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‘Neither have I,’ added the good old man, sadly.
Pinocchio, although he was usually very cheerful, became sad, too; for poverty, when it is real poverty, destroys all joy, even in children.
‘Wait,’ Geppetto cried suddenly and, jumping up, he put on his old coat, full of holes and patches, and ran out of the shop.
In a little while he was back again, with a primer in his hand for Pinocchio. But the poor man was in his shirt-sleeves, and it was snowing outside.
‘Where is your coat, Daddy?’
‘I have sold it.’
‘Why did you sell it?’
‘Because it made me too warm.’
Pinocchio understood this answer instantly; and he was so overcome by the feelings of his good heart, that he threw his arms around Geppetto’s neck and kissed him again and again.
CHAPTER 9 (#ulink_850c67c9-0eb5-5d63-af8f-376c3b144116)
Pinocchio sells his primer that he may go and see the marionettes
When it stopped snowing, Pinocchio started for school with his fine new primer under his arm. On the way, he never stopped imagining all sorts of fine plans, and he built a thousand castles in the air, each one more beautiful than the other.
He began by saying to himself, ‘At school today I shall learn to read in no time; tomorrow I shall learn to write, and the day after tomorrow I shall learn all the figures. Then I shall be clever enough to earn lots of money; and with the very first money I get I shall buy my father the nicest, new, cloth coat. But why cloth? It shall be made of gold and silver, with diamond buttons. That poor man really deserves it; for, that I should be a learned man, he sold his coat to buy me a book – in this cold weather, too! Only fathers can make such sacrifices.’
While he was saying this more and more excitedly, he thought he heard music in the distance that sounded like fife and drum: fi-fi-fi … zum, zum, zum, zum.
He stopped and listened. The sounds came from the end of the street that crossed the one which led to school, at the end of the little village near the sea.
‘What can the music be? What a pity I have to go to school! Otherwise …’ He hesitated, deciding whether to go to school or listen to the fifes.
‘Today I shall listen to the fifes, and tomorrow I shall go to school,’ this naughty boy said finally, shrugging his shoulders.
No sooner said than done. He ran, and the farther he ran the more distinctly he heard the tune of the fifes and the beating of the big drum: fi-fi-fi, fi-fi-fi … zum, zum, zum.
At last he came to a little square full of people who were gathered around a great building of boards and cloth, painted in all colours of the rainbow.
‘What is that big building?’ Pinocchio asked a boy who seemed to live there.
‘Read the poster – it is all written there – and then you’ll know.’
‘I’d gladly read it, but I don’t know how to read today.’
‘Bravo, nincompoop! I’ll read it for you. Know, then, that on that big poster, in fiery red letters, is written: GREAT PUPPET show.’
‘Is it long since the play began?’
‘It’s just beginning now.’
‘How much does it cost to go in?’
‘Twopence.’
Pinocchio was in such a fever of curiosity that he lost his self-control and without any shame, he said to the little boy, ‘Will you lend me twopence until tomorrow?’
‘I’d simply love to,’ said the boy, laughing at him, ‘but I can’t today.’
‘I shall sell you my jacket for twopence,’ said the puppet.
‘What could I do with a jacket of flowered paper? If it should rain and got wet, I couldn’t take it off.’
‘Will you buy my shoes?’
‘They’re only good for lighting a fire.’
‘What will you give me for my cap?’
‘That would be a fine bargain! A cap made of bread! The mice might eat it right off my head!’
Pinocchio was sitting on horns. He was almost ready to make one more offer, but he had not the courage. He hesitated, but at last he said, ‘Will you buy this new primer for twopence?’
‘I am only a boy, and I do not buy anything from other boys,’ said the other, having more sense than the puppet.
‘I’ll give you twopence for the primer,’ cried an old-clothes dealer who had overheard the conversation.
The book was sold at once. And to think that poor Geppetto stayed at home shivering in his shirt-sleeves, because he had to sell his coat to buy that primer for his son!
CHAPTER 10 (#ulink_3050fe42-adca-57b8-af5a-efb506e1547a)
The puppets recognize Pinocchio as one of them, and are pleased to see him, but Fire-eater, the Showman, appears in the midst of their joy, and Pinocchio almost comes to a bad end
When Pinocchio entered the puppet show, he nearly caused a revolution. You must know that the curtain was up, and they had just started the play.
Harlequin and Punchinello were on the stage, quarrelling as usual, threatening every moment to come to blows.
The audience paid the closest attention, and were laughing until they were sore to see those two puppets quarrelling and gesticulating and calling each other names, just as if they were truly two reasoning beings, two real persons.
But all at once Harlequin stopped and, turning to the public, pointed to the pit of the theatre, and shouted dramatically:
‘Heavens above! Am I awake, or am I dreaming? That must be Pinocchio there!’
‘Yes, it’s indeed Pinocchio!’ cried Punchinello.
‘It is indeed!’ exclaimed Miss Rosy, peeping from the back of the stage.
‘Here’s Pinocchio! Here’s Pinocchio!’ shouted all the puppets in chorus, running to the stage from every wing. ‘Here’s Pinocchio! Here’s our brother Pinocchio! Hurrah for Pinocchio!’
‘Come up here to me, Pinocchio!’ cried Harlequin. ‘Come and throw yourself into the arms of your wooden brothers!’
At this affectionate invitation, Pinocchio made one jump from the back of the pit to the front seats. Another jump, and he landed on the head of the orchestra leader; and from there he jumped to the stage.
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 (#ulink_c9eb657c-37a4-5ed9-a550-e1a3ddad7939)
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 (#ulink_90fbc368-79fb-554a-898e-991695951342)
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?’
