Geppetto returns home and giveshis own breakfast to the MarionetteThe poor Marionette, who was still half asleep, had notyet found out that his two feet were burned and gone. Assoon as he heard his Father's voice, he jumped up from hisseat to open the door, but, as he did so, he staggered andfell headlong to the floor.
In falling, he made as much noise as a sack of woodfalling from the fifth story of a house.
"Open the door for me!" Geppetto shouted from the street.
"Father, dear Father, I can't," answered the Marionettein 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 animalbusily playing with some shavings in the corner of the room.
"Open! I say," repeated Geppetto, "or I'll give you asound whipping when I get in.""Father, believe me, I can't stand up. Oh, dear!
Oh, dear! I shall have to walk on my knees all my life."Geppetto, thinking that all these tears and cries wereonly other pranks of the Marionette, climbed up the sideof the house and went in through the window.
At first he was very angry, but on seeing Pinocchiostretched out on the floor and really without feet, he feltvery sad and sorrowful. Picking him up from the floor, hefondled and caressed him, talking to him while the tearsran down his cheeks:
"My little Pinocchio, my dear little Pinocchio!
How did you burn your feet?""I don't know, Father, but believe me, the night hasbeen a terrible one and I shall remember it as long as I live.
The thunder was so noisy and the lightning so bright--and I was hungry. And then the Talking Cricket said tome, `You deserve it; you were bad;' and I said to him,`Careful, Cricket;' and he said to me, `You are a Marionetteand you have a wooden head;' and I threw the hammer at him and killed him. It was his own fault, for I didn't wantto kill him. And I put the pan on the coals, but the Chickflew away and said, `I'll see you again! Remember me tothe family.' And my hunger grew, and I went out, and theold man with a nightcap looked out of the window andthrew water on me, and I came home and put my feet onthe stove to dry them because I was still hungry, and I fellasleep and now my feet are gone but my hunger isn't!
Oh!--Oh!--Oh!" And poor Pinocchio began to screamand cry so loudly that he could be heard for miles around.
Geppetto, who had understood nothing of all thatjumbled talk, except that the Marionette was hungry, felt sorryfor him, and pulling three pears out of his pocket, offeredthem to him, saying:
"These three pears were for my breakfast, but I givethem 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. "Ishould never have thought, dear boy of mine, that youwere so dainty and fussy about your food. Bad, very bad!
In this world, even as children, we must accustom ourselvesto eat of everything, for we never know what life mayhold in store for us!""You may be right," answered Pinocchio, "but I will noteat the pears if they are not peeled. I don't like them."And good old Geppetto took out a knife, peeled thethree pears, and put the skins in a row on the table.
Pinocchio ate one pear in a twinkling and started tothrow the core away, but Geppetto held his arm.
"Oh, no, don't throw it away! Everything in this worldmay be of some use!""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 nextto the skins.
Pinocchio had eaten the three pears, or rather devoured them.
Then he yawned 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 nothingelse I'll eat them."At first he made a wry face, but, one after another, theskins and the cores 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 one must not be too fussy and too daintyabout food. My dear, we never know what life may havein store for us!"
可怜的皮诺乔睡眼惺忪，还没看到他的两只脚已经完全烧没了，因此他一听到父亲的声音，马上跳下凳子要跑去开门，可他身子摇了那么两三摇，一下子就直挺挺倒在地板上了。
他倒在地板上这啪哒一声，听着就似是一口袋木勺子从五层楼上落下来似的。
“给我开开门！”这时杰佩扦在外面衔上叫。
“我的爸爸，我开不了门”，木偶回答说，又是哇哇哭，又是在地上打滚。
“为什么开不了？”
“因为我的两只脚给吃掉了。”
“给什么吃吃掉了？”
“给猫”，皮诺乔说。因为这时候他正好看见一只猫，用前脚在玩一些刨花。
“我说，给我开开门！”杰佩托又说一遍，“要不，我进屋子给你只‘猫’！”
“可我站不起来，相信我吧。噢，我真可怜，我真可怜！我一辈子得用膝头跪着走路啦！……”
杰佩托听见木偶又哭又叫，以为又是他在捣鬼，想好好收拾他，于是打窗口爬进屋子。
杰佩托先还想骂他打他，可等到看到他躺在地上，当真没有脚，心马上软了下来，他赶紧搂住皮诺乔的脖子，把他抱在怀里，抚摸了他成千遍，哄了他成千回，大滴大滴的眼泪流下腮帮，哭着说：
“我的好皮诺乔！你的脚怎么烧掉啦？”
“不知道，爸爸，可请您相信，这是个可怕的冬夜，我一辈子也忘不了，又打雷，又闪电，我肚子饿得要命，当时会说话的蟋蟀对我说：‘你是活该，你不好，自作自受，’我对它说：‘你小心点，蟋蟀！……’它对我说：‘你是个木偶，有个木头脑袋，’于是我抓起个木头槌子，扔过去，它就死了，可这都怪它自己，因为我并不想打死它，我把煎锅放在火盆的炭火上，可是小鸡跑出来说：‘再见……给我向您一家人问好’，可肚子越来越饿，因此那个老头儿，戴睡帽的，把头探出窗口，对我说：你在下面站着，把帽子拿好。’我头上挨了那么一盆水，讨点面包吃并不可耻，对吗？我马上回家，因为饿坏了，我把脚搁在火盆上烤干。您回来了，我的脚烧没了。可我这会儿肚子还是那么饿。脚再也没有了！噫……！噫！……噫！……噫！……”。
可怜的皮诺乔说着哭起来，哭得那么响，五公里外都能听见，
杰佩托听他说了半天，只听懂一点，就是木偶饿得要死了。于是他打口袋里掏出三个梨，递给他，说：
“这三个梨是我准备当早饭吃的，可我很高兴给你吃。吃吧，吃了梨就好了。”
“你要是给我吃，请把皮削掉吧。”
“削皮？”杰佩托听了很惊奇，反问说，“我的孩子，我简直不能相信，你的嘴那么刁，你那么难侍候，这可不好！在这个世界上，得从小习惯什么都吃，懂得给什么吃什么，因为你永远不知道会遇到什么事情，什么事情都会有！……”
“您的话是不错，”皮诺乔接下去说，“可我永远不吃不削皮的水果，水果皮我受不了。”
杰佩托是个大好人，就拿出一把小刀，用天使般的耐心，削好了三个梨，把梨皮放在桌子角上。
皮诺乔两口就吃掉了第一个梨。他正要把梨心扔掉，杰佩托拦住他的手，对他说：
“别扔掉。在这个世界上，样样东西都会有用的。”
“可说真的，我不要吃梨心！……”木偶像蛇那么扭来扭去叫道。
“谁知道呢！什么事情都会有！……”杰佩托并不生气，又说了一遍。
就这样，三个梨心没扔出窗口，跟梨皮一起，都放在桌子角上。
皮诺乔吃了三个梨，或者说得准确点，吞下三个梨，打了个很长很长的哈欠，接着又哭也似地说：
“我肚子又饿了！”
“可我的孩子，我再没什么可以给你了。”
“没有了，真的没有了？”
“就剩下这儿一点梨皮和梨心了。”
“没法子，”皮诺乔说，“要是没别的，我就吃块梨皮吧。”
他于是嚼起梨皮来，他先还歪着点嘴，可后来一块接一块，一转眼就把所有的梨皮都吃光了，吃完梨皮，又吃梨心。等到全给吃完，他心满意足地拍拍肚子，兴高采烈地说：
“这会儿我觉得好受了！”
“现在你看，”杰佩托给他指出说，“我刚才对你说没错吧，得学会不要太挑肥拣瘦，不要太嘴刁。我的小宝贝，在这个世界上，咱们永远不知道会遇到什么事情。什么事情都会有！……” |
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