance of worse disasters. When Pinocchio, still at some distance, saw the carabineer barricading the whole street, he endeavoured to take him by surprise and to pass between his legs. But he failed signally. The carabineer without disturbing himself in the least caught him cleverly by the nose — it was an immense nose of ridiculous proportions that seemed made on purpose to be laid hold of by carabineers — and consigned him to Geppetto. Wishing to punish him, Geppetto intended to pull his ears at once. But imagine his feelings when he could not succeed in finding them. And do you know the reason? It was that, in his hurry to model him, he had forgotten to make them. He then took him by the collar, and as he was leading him away he said to him, shaking his head threateningly: «We will go home at once, and as soon as we arrive we will regulate our accounts, never doubt it.»
At this announcement Pinocchio threw himself on the ground and would not take another step. In the meanwhile a crowd of idlers and inquisitive people began to assemble and to make a ring round them. Some of them said one thing, some another. «Poor puppet!» said several, ’he is right not to wish to return home! Who knows how Geppetto, that bad old man, will beat him!…»
And the others added maliciously: «Geppetto seems a good man! but with boys he is a regular tyrant! If that poor puppet is left in his hands he is quite capable of tearing him in pieces!…»
It ended in so much being said and done that the carabineer at last set Pinocchio at liberty and conducted Geppetto to prison. The poor man not being ready with words to defend himself cried like a calf, and as he was being led away to prison sobbed out: «Wretched boy! And to think how I have laboured to make him a well-conducted puppet! But it serves me right! I should have thought of it sooner!…»
What happened afterwards is a story that really is past all belief, but I will relate it to you in the following chapters.

V

Pinocchio is hungry and searches for an egg to make himself an omelet; but just at the most interesting moment the omelet flies out of the window.

Night was coming on, and Pinocchio, remembering that he had eaten nothing all day, began to feel a gnawing in his stomach that very much resembled appetite.

But appetite with boys travels quickly, and in fact after a few minutes his appetite had become hunger, and in no time his hunger became ravenous — a hunger that was really quite insupportable.

Poor Pinocchio ran quickly to the fireplace where a saucepan was boiling, and was going to take off the lid to see what was in it, but the saucepan was only painted on the wall. You can imagine his feelings. His nose, which was already long, became longer by at least three fingers.

He then began to run about the room, searching in the drawers and in every imaginable place, in hopes of finding a bit of bread. If it was only a bit of dry bread, a crust, a bone left by a dog, a little mouldy pudding of Indian corn, a fish bone, a cherry stone — in fact anything that he could gnaw. But he could find nothing, nothing at all, absolutely nothing.

And in the meanwhile his hunger grew and grew; and poor Pinocchio had no other relief than yawning, and his yawns were so tremendous that sometimes his mouth almost reached his ears. And after he had yawned he spluttered, and felt as if he was going to faint.

Then he began to cry desperately, and he said:

«The Talking-cricket was right. I did wrong to rebel against my papa and to run away from home…. If my papa was here I should not now be dying of yawning! Oh! what a dreadful illness hunger is!»

Just then he thought he saw something in the dust-heap — something round and white that looked like a hen’s egg. To give a spring and seize hold of it was the affair of a moment. It was indeed an egg.

Pinocchio’s joy beats description; it can only be imagined. Almost believing it must be a dream he kept turning the egg over in his hands, feeling it and kissing it. And as he kissed it he said:

«And now, how shall I cook it? Shall I make an omelet? … No, it would be better to cook it in a saucer! … Or would it not be more savoury to fry it in the frying-pan? Or shall I simply boil it? No, the quickest way of all is to cook it in a saucer: I am in such a hurry to eat it!»

Without loss of time he placed an earthenware saucer on a brazier full of red-hot embers. Into the saucer instead of oil or butter he poured a little water; and when the water began to smoke, tac! … he broke the egg-shell over it that the contents might drop in. But instead of the white and the yolk a little chicken popped out very gay and polite. Making a beautiful courtesy it said to him:

«A thousand thanks, Master Pinocchio, for saving me the trouble of breaking the shell. Adieu until we meet again. Keep well, and my best compliments to all at home!»

Thus saying it spread its wings, darted through the open window, and flying away was lost to sight.

The poor puppet stood as if he had been bewitched, with his eyes fixed, his mouth open, and the egg-shell in his hand. Recovering, however, from his first stupefaction, he began to cry and scream, and to stamp his feet on the floor in desperation, and amidst his sobs he said:

«Ah! indeed the Talking-cricket was right. If I had not run away from home, and if my papa was here, I should not now be dying of hunger! Oh! what a dreadful illness hunger is!…»

And as his stomach cried out more than ever and he did not know how to quiet it, he thought he would leave the house and make an excursion in the neighbourhood in hopes of finding some charitable person who would give him a piece of bread.

VI

Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the brazier, and wakes in the morning to find them burnt off.

It was a wild and stormy winter’s night. The thunder was tremendous and the lightning so vivid that the sky seemed on fire. A bitter blusterous wind whistled angrily, and raising clouds of dust swept over the country, causing the trees to creak and groan as it passed. Pinocchio had a great fear of thunder, but hunger was stronger than fear. He therefore closed the house door and made a rush for the village, which he reached in a hundred bounds, with his tongue hanging out and panting for breath, like a dog after game. But he found it all dark and deserted. The shops were closed, the windows shut, and there was not so much as a dog in the street. It seemed the land of the dead.
Pinocchio, urged by desperation and hunger, laid hold of the bell of a house and began to peal it with all his might, saying to himself: «That will bring somebody.»
And so it did. A little old man appeared at a window with a nightcap on his head, and called to him angrily: «What do you want at such an hour?»
«Would you be kind enough to give me a little bread?»
«Wait there, I will be back directly,» said the little old man, thinking he had to do with one of those rascally boys who amuse themselves at night by ringing the house bells to rouse respectable people who are sleeping quietly. After half a minute the window was again opened, and the voice of the same little old man shouted to Pinocchio: «Come underneath and hold out your cap.»
Pinocchio pulled off his cap; but just as he held it out an enormous basin of water was poured down on him, watering him from head to foot as if he had been a pot of dried-up geraniums. He returned home like a wet chicken quite exhausted with fatigue and hunger; and having no longer strength to stand, he sat down and rested his damp and muddy feet on a brazier full of burning embers.
And then he fell asleep; and whilst he slept his feet, which were wooden, took fire, and little by little they burnt away and became cinders. Pinocchio continued to sleep and to snore as if his feet belonged to some one else. At last about daybreak he awoke because some one was knocking at the door. «Who is there?» he asked, yawning and rubbing his eyes. «It is I!» answered a voice. And the voice was Geppetto’s voice.

VII

Geppetto returns home, makes the puppet new feet, and gives him the breakfast that the poor man had brought for himself.

Poor Pinocchio, whose eyes were still half shut from sleep, had not as yet discovered that his feet were burnt off. The moment, therefore, that he heard his father’s voice he slipped off his stool to run and open the door; but after stumbling two or three times he fell his whole length on the floor. And the noise he made in falling was as if a sack of wooden ladles had been thrown from a fifth story.
«Open the door!» shouted Geppetto from the street. «Dear papa, I cannot,» answered the puppet, crying and rolling about on the ground. «Why cannot you?»
«Because my feet have been eaten.»
«And who has eaten your feet?»
«The cat,» said Pinocchio, seeing the cat, who was amusing herself by making some shavings dance with her forepaws. «Open the door, I tell you!» repeated Geppetto. «If you don’t, when I get into the house you shall have the cat from me!»
«I cannot stand up, believe me. Oh, poor me! poor me! I shall have to walk on my knees for the rest of my life!…»
Geppetto, believing that all this lamentation was only another of the puppet’s tricks, thought of a means of putting an end to it, and climbing up the wall he got in at the window. He was very angry, and at first he did nothing but scold; but when he saw his Pinocchio lying on the ground and really without feet he was quite overcome. He took him in his arms and began to kiss and caress him and to say a thousand endearing things to him, and as the big tears ran down his cheeks he said, sobbing: «My little Pinocchio! how did you manage to burn your feet?»
«I don’t know, papa, but believe me it has been an infernal night that I shall remember as long as I live. It thundered and lightened, and I was very hungry, and then the Talking-cricket said to me: «It serves you right; you have been wicked and you deserve it,» and I said to him: «Take care, Cricket!» … and he said: «You are a puppet and you have a wooden head,» and I threw the handle of a hammer at him, and he died, but the fault was his, for I didn’t wish to kill him, and the proof of it is that I put an earthenware saucer on a brazier of burning embers, but a chicken flew out and said: «Adieu until we meet again, and many compliments to all at home»: and I got still more hungry, for which reason that little old man in a nightcap opening the window said to me: «Come underneath and hold out your hat,» and poured a basinful of water on my head, because asking for a little bread isn’t a disgrace, is it? and I returned home at once, and because I was always very hungry I put my feet on the brazier to dry them, and then you returned, and I found they were burnt off, and I am always hungry, but I have no longer any feet! Ih! Ih! Ih! Ih!…» And poor Pinocchio began to cry and to roar so loudly that he was heard five miles off. Geppetto, who from all this jumbled account had only understood one thing, which was that the puppet was dying of hunger, drew from his pocket three pears, and giving them to him said: «These three pears were intended for my breakfast; but I will give them to you willingly. Eat them, and I hope they will do you good.»
«If you wish me to eat them, be kind enough to peel them for me.»
«Peel them?» said Geppetto, astonished. «I should never have thought, my boy that you were so dainty and fastidious. That is bad! In this world we should accustom ourselves from childhood to like and to eat everything, for there is no saying to what we may be brought. There are so many chances!…»
«You are no doubt right,» interrupted Pinocchio, ’but I will never eat fruit that has not been peeled. I cannot bear rind.»
So that good Geppetto fetched a knife, and arming himself with patience peeled the three pears, and put the rind on a corner of the table. Having eaten the first pear in two mouthfuls, Pinocchio was about to throw away the core; but Geppetto caught hold of his arm and said to him: «Do not throw it away; in this world everything may be of use.»
«But core I am determined I will not eat,» shouted the puppet, turning upon him like a viper.
«Who knows! there are so many chances!…» repeated Geppetto without losing his temper. And so the three cores, instead of being thrown out of the window, were placed on the corner of the table together with the three rinds. Having eaten, or rather having devoured the three pears, Pinocchio yawned tremendously, and then said in a fretful tone: «I am as hungry as ever!»
«But, my boy, I have nothing more to give you!»
«Nothing, really nothing?»
«I have only the rind and the cores of the three pears.»
«One must have patience!» said Pinocchio; ’if there is nothing else I will eat a rind.»
And he began to chew it. At first he made a wry face; but then one after another he quickly disposed of the rinds: and after the rinds even the cores, and when he had eaten up everything he clapped his hands on his sides in his satisfaction, and said joyfully: «Ah! now I feel comfortable.»
«You see now,» observed Geppetto, ’that I was right when I said to you that it did not do to accustom ourselves to be too particular or too dainty in our tastes. We can never know, my dear boy, what may happen to us. There are so many chances!…»

VIII

Geppetto makes Pinocchio new feet, and sells his own coat to buy him a Spelling-book.

No sooner had the puppet appeased his hunger than he began to cry and to grumble because he wanted a pair of new feet. But Geppetto, to punish him for his naughtiness, allowed him to cry and to despair for half the day. He then said to him: «Why should I make you new feet? To enable you, perhaps, to escape again from home?»
«I promise you,» said the puppet, sobbing, ’that for the future I will be good.»
«All boys,» replied Geppetto, ’when they are bent upon obtaining something, say the same thing.»
«I promise you that I will go to school, and that I will study and earn a good character.»
«All boys, when they are bent on obtaining something, repeat the same story.»
«But I am not like other boys! I am better than all of them and I always speak the truth. I promise you, papa, that I will learn a trade, and that I will be the consolation and the staff of your old age.»
Geppetto, although he put on a severe face, had his eyes full of tears and his heart big with sorrow at seeing his poor Pinocchio in such a pitiable state. He did not say another word, but taking his tools and two small pieces of well-seasoned wood he set to work with great diligence. In less than an hour the feet were finished: two little feet — swift, well-knit, and nervous. They might have been modelled by an artist of genius. Geppetto then said to the puppet: «Shut your eyes and go to sleep!»
And Pinocchio shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep. And whilst he pretended to sleep, Geppetto, with a little glue which he had melted in an egg-shell, fastened his feet in their place, and it was so well done that not even a trace could be seen of where they were joined. No sooner had the puppet discovered that he had feet than he jumped down from the table on which he was lying, and began to spring and to cut a thousand capers about the room, as if he had gone mad with the greatness of his delight. «To reward you for what you have done for me,» said Pinocchio to his father, «I will go to school at once.»
«Good boy.»
«But to go to school I shall want some clothes.»
Geppetto, who was poor, and who had not so much as a farthing in his pocket, then made him a little dress of flowered paper, a pair of shoes from the bark of a tree, and a cap of the crumb of bread. Pinocchio ran immediately to look at himself in a crock of water, and he was so pleased with his appearance that he said, strutting about like a peacock: «I look quite like a gentleman!»
«Yes indeed,» answered Geppetto, ’for bear in mind that it is not fine clothes that make the gentleman, but rather clean clothes.»
«By the bye,» added the puppet, ’to go to school I am still in want — indeed I am without the best thing, and the most important.»
«And what is it?»
«I have no Spelling-book.»
«You are right: but what shall we do to get one?»
«It is quite easy. We have only to go to the bookseller’s and buy it.»
«And the money?»
«I have got none.»
«No more have I,» added the good old man very sadly. And Pinocchio, although he was a very merry boy, became sad also; because poverty when it is real poverty is understood by everybody — even by boys. «Well, patience!» exclaimed Geppetto, all at once rising to his feet, and putting on his old fustian coat, all patched and darned, he ran out of the house. He returned shortly, holding in his hand a Spelling-book for Pinocchio, but the old coat was gone. The poor man was in his shirt sleeves, and out of doors it was snowing. «And the coat, papa?»
«I have sold it.»
«Why did you sell it?»
«Because I found it too hot.»
Pinocchio understood this answer in an instant, and unable to restrain the impulse of his good heart he sprang up, and throwing his arms round Geppetto’s neck he began kissing him again and again.

IX

Pinocchio sells his Spelling-book that he may go and see a puppet-show.

As soon as it had done snowing Pinocchio set out for school with his fine Spelling-book under his arm. As he went along he began to imagine a thousand things in his little brain, and to build a thousand castles in the air, one more beautiful than the other. And talking to himself he said: «To-day at school I will learn to read at once; then to-morrow I will begin to write, and the day after to-morrow to cipher. Then with my acquirements I will earn a great deal of money, and with the first money I have in my pocket I will immediately buy for my papa a beautiful new cloth coat. But what am I saying? Cloth, indeed! It shall be all made of gold and silver, and it shall have diamond buttons. That poor man really deserves it; for to buy me books and have me taught he has remained in his shirt sleeves…. And in this cold! It is only fathers who are capable of such sacrifices!…»
Whilst he was saying this with great emotion he thought that he heard music in the distance that sounded like fifes and the beating of a big drum: fi-fi-fi, fi-fi-fi, zum, zum, zum, zum. He stopped and listened. The sounds came from the end of a cross street that took to a little village on the seashore. «What can that music be? What a pity that I have to go to school, or else…»
And he remained irresolute. It was, however, necessary to come to a decision. Should he go to school? or should he go after the fifes?
«To-day I will go and hear the fifes, and to-morrow I will go to school,» finally decided the young scapegrace, shrugging his shoulders. The more he ran the nearer came the sounds of the fifes and the beating of the big drum: fi-fi-fi, zum, zum, zum, zum. At last he found himself in the middle of a square quite full of people, who were all crowding round a building made of wood and canvas, and painted a thousand colours.
«What is that building?» asked Pinocchio, turning to a little boy who belonged to the place. «Read the placard — it is all written — and then you will know.»
«I would read it willingly, but it so happens that to-day I don’t know how to read.»
«Bravo, blockhead! Then I will read it to you. The writing on that placard in those letters red as fire is: «GREAT PUPPET THEATRE.»
«Has the play begun long?»
«It is beginning now.»
«How much does it cost to go in?»
«Twopence.»
Pinocchio, who was in a fever of curiosity, lost all control of himself, and without any shame he said to the little boy to whom he was talking: «Would you lend me twopence until to-morrow?»
«I would lend them to you willingly,» said the other, taking him off, ’but it so happens that to-day I cannot give them to you.»
«I will sell you my jacket for twopence,» the puppet then said to him. «What do you think that I could do with a jacket of flowered paper? If there was rain and it got wet, it would be impossible to get it off my back.»
«Will you buy my shoes?»
«They would only be of use to light the fire.»
«How much will you give me for my cap?»
«That would be a wonderful acquisition indeed! A cap of bread crumb! There would be a risk of the mice coming to eat it whilst it was on my head.»
Pinocchio was on thorns. He was on the point of making another offer, but he had not the courage. He hesitated, felt irresolute and remorseful. At last he said: «Will you give me twopence for this new Spelling-book?»
«I am a boy and I don’t buy from boys, replied his little interlocutor, who had much more sense than he had. «I will buy the Spelling-book for twopence,» called out a hawker of old clothes, who had been listening to the conversation. And the book was sold there and then. And to think that poor Geppetto had remained at home trembling with cold in his shirt sleeves, that he might buy his son a Spelling-book!

X

The puppets recognise their brother Pinocchio, and receive him with delight; but at that moment their master Fire-eater makes his appearance and Pinocchio is in danger of coming to a bad end.

When Pinocchio came into the little puppet theatre, an incident occurred that almost produced a revolution.

I must tell you that the curtain was drawn up, and the play had already begun.

On the stage Harlequin and Punchinello were as usual quarrelling with each other, and threatening every moment to come to blows.

The audience, all attention, laughed till they were ill as they listened to the bickerings of these two puppets, who gesticulated and abused each other so naturally that they might have been two reasonable beings, and two persons of the world.

All at once Harlequin stopped short, and turning to the public he pointed with his hand to some one far down in the pit, and exclaimed in a dramatic tone:

«Gods of the firmament! do I dream, or am I awake? But surely that is Pinocchio!…»

«It is indeed Pinocchio!» cried Punchinello.

«It is indeed himself!» screamed Miss Rose, peeping from behind the scenes.

«It is Pinocchio! it is Pinocchio!» shouted all the puppets in chorus, leaping from all sides on to the stage. «It is Pinocchio! It is our brother Pinocchio! Long live Pinocchio!…»

«Pinocchio, come up here to me,» cried Harlequin, ’and throw yourself into the arms of your wooden brothers!»

At this affectionate invitation Pinocchio made a leap from the end of the pit into the reserved seats; another leap landed him on the head of the leader of the orchestra, and he then sprang upon the stage.

The embraces, the hugs, the friendly pinches, and the demonstrations of warm brotherly affection that Pinocchio received from the excited crowd of actors and actresses of the puppet dramatic company beat description.

The sight was doubtless a moving one, but the public in the pit, finding that the play was stopped, became impatient, and began to shout: «We will have the play — go on with the play!»

It was all breath thrown away. The puppets, instead of continuing the recital, redoubled their noise and outcries, and putting Pinocchio on their shoulders they carried him in triumph before the footlights.

At that moment out came the showman. He was very big, and so ugly that the sight of him was enough to frighten any one. His beard was as black as ink, and so long that it reached from his chin to the ground. I need only say that he trod upon it when he walked. His mouth was as big as an oven, and his eyes were like two lanterns of red glass with lights burning inside them. He carried a large whip made of snakes and foxes’ tails twisted together, which he cracked constantly.

At his unexpected appearance there was a profound silence: no one dared to breathe. A fly might have been heard in the stillness. The poor puppets of both sexes trembled like so many leaves.

«Why have you come to raise a disturbance in my theatre?» asked the showman of Pinocchio, in the gruff voice of a hobgoblin suffering from a severe cold in the head.

«Believe me, honoured sir, that it was not my fault!…»

«That is enough! To-night we will settle our accounts.»

As soon as the play was over the showman went into the kitchen where a fine sheep, preparing for his supper, was turning slowly on the spit in front of the fire. As there was not enough wood to finish roasting and browning it, he called Harlequin and Punchinello, and said to them:

«Bring that puppet here: you will find him hanging on a nail. It seems to me that he is made of very dry wood, and I am sure that if he was thrown on the fire he would make a beautiful blaze for the roast.»

At first Harlequin and Punchinello hesitated; but, appalled by a severe glance from their master, they obeyed. In a short time they returned to the kitchen carrying poor Pinocchio, who was wriggling like an eel taken out of water, and screaming desperately: «Papa! papa! save me! I will not die, I will not die!

XI

Fire-eater sneezes and pardons Pinocchio, who then saves the life of his friend Harlequin.

The showman Fire-eater — for that was his name — looked, I must say, a terrible man, especially with his black beard that covered his chest and legs like an apron. On the whole, however, he had not a bad heart. In proof of this, when he saw poor Pinocchio brought before him, struggling and screaming «I will not die, I will not die!» he was quite moved and felt very sorry for him. He tried to hold out, but after a little he could stand it no longer and he sneezed violently. When he heard the sneeze, Harlequin, who up to that moment had been in the deepest affliction, and bowed down like a weeping willow, became quite cheerful, and leaning towards Pinocchio he whispered to him softly:

«Good news, brother. The showman has sneezed, and that is a sign that he pities you, and consequently you are saved.»

For you must know that whilst most men when they feel compassion for somebody either weep, or at least pretend to dry their eyes, Fire-eater on the contrary, whenever he was really overcome, had the habit of sneezing.

After he had sneezed the showman, still acting the ruffian, shouted to Pinocchio:

«Have done crying! Your lamentations have given me a pain in my stomach…. I feel a spasm, that almost… Etci! etci!» and he sneezed again twice.

«Bless you!» said Pinocchio.

«Thank you! And your papa and your mamma, are they still alive?» asked Fire-eater.

«Papa, yes: my mamma I have never known.»

«Who can say what a sorrow it would be for your poor old father if I was to have you thrown amongst those burning coals! Poor old man! I compassionate him! … Etci! etci! etci!» and he sneezed again three times.

«Bless you!» said Pinocchio.

«Thank you! All the same, some compassion is due to me, for as you see I have no more wood with which to finish roasting my mutton, and to tell you the truth, under the circumstances you would have been of great use to me! However, I have had pity on you, so I must have patience. Instead of you I will burn under the spit one of the puppets belonging to my company. Ho there, gendarmes!»

At this call two wooden gendarmes immediately appeared. They were very long and very thin, and had on cocked hats, and held unsheathed swords in their hands.

The showman said to them in a hoarse voice:

«Take Harlequin, bind him securely, and then throw him on the fire to burn. I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.»

Only imagine that poor Harlequin! His terror was so great that his legs bent under him, and he fell with his face on the ground.

At this agonising sight Pinocchio, weeping bitterly, threw himself at the showman’s feet, and bathing his long beard with his tears he began to say in a supplicating voice:

«Have pity, Sir Fire-eater!…»

«Here there are no sirs,» the showman answered severely.

«Have pity, Sir Knight!…»

«Here there are no knights!»

«Have pity, Commander!…»

«Here there are no commanders!»

«Have pity, Excellence!…»

Upon hearing himself called Excellence the showman began to smile, and became at once kinder and more tractable. Turning to Pinocchio he asked:

«Well, what do you want from me?»

«I implore you to pardon poor Harlequin.»

«For him there can be no pardon. As I have spared you he must be put on the fire, for I am determined that my mutton shall be well roasted.»

«In that case,» cried Pinocchio proudly, rising and throwing away his cap of bread crumb — ’in that case I know my duty. Come on, gendarmes! Bind me and throw me amongst the flames. No, it is not just that poor Harlequin, my true friend, should die for me!…»

These words, pronounced in a loud heroic voice, made all the puppets who were present cry. Even the gendarmes, although they were made of wood, wept like two newly-born lambs.

Fire-eater at first remained as hard and unmoved as ice, but little by little he began to melt and to sneeze. And having sneezed four or five times, he opened his arms affectionately, and said to Pinocchio:

«You are a good brave boy! Come here and give me a kiss.»

Pinocchio ran at once, and climbing like a squirrel up the showman’s beard he deposited a hearty kiss on the point of his nose.

«Then the pardon is granted?» asked poor Harlequin in a faint voice that was scarcely audible.

«The pardon is granted!» answered Fireeater: he then added, sighing and shaking his head:

«I must have patience! To-night I shall have to resign myself to eat the mutton half raw; but another time, woe to him who chances!…»

At the news of the pardon the puppets all ran to the stage, and having lighted the lamps and chandeliers as if for a full-dress performance, they began to leap and to dance merrily. At dawn they were still dancing.

XII

The showman Fire-eater makes Pinocchio a present of five gold pieces to take home to his father Geppetto: but Pinocchio instead allows himself to be taken in by the Fox and the Cat, and goes with them.

The following day Fire-eater called Pinocchio on one side and asked him:

«What is your father’s name?»

«Geppetto.»

«And what trade does he follow?»

«He is a beggar.»

«Does he gain much?»

«Gain much? Why, he has never a penny in his pocket. Only think, to buy a Spelling-book for me to go to school, he was obliged to sell the only coat he had to wear — a coat that between patches and darns was not fit to be seen.»

«Poor devil! I feel almost sorry for him! Here are five gold pieces. Go at once and take them to him with my compliments.»

You can easily understand that Pinocchio thanked the showman a thousand times. He embraced all the puppets of the company one by one, even to the gendarmes, and beside himself with delight set out to return home.

But he had not gone far when he met on the road a Fox lame of one foot, and a Cat blind of both eyes, who were going along helping each other like good companions in misfortune. The Fox who was lame walked leaning on the Cat, and the Cat who was blind was guided by the Fox.

«Good day, Pinocchio,» said the Fox, accosting him politely.

«How do you come to know my name?» asked the puppet.

«I know your father well.»

«Where did you see him?»

«I saw him yesterday at the door of his house.»

«And what was he doing?»

«He was in his shirt sleeves and shivering with cold.»

«Poor papa! But that is over; for the future he shall shiver no more!…»

«Why?»

«Because I am become a gentleman.»

«A gentleman — you!» said the Fox, and he began to laugh rudely and scornfully. The Cat also began to laugh, but to conceal it she combed her whiskers with her forepaws.

«There is little to laugh at,» cried Pinocchio angrily. «I am really sorry to make your mouths water, but if you know anything about it, you can see that these here are five gold pieces.»

And he pulled out the money that Fire-eater had made him a present of.

At the sympathetic ring of the money the Fox with an involuntary movement stretched out the paw that had seemed crippled, and the cat opened wide two eyes that looked like two green lanterns. It is true that she shut them again, and so quickly that Pinocchio observed nothing.

«And now,» asked the Fox, what are you going to do with all that money?»

«First of all,» answered the puppet, «I intend to buy a new coat for my papa, made of gold and silver, and with diamond buttons; and then I will buy a Spelling-book for myself.»

«For yourself?»

«Yes indeed: for I wish to go to school to study in earnest.»

«Look at me!» said the Fox. «Through my foolish passion for study I have lost a leg.»

«Look at me!» said the Cat. «Through my foolish passion for study I have lost the sight of both my eyes.»

At that moment a white Blackbird, that was perched on the hedge by the road, began his usual song, and said:

«Pinocchio, don’t listen to the advice of bad companions: if you do you will repent it!…»

Poor Blackbird! If only he had not spoken! The Cat with a great leap sprang upon him, and without even giving him time to say Oh! ate him in a mouthful, feathers and all.

Having eaten him and cleaned her mouth she shut her eyes again and feigned blindness as before.

«Poor Blackbird!» said Pinocchio to the Cat, ’why did you treat him so badly?»

«I did it to give him a lesson. He will learn another time not to meddle in other people’s conversation.»

They had gone almost half-way when the Fox, halting suddenly, said to the puppet:

«Would you like to double your money?»

«In what way?»

«Would you like to make out of your five miserable sovereigns, a hundred, a thousand, two thousand?»

«I should think so! but in what way?»

«The way is easy enough. Instead of returning home you must go with us.»

«And where do you wish to take me.»

«To the land of the Owls.»

Pinocchio reflected a moment, and then he said resolutely:

«No, I will not go. I am already close to the house, and I will return home to my papa who is waiting for me. Who can tell how often the poor old man must have sighed yesterday when I did not come back! I have indeed been a bad son, and the Talking-cricket was right when he said: „Disobedient boys never come to any good in the world.“ I have found it to my cost, for many misfortunes have happened to me. Even yesterday in Fire-eater’s house I ran the risk… Oh! it makes me shudder only to think of it!»

«Well, then,» said the Fox, ’you are quite decided to go home? Go, then, and so much the worse for you.»

«So much the worse for you!» repeated the Cat.

«Think well of it, Pinocchio, for you are giving a kick to fortune.»

«To fortune!» repeated the Cat.

«Between to-day and to-morrow your five sovereigns would have become two thousand.»

«Two thousand!» repeated the Cat.

«But how is it possible that they could have become so many?» asked Pinocchio, remaining with his mouth open from astonishment.

«I will explain it to you at once,» said the Fox. «You must know that in the land of the Owls there is a sacred field called by everybody the Field of miracles. In this field you must dig a little hole, and you put into it, we will say, one gold sovereign. You then cover up the hole with a little earth: you must water it with two pails of water from the fountain, then sprinkle it with two pinches of salt, and when night comes you can go quietly to bed. In the meanwhile, during the night, the gold piece will grow and flower, and in the morning when you get up and return to the field, what do you find? You find a beautiful tree laden with as many gold sovereigns as a fine ear of corn has grains in the month of June.»

«So that,» said Pinocchio, more and more bewildered, ’supposing I buried my five sovereigns in that field, how many should I find there the following morning?»

«That is an exceedingly easy calculation,» replied the Fox, ’a calculation that you can make on the ends of your fingers. Put that every sovereign gives you an increase of five hundred: multiply five hundred by five, and the following morning will find you with two thousand five hundred shining gold pieces in your pocket.»

«Oh! how delightful!» cried Pinocchio, dancing for joy. «As soon as ever I have obtained those sovereigns, I will keep two thousand for myself, and the other five hundred I will make a present of to you two.»

«A present to us?» cried the Fox with indignation, and appearing much offended. «What are you dreaming of?»

«What are you dreaming of?» repeated the Cat.

«We do not work,» said the Fox, ’for dirty interest: we work solely to enrich others.»

«Others!» repeated the Cat.

«What good people!» thought Pinocchio to himself: and forgetting there and then his papa, the new coat, the Spelling-book, and all his good resolutions, he said to the Fox and the Cat:

«Let us be off at once. I will go with you.

XIII

The inn of The Red Craw-fish.