If the Cricket's death scared Pinocchio at all, it was only for a veryfew moments. For, as night came on, a queer, empty feeling at the pit ofhis stomach reminded the Marionette that he had eaten nothing as yet.
A boy's appetite grows very fast, and in a few moments the queer, emptyfeeling had become hunger, and the hunger grew bigger and bigger, untilsoon he was as ravenous as a bear.
Poor Pinocchio ran to the fireplace where the pot was boiling andstretched out his hand to take the cover off, but to his amazement thepot was only painted! Think how he felt! His long nose became at leasttwo inches longer.
He ran about the room, dug in all the boxes and drawers, and even lookedunder the bed in search of a piece of bread, hard though it might be,or a cookie, or perhaps a bit of fish. A bone left by a dog would havetasted good to him! But he found nothing.
And meanwhile his hunger grew and grew. The only relief poor Pinocchiohad was to yawn; and he certainly did yawn, such a big yawn that hismouth stretched out to the tips of his ears. Soon he became dizzy andfaint. He wept and wailed to himself: "The Talking Cricket was right. Itwas wrong of me to disobey Father and to run away from home. If he werehere now, I wouldn't be so hungry! Oh, how horrible it is to be hungry!"
Suddenly, he saw, among the sweepings in a corner, something round andwhite that looked very much like a hen's egg. In a jiffy he pounced uponit. It was an egg.
The Marionette's joy knew no bounds. It is impossible to describe it,you must picture it to yourself. Certain that he was dreaming, he turnedthe egg over and over in his hands, fondled it, kissed it, and talked toit:
"And now, how shall I cook you? Shall I make an omelet? No, it is betterto fry you in a pan! Or shall I drink you? No, the best way is to fryyou in the pan. You will taste better."
No sooner said than done. He placed a little pan over a foot warmer fullof hot coals. In the pan, instead of oil or butter, he poured alittle water. As soon as the water started to boil--tac!--he broke theeggshell. But in place of the white and the yolk of the egg, a littleyellow Chick, fluffy and gay and smiling, escaped from it. Bowingpolitely to Pinocchio, he said to him:
"Many, many thanks, indeed, Mr. Pinocchio, for having saved me thetrouble of breaking my shell! Good-by and good luck to you and rememberme to the family!"
With these words he spread out his wings and, darting to the openwindow, he flew away into space till he was out of sight.
The poor Marionette stood as if turned to stone, with wide eyes, openmouth, and the empty halves of the egg-shell in his hands. When he cameto himself, he began to cry and shriek at the top of his lungs, stampinghis feet on the ground and wailing all the while:
"The Talking Cricket was right! If I had not run away from home and ifFather were here now, I should not be dying of hunger. Oh, how horribleit is to be hungry!"
And as his stomach kept grumbling more than ever and he had nothingto quiet it with, he thought of going out for a walk to the near-byvillage, in the hope of finding some charitable person who might givehim a bit of bread.
CHAPTER 6
Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on a foot warmer, and awakens thenext day with his feet all burned off.
Pinocchio hated the dark street, but he was so hungry that, in spite ofit, he ran out of the house. The night was pitch black. It thundered,and bright flashes of lightning now and again shot across the sky,turning it into a sea of fire. An angry wind blew cold and raised denseclouds of dust, while the trees shook and moaned in a weird way.
Pinocchio was greatly afraid of thunder and lightning, but the hunger hefelt was far greater than his fear. In a dozen leaps and bounds, hecame to the village, tired out, puffing like a whale, and with tonguehanging.
The whole village was dark and deserted. The stores were closed, thedoors, the windows. In the streets, not even a dog could be seen. Itseemed the Village of the Dead.
Pinocchio, in desperation, ran up to a doorway, threw himself upon thebell, and pulled it wildly, saying to himself: "Someone will surelyanswer that!"
He was right. An old man in a nightcap opened the window and looked out.He called down angrily:
"What do you want at this hour of night?"
"Will you be good enough to give me a bit of bread? I am hungry."
"Wait a minute and I'll come right back," answered the old fellow,thinking he had to deal with one of those boys who love to roam aroundat night ringing people's bells while they are peacefully asleep.
After a minute or two, the same voice cried:
"Get under the window and hold out your hat!"
Pinocchio had no hat, but he managed to get under the window just intime to feel a shower of ice-cold water pour down on his poor woodenhead, his shoulders, and over his whole body.
He returned home as wet as a rag, and tired out from weariness andhunger.
As he no longer had any strength left with which to stand, he sat downon a little stool and put his two feet on the stove to dry them.
There he fell asleep, and while he slept, his wooden feet began to burn.Slowly, very slowly, they blackened and turned to ashes.
Pinocchio snored away happily as if his feet were not his own. At dawnhe opened his eyes just as a loud knocking sounded at the door.
"Who is it?" he called, yawning and rubbing his eyes.
"It is I," answered a voice.
It was the voice of Geppetto.
CHAPTER 7
Geppetto returns home and gives his own breakfast to the Marionette
The poor Marionette, who was still half asleep, had not yet found outthat his two feet were burned and gone. As soon as he heard his Father'svoice, he jumped up from his seat to open the door, but, as he did so,he staggered and fell headlong to the floor.
In falling, he made as much noise as a sack of wood falling from thefifth story of a house.
"Open the door for me!" Geppetto shouted from the street.
"Father, dear Father, I can't," answered the Marionette in despair,crying and rolling on the floor.
"Why can't you?"
"Because someone has eaten my feet."
"And who has eaten them?"
"The cat," answered Pinocchio, seeing that little animal busily playingwith some shavings in the corner of the room.
"Open! I say," repeated Geppetto, "or I'll give you a sound whippingwhen I get in."
"Father, believe me, I can't stand up. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I shall haveto walk on my knees all my life."
Geppetto, thinking that all these tears and cries were only other pranksof the Marionette, climbed up the side of the house and went in throughthe window.
At first he was very angry, but on seeing Pinocchio stretched out on thefloor and really without feet, he felt very sad and sorrowful. Pickinghim up from the floor, he fondled and caressed him, talking to him whilethe tears ran down his cheeks:
"My little Pinocchio, my dear little Pinocchio! How did you burn yourfeet?"
"I don't know, Father, but believe me, the night has been a terrible oneand I shall remember it as long as I live. The thunder was so noisy andthe lightning so bright--and I was hungry. And then the Talking Cricketsaid to me, 'You deserve it; you were bad;' and I said to him, 'Careful,Cricket;' and he said to me, 'You are a Marionette and you have a woodenhead;' and I threw the hammer at him and killed him. It was his ownfault, for I didn't want to kill him. And I put the pan on the coals,but the Chick flew away and said, 'I'll see you again! Remember me tothe family.' And my hunger grew, and I went out, and the old man with anightcap looked out of the window and threw water on me, and I came homeand put my feet on the stove to dry them because I was still hungry,and I fell asleep and now my feet are gone but my hunger isn't!Oh!--Oh!--Oh!" And poor Pinocchio began to scream and cry so loudly thathe could be heard for miles around.
Geppetto, who had understood nothing of all that jumbled talk, exceptthat the Marionette was hungry, felt sorry for him, and pulling threepears out of his pocket, offered them to him, saying:
"These three pe
ars were for my breakfast, but I give them to you gladly.Eat them and stop weeping."
"If you want me to eat them, please peel them for me."
"Peel them?" asked Geppetto, very much surprised. "I should never havethought, dear boy of mine, that you were so dainty and fussy about yourfood. Bad, very bad! In this world, even as children, we must accustomourselves to eat of everything, for we never know what life may hold instore for us!"
"You may be right," answered Pinocchio, "but I will not eat the pears ifthey are not peeled. I don't like them."
And good old Geppetto took out a knife, peeled the three pears, and putthe skins in a row on the table.
Pinocchio ate one pear in a twinkling and started to throw the coreaway, but Geppetto held his arm.
"Oh, no, don't throw it away! Everything in this world may be of someuse!"
"But the core I will not eat!" cried Pinocchio in an angry tone.
"Who knows?" repeated Geppetto calmly.
And later the three cores were placed on the table next to the skins.
Pinocchio had eaten the three pears, or rather devoured them. Then heyawned deeply, and wailed:
"I'm still hungry."
"But I have no more to give you."
"Really, nothing--nothing?"
"I have only these three cores and these skins."
"Very well, then," said Pinocchio, "if there is nothing else I'll eatthem."
At first he made a wry face, but, one after another, the skins and thecores disappeared.
"Ah! Now I feel fine!" he said after eating the last one.
"You see," observed Geppetto, "that I was right when I told you that onemust not be too fussy and too dainty about food. My dear, we never knowwhat life may have in store for us!"
CHAPTER 8
Geppetto makes Pinocchio a new pair of feet, and sells his coat to buyhim an A-B-C book.
The Marionette, as soon as his hunger was appeased, started to grumbleand cry that he wanted a new pair of feet.
But Mastro Geppetto, in order to punish him for his mischief, let himalone the whole morning. After dinner he said to him:
"Why should I make your feet over again? To see you run away from homeonce more?"
"I promise you," answered the Marionette, sobbing, "that from now onI'll be good--"
"Boys always promise that when they want something," said Geppetto.
"I promise to go to school every day, to study, and to succeed--"
"Boys always sing that song when they want their own will."
"But I am not like other boys! I am better than all of them and I alwaystell the truth. I promise you, Father, that I'll learn a trade, and I'llbe the comfort and staff of your old age."
Geppetto, though trying to look very stern, felt his eyes fill withtears and his heart soften when he saw Pinocchio so unhappy. He saidno more, but taking his tools and two pieces of wood, he set to workdiligently.
In less than an hour the feet were finished, two slender, nimble littlefeet, strong and quick, modeled as if by an artist's hands.
"Close your eyes and sleep!" Geppetto then said to the Marionette.
Pinocchio closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, while Geppettostuck on the two feet with a bit of glue melted in an eggshell, doinghis work so well that the joint could hardly be seen.
As soon as the Marionette felt his new feet, he gave one leap from thetable and started to skip and jump around, as if he had lost his headfrom very joy.
"To show you how grateful I am to you, Father, I'll go to school now.But to go to school I need a suit of clothes."
Geppetto did not have a penny in his pocket, so he made his son a littlesuit of flowered paper, a pair of shoes from the bark of a tree, and atiny cap from a bit of dough.
Pinocchio ran to look at himself in a bowl of water, and he felt sohappy that he said proudly:
"Now I look like a gentleman."
"Truly," answered Geppetto. "But remember that fine clothes do not makethe man unless they be neat and clean."
"Very true," answered Pinocchio, "but, in order to go to school, I stillneed something very important."
"What is it?"
"An A-B-C book."
"To be sure! But how shall we get it?"
"That's easy. We'll go to a bookstore and buy it."
"And the money?"
"I have none."
"Neither have I," said the old man sadly.
Pinocchio, although a happy boy always, became sad and downcast at thesewords. When poverty shows itself, even mischievous boys understand whatit means.
"What does it matter, after all?" cried Geppetto all at once, as hejumped up from his chair. Putting on his old coat, full of darns andpatches, he ran out of the house without another word.
After a while he returned. In his hands he had the A-B-C book for hisson, but the old coat was gone. The poor fellow was in his shirt sleevesand the day was cold.
"Where's your coat, Father?"
"I have sold it."
"Why did you sell your coat?"
"It was too warm."
Pinocchio understood the answer in a twinkling, and, unable to restrainhis tears, he jumped on his father's neck and kissed him over and over.
CHAPTER 9
Pinocchio sells his A-B-C book to pay his way into the MarionetteTheater.
See Pinocchio hurrying off to school with his new A-B-C book underhis arm! As he walked along, his brain was busy planning hundreds ofwonderful things, building hundreds of castles in the air. Talking tohimself, he said:
"In school today, I'll learn to read, tomorrow to write, and the dayafter tomorrow I'll do arithmetic. Then, clever as I am, I can earn alot of money. With the very first pennies I make, I'll buy Father a newcloth coat. Cloth, did I say? No, it shall be of gold and silver withdiamond buttons. That poor man certainly deserves it; for, after all,isn't he in his shirt sleeves because he was good enough to buy abook for me? On this cold day, too! Fathers are indeed good to theirchildren!"
As he talked to himself, he thought he heard sounds of pipes and drumscoming from a distance: pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi. . .zum, zum, zum, zum.
He stopped to listen. Those sounds came from a little street that led toa small village along the shore.
"What can that noise be? What a nuisance that I have to go to school!Otherwise. . ."
There he stopped, very much puzzled. He felt he had to make up his mindfor either one thing or another. Should he go to school, or should hefollow the pipes?
"Today I'll follow the pipes, and tomorrow I'll go to school. There'salways plenty of time to go to school," decided the little rascal atlast, shrugging his shoulders.
No sooner said than done. He started down the street, going like thewind. On he ran, and louder grew the sounds of pipe and drum: pi-pi-pi,pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi . . .zum, zum, zum, zum.
Suddenly, he found himself in a large square, full of people standing infront of a little wooden building painted in brilliant colors.
"What is that house?" Pinocchio asked a little boy near him.
"Read the sign and you'll know."
"I'd like to read, but somehow I can't today."
"Oh, really? Then I'll read it to you. Know, then, that written inletters of fire I see the words: GREAT MARIONETTE THEATER.
"When did the show start?"
"It is starting now."
"And how much does one pay to get in?"
"Four pennies."
Pinocchio, who was wild with curiosity to know what was going on inside,lost all his pride and said to the boy shamelessly:
"Will you give me four pennies until tomorrow?"
"I'd give them to you gladly," answered the other, poking fun at him,"but just now I can't give them to you."
"For the price of four pennies, I'll sell you my coat."
"If it rains, what shall I do with a coat of flowered paper? I could nottake it off again."
"Do you want to buy my shoes?"
"They are only good enough to light a fir
e with."
"What about my hat?"
"Fine bargain, indeed! A cap of dough! The mice might come and eat itfrom my head!"
Pinocchio was almost in tears. He was just about to make one last offer,but he lacked the courage to do so. He hesitated, he wondered, he couldnot make up his mind. At last he said:
"Will you give me four pennies for the book?"
"I am a boy and I buy nothing from boys," said the little fellow withfar more common sense than the Marionette.
"I'll give you four pennies for your A-B-C book," said a ragpicker whostood by.
Then and there, the book changed hands. And to think that poor oldGeppetto sat at home in his shirt sleeves, shivering with cold, havingsold his coat to buy that little book for his son!
CHAPTER 10
The Marionettes recognize their brother Pinocchio, and greet him withloud cheers; but the Director, Fire Eater, happens along and poorPinocchio almost loses his life.
Quick as a flash, Pinocchio disappeared into the Marionette Theater. Andthen something happened which almost caused a riot.
The curtain was up and the performance had started.
Harlequin and Pulcinella were reciting on the stage and, as usual, theywere threatening each other with sticks and blows.
The theater was full of people, enjoying the spectacle and laughing tillthey cried at the antics of the two Marionettes.
The Adventures of Pinocchio Page 2
