Pinocchio
It is impossible to describe the hugging and kissing that followed, the friendly pinches, the brotherly taps that Pinocchio received from the actors and actresses of that puppet company.
It was a very spectacular sight, but the audience, when they saw that the play had stopped, grew impatient and began shouting, ‘The play! We want the play! Go on with the play!’
However, their breath was wasted, for the puppets, instead of continuing the play, redoubled their noise and, placing Pinocchio on their shoulders, carried him in triumph before the footlights.
Suddenly the Showman appeared. He was very tall, and so ugly that he frightened anyone who looked at him. His beard was like black ink, and it was so long that it reached the ground. Believe me, he stepped on it when he walked. His mouth was as big as an oven, his eyes were like two burning red lanterns, and he was constantly cracking a great whip made of serpents and foxes’ tails, twisted together.
When the Showman appeared so unexpectedly, everybody was speechless. No one breathed. You could have heard a fly in the air. Even the poor puppets, male and female, trembled like so many leaves.
‘Why have you come here to disturb my theatre?’ he asked Pinocchio, in a voice like that of a spook with a bad cold in his head.
‘Believe me, Your Honour, it was not my fault.’
‘Not another word! We shall settle our accounts tonight.’
As soon as the show was over, the Showman went into the kitchen, where the whole sheep, which he was preparing for his supper, was roasting on the slowly turning spit.
When he saw that there was not enough wood to finish roasting it, he called Harlequin and Punchinello and said, ‘Bring me in Pinocchio! You will find him hanging on a nail. He is made of nice, dry wood, and I am sure he will make a good fire for my roast.’
At first Harlequin and Punchinello hesitated; but, when the Showman glanced at them menacingly, they obeyed. In a few moments they returned to the kitchen carrying poor Pinocchio, who was wriggling like an eel out of water, and shouting desperately,
‘O Daddy, O Daddy, save me! I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!’
CHAPTER 11
Fire-eater sneezes and pardons Pinocchio, who later saves the life of his friend Harlequin
Fire-eater, for that was the Showman’s name, looked a horrid man, there can be no doubt about it, particularly with his black beard hanging down like an apron covering his chest and legs. Yet at heart, he was really not so bad. When he saw poor Pinocchio struggling and crying, ‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!’ he felt sorry for him and, although he tried not to, at last he could not help it and sneezed violently.
Harlequin, who had been sad and downhearted, and looking like a weeping willow, when he heard that sneeze, became cheerful, and bending towards Pinocchio, whispered, ‘Good news, brother! The Showman has sneezed. That’s a sign that he’s pitying you, and you are saved.’
For you must know that, whilst other men weep, or at least pretend to wipe their eyes, when they pity somebody, whenever Fire-eater really pitied anyone, he had the habit of sneezing.
After the Showman had sneezed, he continued speaking gruffly, and shouted at Pinocchio, ‘Can’t you stop crying? It gives me a nasty feeling in my stomach. I feel such a pain that … that … Atchoo! Atchoo!’ – and this time he sneezed twice.
‘God bless you!’ said Pinocchio.
‘Thank you. And your father and mother, are they alive?’ asked Fire-eater.
‘My father is, but I never knew my mother.’
‘Who knows how sorry your old father would be if I threw you on the fire! Poor old man! I pity him. A-tchoo! A-tchoo! A-tchoo!’ – and he sneezed three times.
‘Bless you!’ cried Pinocchio.
‘Thank you. But on the other hand, you must be sorry for me, too, because, as you see, I haven’t enough wood to finish roasting my mutton – and believe me, you certainly would have been very useful. But now I have spared you, and I must not complain. Instead of you, I shall burn some puppet of my company under the spit. Come on, gendarmes!’
Two wooden gendarmes appeared immediately at this command. They were very tall, and very thin. They wore helmets, and carried drawn swords in their hands.
The Showman ordered them hoarsely, ‘Take that Harlequin, bind him strongly and throw him on the fire. My mutton must be well roasted!’
Imagine poor Harlequin! He was so frightened that his legs bent under him, and he fell on his face.
At this heart-breaking sight, Pinocchio knelt down at the Showman’s feet and, weeping, he soused with tears the whole length of his long beard. Then he pleaded, ‘Have mercy, Sir Fire-eater!’
‘There are no sirs here!’ replied the Showman, sternly.
‘Have mercy, cavalier!’
‘There are no cavaliers here!’
‘Have mercy, commander!’
‘There are no commanders here!’
‘Have mercy, Your Excellency!’
When he heard himself called Your Excellency, the Showman smiled with his lips and, suddenly growing kind and calmer, asked Pinocchio, ‘Well, what can I do for you?’
‘I implore you to pardon poor Harlequin!’
‘It cannot be done. As I pardoned you, I must put him on the fire, for my mutton must be well roasted.’
‘In that case,’ cried Pinocchio, rising and throwing away his cap of bread, ‘in that case, I know my duty. Forward, gendarmes! Bind me and throw me in the fire! It is not just that poor Harlequin, my truest friend, should die for me.’
These words, shouted in a loud, heroic voice, caused all the marionettes present to weep. Even the gendarmes, although made of wood, cried like newborn babies.
At first Fire-eater remained as hard and cold as ice: slowly he began to melt, and to sneeze. When he had sneezed four or five times, he opened his arms affectionately to Pinocchio, saying, ‘You are a good, brave boy! Come here, and give me a kiss.’
Pinocchio ran quickly and, climbing up the Showman’s beard like a squirrel, gave him a loud kiss on the tip of his nose.
‘And is my life spared?’ asked poor Harlequin, in a trembling voice that could hardly be heard.
‘Your life is spared,’ replied Fire-eater. Then he added, shaking his head, ‘Very well, then! This evening I must eat my mutton half done; but another time, woe to him who …!’
When they knew that their brothers were pardoned, all the puppets ran back to the stage, lit all the lights as for a festive performance, and began to jump and dance. They were still dancing at dawn.
CHAPTER 12
Fire-eater gives Pinocchio five pieces of gold to take to his father Geppetto: but Pinocchio is deceived by the fox and the cat, and goes away with them
The next day Fire-eater called Pinocchio aside and asked him, ‘What is your father’s name?’
‘Geppetto.’
‘And what is his trade?’
‘That of a very poor man.’
‘Does he earn very much?’
‘He earns as much as he needs for never having a farthing in his pocket. Just imagine, in order to buy a primer for my schooling, he had to sell his only coat: a coat that was so full of holes and patches that it was shameful.’
‘Poor fellow! I am almost sorry for him. Here are five gold pieces. Hurry up and give them to him, with my compliments.’
As you can well imagine, Pinocchio thanked the Showman a thousand times. One after another he embraced all the puppets of the company, even the gendarmes; then, almost beside himself with joy, he set out for home.
But before he had gone far he met a fox who was lame in one foot, and a cat who was blind in both eyes, getting along as best they could, like good companions in misfortune. The fox, who was lame, was leaning on the cat: and the cat, who was blind, was guided by the fox.
‘Good morning, Pinocchio,’ said the fox, approaching politely.
‘How do you know my name?’ asked the puppet.
‘I know your father well.’
‘Where did you see him?’
‘I saw him yesterday, at the gate of his house.’
‘And what was he doing?’
‘He was in his shirt-sleeves, and trembling with cold.’
‘Poor Daddy! But never mind! From now on, he will shiver no more.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because I am now a rich man.’
‘You? A rich man?’ said the fox. And he began to laugh rudely and scornfully.
The cat laughed, too; but to hide it, she stroked her whiskers with her forepaws.
‘There’s nothing to laugh at,’ cried Pinocchio angrily. ‘I’m really sorry if what I say whets your appetite, but as you can see, there – if you understand such things – are five gold pieces.’ And he showed the money that Fire-eater had given him.
At the fascinating ringing of gold, the fox made an involuntary movement with the paw that seemed lame, and the cat opened wide her two blind eyes, but shut them again so quickly that Pinocchio could not notice.
‘And now,’ asked the fox, ‘what are you going to do with the money?’
‘First of all,’ answered the marionette, ‘I shall buy a beautiful new coat for my father – a coat made of gold and silver, and with diamond buttons. Then I will buy myself a primer.’
‘For yourself?’
‘Of course; for I mean to go to school and study hard.’
‘Look at me,’ said the fox. ‘It is because of my foolish passion for study that I lost the use of my leg.’
‘And look at me,’ said the cat. ‘Because of my foolish passion for study, I lost the sight of both my eyes.’
At that very moment, a white blackbird that was sitting on a hedge by the road sang its usual song, and said, ‘Pinocchio, don’t listen to the advice of evil companions. If you do, you’ll regret it.’
Poor blackbird, if only he had not said it! The cat, with a great leap, jumped upon him and, without giving him time to say ‘oh’, swallowed him in a mouthful, feathers and all.
Having devoured him she wiped her mouth, shut her eyes and shammed blindness as before.
‘Poor blackbird!’ said Pinocchio. ‘Why did you treat him so?’
‘I did it to give him a lesson. He will learn not to be meddlesome again, when other people are talking.’
They had gone nearly half-way towards Pinocchio’s home, when the fox suddenly stopped and said, ‘Would you like to double your fortune?’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Would you like to multiply those five miserable gold pieces into a hundred, a thousand, two thousand times?’
‘Who wouldn’t! But how?’
‘That’s very easy. But instead of going home, you must come with us.’
‘And where are you going?’
‘We are going to Dupeland.’
Pinocchio thought for a moment, and then said resolutely, ‘No, I’m not going. I’m nearly at home, and I want to go to my father, who is waiting for me. Who knows how much he suffered because I didn’t come home? I know I have been a very bad boy, and that the talking cricket was right when he said, “Disobedient children never do any good in this world.” I have learnt it at my expense, for I have suffered many misfortunes! And last night, in Fire-eater’s house, I was nearly … Oh, even to think of it, makes me shiver!’
‘Well, then,’ said the fox, ‘so you really want to go home? Run along, then, and so much the worse for you!’
‘So much the worse for you!’ repeated the cat.
‘Think well, Pinocchio, because you’re losing a fortune!’
‘A fortune!’ repeated the cat.
‘Your five gold pieces might become two thousand in one day!’
‘Two thousand!’ repeated the cat.
‘But how could they possibly become so many?’ demanded Pinocchio, opening his mouth wide in astonishment.
‘I’ll explain it to you right now,’ said the fox.
‘You must know that in Dupeland there is a sacred field called the Field of Miracles. You dig a little hole in this field, and you put in it, let’s say, a gold piece. Then you cover it with earth, water it from the spring with two buckets of water, sprinkle two pinches of salt over it, and go quietly to bed. During the night the gold pieces will grow and blossom; and the next morning, when you get up and go back to the field, what do you find? You find a marvellous tree, laden with as many gold pieces as an ear of corn has grains at harvest-time.’
‘Suppose,’ said Pinocchio, more bewildered than ever, ‘that I buried my five gold pieces in that field, how many should I find there the next morning?’
‘That’s very easy to tell,’ replied the fox. ‘It’s a problem that can be solved on your fingers. Suppose every gold piece yields five hundred gold pieces; multiply five hundred by five, and the next morning you will find in your pocket two thousand five hundred shining gold pieces.’
‘Oh, wonderful!’ shouted Pinocchio, dancing for joy. ‘When I have collected these gold pieces, I shall keep two thousand for myself, and I shall make a present of the other five hundred to both of you.’
‘A present – to us?’ exclaimed the fox, as if offended. ‘God forbid!’
‘God forbid!’ repeated the cat.
‘We do not work for gain,’ said the fox. ‘We do everything for other people.’
‘For other people,’ echoed the cat.
‘What good people!’ thought Pinocchio. And, instantly forgetting his father, the new coat, the primer, and all his good resolutions, he said to the fox and the cat, ‘Well, let’s start! I shall come with you.’
CHAPTER 13
The Red Crab Inn
They walked, and walked, and walked, and finally towards evening, tired out, they arrived at the Red Crab Inn.
‘Let us stop here a little while,’ said the Fox, ‘that we may eat a bite, and rest a few hours. At midnight we must go on again, so that we can reach the Field of Miracles early tomorrow morning.’
They entered the inn, and sat down at a table, but none of them had any appetite.
The poor cat had a bad indigestion, and could eat no more than thirty-five mullet with tomato sauce, and four helpings of tripe with Parmesan cheese; and, because she thought the tripe was not well seasoned, she asked three times for the butter and grated cheese.
The fox, too, would gladly have nibbled at something, but since the doctor had put him on a strict diet, he had to be content with a hare in sweet-savoury sauce, garnished with fat spring chickens and young pullets. After the hare, he ordered a special dish composed of partridges, rabbits, frogs, lizards, and other titbits, but he would not touch anything more. He said he was so disgusted at the sight of food that he could not eat another mouthful.
The one who ate least of all was Pinocchio. He asked for some nuts and some bread, but he left them all on his plate. The poor child’s thoughts were fixed on the Field of Miracles, and he was suffering a mental indigestion of gold pieces.
When they had supped, the fox said to their host, ‘Give us two nice rooms – one for Mr Pinocchio, and the other for me and my friend. We shall take a little nap before we leave. Don’t forget that, at midnight, we must continue our journey.’
‘Yes, sir,’ replied the host, winking at the fox and the cat as if to say, ‘I understand what you are up to. We know each other.’
As soon as he was in bed, Pinocchio fell asleep, and began to dream. He dreamed that he was in the middle of a field, and the field was full of small trees, the branches of which were laden with gold pieces swinging gently in the breeze, and chattering as if to say, ‘Whoever wants us, come and take us!’ But just at the most interesting moment – that is, when Pinocchio stretched out his hand to pick a handful and put them in his pocket – he was suddenly awakened by three violent knocks on the door.
It was the innkeeper, who came to tell him that it was midnight.
‘Are my companions ready?’ asked Pinocchio.
‘Ready! They left two hours ago.’
‘Why were they in such a hurry?’
‘Because the cat received a message that her eldest son was very sick with chilblains, and not expected to live.’
‘Did they pay for our supper?’
‘What an idea! They were far too well-mannered to offer such an insult to a gentleman like you.’
‘That’s too bad! Such an insult would have been a great pleasure!’ said Pinocchio, scratching his head. Then he inquired, ‘And where did those good friends of mine say they would wait for me?’
‘In the Field of Miracles, tomorrow morning, at sunrise.’
Pinocchio paid for his supper, and that of his friends, with a gold piece, and left. It was so dark that he had to grope his way, and it was impossible to see as far as his hand before his face. In the country round him, not a leaf stirred. Only a few night birds, flying across the road from one hedge to the other, brushed Pinocchio’s nose with their wings, frightening him so that he jumped back, crying, ‘Who goes there?’
An echo answered from the distant hills, ‘Who goes there? Who goes there? Who goes there?’
As he walked on he saw a little creature on the trunk of a tree, which shone with a pale faint light, like a night lamp with a china shade.
‘Who are you?’ asked Pinocchio.
‘I am the ghost of the talking cricket,’ was the reply, in a low, low voice, so faint that it seemed to come from another world.
‘What do you want from me?’ said the marionette.
‘I want to give you some advice. Go back home, and carry the four gold pieces you have left to your poor father, who is weeping and longing for you.’
‘Tomorrow my father will be a rich gentleman, for these four gold pieces will have become two thousand.’
‘My boy, never trust people who promise to make you rich in a day. They are generally crazy swindlers. Listen to me, and go back home.’
‘No, on the contrary, I am going forward.’
‘It is very late.’
‘I am going forward.’
‘The night is dark.’
‘I am going forward.’
‘It’s a dangerous road …’
‘I am going forward.’
‘Remember that children who do as they please and want to have their own way, are sorry for it sooner or later.’
‘That’s an old story. Good night, cricket!’
‘Good night, Pinocchio. May Heaven preserve you from dangers and assassins!’
With these words, the talking cricket disappeared as suddenly as when you blow out a candle; and the path was darker than before.
CHAPTER 14
Pinocchio does not listen to the good advice of the talking cricket, and meets the assassins
‘Really,’ said Pinocchio to himself, as he continued his journey, ‘how unfortunate we poor boys are! Everybody scolds us, everybody warns us, everybody advises us. When they talk you would think they are all our fathers, or our school-masters – all of them: even the talking cricket. Just imagine – because I would not listen to that tiresome talking cricket, who knows, according to him, how many misfortunes will befall me? I shall even meet some assassins! Fortunately I don’t believe, and never have believed, in assassins. I am sure that assassins have been invented by fathers to frighten us, so that we should not dare to go out at night. But supposing I should meet them, on the road, would I be afraid of them? Certainly not! I should walk straight up to them and say, “Mr Assassins, what do you want from me? Just remember that there’s no joking with me. You had better be quiet, and go about your business!” If those wretched assassins heard me talking like that, I can just see them running away like the wind. But if, by chance, they didn’t run away, I would and that would be the end of it.’
Pinocchio would have continued his musings, but at that moment he thought he heard a rustling of leaves behind him.
Turning quickly, he saw two frightful black figures wrapped in charcoal sacks leaping towards him on tiptoe, like two spectres.
‘There they are, for sure!’ he said to himself and, not knowing where to hide his gold pieces, he put them in his mouth, under his tongue.
Then he tried to run away; but before he could take the first step, he felt himself seized by his arms, and heard two horrible, cavernous voices cry, ‘Your money, or your life!’
Pinocchio not being able to speak, since the money was in his mouth, made a thousand bows and gestures to show those masked fellows, whose eyes were visible only through holes in the sacks, that he was a poor puppet, and hadn’t even a counterfeit farthing in his pocket.
‘Come, come! Less nonsense, and hand over your money!’ the two brigands cried menacingly.
But the puppet made signs with his hands, as if to say, ‘I haven’t any!’
‘Hand over your money, or you are dead!’ said the taller of the assassins.
‘Dead!’ repeated the other.
‘And after we have killed you, we shall kill your father, too!’
‘Your father, too!’ repeated the other.
‘No, no, no, not my poor father!’ cried Pinocchio in despair. But as he spoke, the gold pieces clinked in his mouth.
‘Ah, ha, you rascal! So you hid your money under your tongue! Spit it out, at once!’
Pinocchio did not obey.
‘Oh, so you cannot hear what we say? Wait a moment, we’ll make you spit it out!’
And one of them seized the puppet by the end of his nose, and the other by his chin, and they pulled without mercy, one up, the other down, to make him open his mouth; but it was no use. Pinocchio’s mouth was as tightly closed as if it had been nailed and riveted.
Then the smaller assassin drew a horrid knife, and tried to force it between his lips, like a chisel, but Pinocchio, quick as lightning, bit off his hand and spat it out. Imagine his astonishment when he saw that it was a cat’s paw he spat to the ground!
Encouraged by this first victory, using his nails he freed himself from the assassins and, jumping over the hedge by the roadside, fled across the country. The assassins ran after him, like dogs after a hare. The smaller one, who had lost a paw, ran on one leg, though goodness knows how he did it.
After they had run miles and miles, Pinocchio was completely exhausted. Seeing himself lost, he climbed a very tall pine-tree, and seated himself on its highest branch. The assassins tried to climb after him, but half-way up they slipped and fell to the ground, hurting their hands and feet.
Yet they did not give up. They gathered a heap of dry sticks at the foot of the tree, and set fire to it. In less than no time the pine started to burn, and blazed like a candle in the wind. Pinocchio, seeing that the flames were mounting fast, and not wanting to end his life like a roasted pigeon, leaped down from the tree-top, and ran again across the fields and vineyards. The assassins followed him, running close without seeming a bit tired.
It was nearly daybreak, and they were still running, when suddenly Pinocchio found the way barred by a wide, deep ditch full of dirty, coffee-coloured water. What was he to do?
‘One, two, three!’ cried the puppet and, dashing forward, he jumped over it. The assassins jumped, too; but they had not judged the distance properly, and – Swash! Splash! – they fell right in the middle of the ditch.
Pinocchio heard the splashing of water and, running, he laughed, and shouted, ‘A good bath to you, Mr Assassins!’
He was sure that they were drowned, when, turning to look, he saw them both running after him, still wrapped in their sacks, from which the water was dripping as if they were two leaky baskets.
CHAPTER 15
The assassins follow Pinocchio and, having caught him, hang him on a branch of the big oak tree
This time, the puppet thought that the end was near. He was ready to fall to the ground and surrender when he noticed a little house, as white as snow, far away among the dark green trees.
‘If I had enough breath to get to that house, perhaps I’d be safe,’ he told himself.
Wasting no time, he ran through the wood, with the assassins on his track.