Pinocchio. Carlo Collodi
home, and gives Pinocchio the breakfast that the poor man had brought for himself
Poor Pinocchio’s eyes were still half closed, and he had not noticed that his feet were burnt off. Thus, when he heard his father’s voice, he tumbled down from his stool to run and open the door; but, after staggering a couple of times, he fell his full length on the floor, making a noise as of a whole bag of wooden ladles falling from the fifth storey.
‘Open the door!’ cried Geppetto from the street.
‘I can’t, Daddy,’ answered the marionette, crying, and rolling over and over on the floor.
‘Why not?’
‘Because somebody has eaten my feet!’
‘And who has eaten them?’
‘The cat,’ said Pinocchio, seeing the cat who was just then playing with some shavings with his forepaws.
‘Open the door, I tell you!’ Geppetto cried again. ‘If you don’t, I’ll give you the cat-o’-nine-tails when I get in!’
‘Believe me, I can’t stand up. Oh, poor me! Poor me! I shall have to walk on my knees for the rest of my life!’
Geppetto, thinking that all this complaint was just another of Pinocchio’s tricks, decided to end it for good. He climbed up the wall, and got in at the window.
At first he was angry, and scolded him; but, when he saw his own Pinocchio lying on the floor, and really without feet, his anger vanished.
He took him in his arms, kissed and caressed him, spoke many affectionate words and, with tears on his cheeks, he said, sobbing, ‘My dear little Pinocchio, how did you burn your feet?’
‘I don’t know, Daddy. But believe me, it has been a horrid night. I shall never forget it as long as I live. It thundered and lightninged, and I was very hungry, and the talking cricket said, “It serves you right; you have been wicked and you deserve it!” And I said, “Be careful, cricket!” And he said, “You are a puppet, and you have a wooden head!” And I threw the hammer at him, and he died; but it was his fault, for I didn’t want to kill him. And the proof of that is that I put the pan on the brazier, but the chicken flew away and said, “Good-bye, I shall see you again. Give my love to the folks!” And I got more and more hungry; and for that reason the little old man with the nightcap opened the window, and said, “Stand under the window and hold up your hat!” And I got a kettleful of water on my head. It isn’t a disgrace to ask for a bit of bread, is it? I ran back home as quick as I could; and because I was so very hungry, I put my feet on the brazier to dry them. And then you came home, and I felt that my feet were burnt off, and I’m still so hungry, but I have no more feet! Boo-hoo-hoo!’ And poor Pinocchio began to cry and scream so loudly that he could have been heard five miles away.
Geppetto had only understood one thing of all this jumble of words – that Pinocchio was dying of hunger.
He took three pears out of his pocket, and said, giving them to him, ‘These three pears were for my breakfast, but I willingly give them to you. Eat them, and may they do you good!’
‘If you want me to eat them, kindly peel them for me.’
‘Peel them for you?’ cried Geppetto, astonished. ‘I would never have thought, my lad, that you were so refined and fastidious. That’s too bad! We should get used, from childhood, to eating everything, and liking it; for one never knows what might happen in this curious world.’
‘That’s all very well,’ retorted Pinocchio, ‘but I’ll never eat fruit that isn’t peeled. I can’t stand skins.’
So that patient, kind Geppetto took a knife and peeled the three pears, putting all the peelings on the corner of the table.
When Pinocchio had eaten the first pear in two mouthfuls, he was about to throw away the core, but Geppetto stopped him.
‘Don’t throw it away! There might be some use for it.’
‘Can you imagine I shall ever eat the core?’ cried Pinocchio, turning on him in a rage.
‘Who knows! This is a curious world,’ replied Geppetto, calmly.
So the three cores, instead of being thrown out of the window, were placed on the corner of the table together with the parings.
When he had eaten, or rather devoured the three pears, Pinocchio yawned, and then began to whimper, ‘I’m still hungry.’
‘But, my son, I have nothing more to give you.’
‘Nothing? Nothing at all?’
‘Only the peelings and cores you left.’
‘All right!’ said Pinocchio. ‘If there’s really nothing else, I might eat some peelings.’
And he began promptly. At first he made faces; but, one after another, he quickly ate all the peelings; and after them the cores. And when he had eaten everything, he clapped his stomach and said cheerfully, ‘Now I feel better!’
‘You see,’ said Geppetto, ‘I was right when I said you should not be so refined and fastidious about your food. My dear boy, we never know what might happen to us. This is a curious world.’
Geppetto makes Pinocchio new feet, and sells his own coat to buy him a primer
As soon as the marionette had satisfied his hunger, he began to cry and grumble because he wanted new feet.
But Geppetto, in order to punish him for all his naughtiness, let him cry and complain for half a day. Then he said, ‘Why should I make you new feet? So that you may escape from home again?’
‘I promise,’ said the marionette, sobbing, ‘that from now on I’ll be good.’
‘All children, when they want something, tell the same story,’ replied Geppetto.
‘I promise to go to school, and study, and do my best as a good boy should –’
‘All children, when they want something, say the same thing.’
‘But I’m not like other children! I’m better than all of them, and I always tell the truth. I promise you, daddy, that I shall learn a trade, and be the staff and comfort of your old age.’
Geppetto tried to look very severe; but his eyes were full of tears, and his heart was full of sadness when he saw his poor Pinocchio in such a dreadful state. He did not say another word, but, taking his tools and two little pieces of seasoned wood, he set to work as hard as he could.
In less than an hour the feet were ready – two well-shaped, nimble swift little feet that might have been carved by a great artist.
Then Geppetto said to Pinocchio, ‘Shut your eyes and go to sleep.’
Pinocchio shut his eyes, and pretended to be asleep. And while he did so Geppetto, with some glue melted in an eggshell, fastened the feet in place; and he did it so neatly that no one could even see where they were joined together. As soon as Pinocchio discovered he had his feet again, he jumped down from the table where he was lying and began to gambol and dance around the room, nearly mad with joy.
‘Now, to prove to you how grateful I am,’ said Pinocchio to his father, ‘I want to go to school at once.’
‘What a good boy!’
‘But if I’m going to school, I must have some clothes.’
Geppetto, who was poor and had not a farthing in his pocket, made Pinocchio a suit out of flowered paper, a pair of shoes out of bark from a tree, and a cap out of bread.
Pinocchio ran to look at himself in a basin of water; and he was so pleased with himself that he said, as he strutted about, ‘I look