The Carabineer heard that and dragged Geppetto to prison. The poor old Geppetto did not know how to defend himself. He wept and wailed like a child and said between his sobs:
“Ungrateful boy! I wanted to make you a good Marionette! I deserve it, however!”
What happened after this is an almost unbelievable story.
Chapter 4
The story of Pinocchio and the Cricket
So poor old Geppetto was in prison. In the meantime that rascal, Pinocchio, ran wildly across fields and meadows, and reached home. The house door was half open. He slipped into the room, locked the door, and threw himself on the floor.
Then he heard:
“Cri-cri-cri!”
“Who is this?” asked Pinocchio, greatly frightened.
“I am!”
Pinocchio turned and saw a large cricket on the wall.
“Tell me, Cricket, who are you?”
“I am the Cricket. I live in this room. One hundred years.”
“Today, however, this room is mine,” said the Marionette, “so get out[8] now.”
“I refuse to leave this spot,” answered the Cricket, “I want to tell you a great truth.”
“Tell it, then, and hurry.”
“Woe to boys who refuse to obey their parents and run away from home! They will never be happy in this world. When they are older they will be very sorry for it.”
“Nonsense. What I know is, that tomorrow, at dawn, I leave this place forever. If I stay here they will send me to school, like other boys and girls. As for me, let me tell you, I hate to study! I think, it’s more interesting to chase after butterflies, climb trees, and steal birds’ nests.”
“Poor little silly! Don’t you know that if you do all that, you will grow into a perfect donkey?”
“Keep still[9], you ugly Cricket!” cried Pinocchio.
But the Cricket, who was a wise old philosopher, continued:
“If you do not like to go to school, why don’t you learn a trade?”
“Shall I tell you something?” asked Pinocchio. “Of all the trades in the world, there is only one that I really like.”
“And what is that?”
“To eat, to drink, to sleep, to play and to wander around from morning till night.”
“Let me tell you, Pinocchio,” said the Cricket in his calm voice, “that you can end up in the hospital or in prison.”
“Careful, ugly Cricket! If you make me angry, you’ll be sorry!”
“Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you.”
“Why?”
“Because you are a Marionette and you have a wooden head.”
At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Cricket.
Oh, my dear children, he hit the Cricket, straight on its head. With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead!
Chapter 5
Pinocchio is hungry and cooks an egg
But the Marionette was hungry. A boy’s appetite grows very fast. Pinocchio ran to the fireplace with the pot and stretched out his hand to take the cover off. To his amazement, the pot was only painted! His long nose became at least two inches longer.
He ran about the room, dug in all the boxes and drawers, and even looked under the bed. No piece of bread, or a cookie, or perhaps a bit of fish! He found nothing.
And meanwhile his hunger grew and grew. Pinocchio began to yawn. Soon he became dizzy and faint. He wept and wailed to himself:
“The Cricket was right. It was wrong of me to disobey Father and to run away from home. Oh, how horrible it is to be hungry!”
Suddenly, he saw in a corner something round and white that looked like a hen’s egg. It was an egg! The Marionette turned the egg over and over in his hands, fondled it, kissed it, and talked to it:
“And now, how shall I cook you? Shall I make an omelet? No, it is better to fry you in a pan! Or shall I drink you? No, the best way is to fry you in the pan.”
He placed a little pan over a foot warmer[10]. In the pan, instead of oil or butter, he poured a little water. As soon as the water started to boil-tac! – he broke the eggshell. But in place of the white and the yolk of the egg, a little yellow chicken escaped from it. The chicken bowed politely to Pinocchio and said to him:
“Many, many thanks, indeed, Signor Pinocchio. Now I’m free! Good-bye!”
With these words he darted to the open window and flew away.
Pinocchio began to cry and shriek:
“The Cricket was right! Oh, how horrible it is to be hungry!”
He decided to go to the nearby village to find some charitable person who might give him a bit of bread.
Chapter 6
Pinocchio sleeps with his feet on a foot warmer
Pinocchio hated the dark street, but he was very hungry and he ran out of the house. The night was black. It thundered. An angry wind blew cold, while the trees shook and moaned in a weird way.
Pinocchio was greatly afraid of thunder and lightning, but the hunger was greater than his fear. He came to the village. The village was dark and deserted. The stores, the doors, the windows were closed. It seemed the Village of the Dead.
Pinocchio, in desperation, ran up to a doorway and pulled the bell wildly. He said to himself: “Someone will surely answer that!”
He was right. An old man in a nightcap opened the window and looked out angrily:
“What do you want at this hour of night?”
“Will you give me a bit of bread? I am hungry.”
“Wait a minute,” answered the old man.
After a minute or two, the same voice cried:
“Get under the window and hold out your hat[11]!”
Pinocchio had no hat. When he got under the window, he felt a shower of ice-cold water on his poor wooden head, his shoulders, and over his whole body. He returned home as wet as a rag.
He sat down on 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.
At dawn Pinocchio opened his eyes. He heard a loud knocking at the door.
“Who is it?” he called.
“It is I,” answered a voice.
It was the voice of Geppetto.
Chapter 7
Geppetto returns home
The poor Marionette did not noticed that he had no legs anymore. As soon as he heard his Father’s voice, he jumped up from his seat to open the door, but staggered and fell headlong to the floor.
“Open the door for me!” Geppetto shouted from the street.
“Father, dear Father, I can’t,” answered the Marionette in despair.
“Why can’t you?”
“Because someone ate my feet.”
“And who ate them?”
“The cat,” answered Pinocchio. He saw that little animal in the corner of the room.
“Open! I say,” repeated Geppetto.
“Father, believe me, I can’t stand up. Oh, dear! Oh, dear! I shall walk on my knees all my life.”
Geppetto thought that all these tears and cries were only other pranks of the Marionette. So he climbed up the side of the house and went in through the window.
At first he was very angry, but then he saw Pinocchio on the floor and really without feet. Geppetto felt very sad and sorrowful. He picked Pinocchio up from the floor, fondled and caressed him:
“My little Pinocchio, my dear little Pinocchio! How did you burn your feet?”
“I don’t know, Father, but believe me, is was a terrible night. The thunder was so noisy and the lightning so bright-and I was hungry. And then the Cricket said to me, ‘You deserve it; you were bad;’ and I said to him, ‘Careful, Cricket.’ Then he said to me, ‘You are a Marionette and you have a wooden head;’ and I threw the hammer at him and killed him. It was his own fault, for I didn’t want to kill him. And I put the pan on the coals, but the Chick flew away. I went out, very hungry, and the old man with a nightcap looked out of the window and threw water on me. I came home and put my feet on the stove to dry them. Now I have no legs and I’m still hungry. Oh! – Oh!-Oh!”
And poor Pinocchio began to scream and cry loudly. Geppetto understood nothing of all that talk, except that the Marionette was hungry. He took three pears out of his pocket and offered them to Pinocchio:
“These three pears were for my breakfast, but I give them to you gladly. Eat them and don’t cry.”
“If you want me to eat them, please peel them for me.”
“Peel them?” asked Geppetto, very much surprised. “My dear boy, you are dainty and fussy. Bad, very bad! In this world, even children must eat everything.”