black coffin on their shoulders and I’ll take the glass easily!”
“Come here now and tell me about yourself.”
“Well, the Director gave me five gold pieces to give to my Father. On the way, I met a Fox and a Cat, who asked me, ‘Do you want the five pieces to become two thousand?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’ And they said, ‘Come with us to the Field of Wonders.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go.’ Then they said, ‘Let us stop at the Inn of the Red Lobster for dinner.’ We ate and went to sleep. When I awoke they were absent and I walked alone. On the road I met two Robbers in black coal sacks, who said to me, ‘Your money or your life!’ and I said, ‘I haven’t any money’. You see, the money was under my tongue. One of them tried to put his hand in my mouth and I bit it off. But it wasn’t a hand, it was a cat’s paw. And they ran after me and I ran and ran, till at last they caught me and tied my neck with a rope and hanged me to a tree.”
“Where are the gold pieces now?” the Fairy asked.
“I lost them,” answered Pinocchio, but he told a lie, for he had them in his pocket.
As he spoke, his nose became at least two inches longer.
“And where did you lose them?”
“In the wood.”
At this second lie, his nose grew a few more inches.
“If you lost them in the wood,” said the Fairy, “we’ll look for them and find them.”
“Ah, now I remember,” replied the Marionette. “I did not lose the gold pieces, but I swallowed them when I drank the medicine.”
At this third lie, his nose became longer than ever. The Fairy laughed.
“Why do you laugh?” the Marionette asked her.
“I laugh at your lies.”
“How do you know?”
“My boy, there are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses. Your lies have long noses.”
Pinocchio tried to escape from the room, but his nose was very long.
Chapter 18
Pinocchio finds the Fox and the Cat again
The Marionette mourned for hours over the length of his nose. But it did not go through the door. The Fairy began to feel sorry for him and clapped her hands together. A thousand woodpeckers flew in through the window and settled themselves on Pinocchio’s nose. They pecked and pecked so hard at that enormous nose that in a few moments, it was the same size as before.
“How good you are, my Fairy,” said Pinocchio, “and how much I love you!”
“I love you, too,” answered the Fairy, “and if you wish to stay with me, you may be my little brother and I’ll be your good little sister.”
“I want to stay-but what about my poor father?”
“Before night your father will be here.”
“Really?” cried Pinocchio joyfully. “Then, my good Fairy, I’ll go to meet him. I cannot wait to kiss the dear old man.”
“Surely; go ahead, but be careful! Take the wood path and you’ll surely meet him.”
Pinocchio went out. As soon as he found himself in the wood, he ran like a hare. When he reached the giant oak tree he stopped. He heard a rustle in the brush. He was right. There stood the Fox and the Cat.
“Here comes our dear Pinocchio!” cried the Fox. “How did you happen here?”
“How did you happen here?” repeated the Cat.
“It is a long story,” said the Marionette. “Let me tell it to you. When you left me alone at the Inn, I met the Robbers on the road-”
“The Robbers? Oh, my poor friend! And what did they want?”
“They wanted my gold pieces.”
“Rascals!” said the Fox.
“Yes, rascals!” added the Cat.
“But I began to run,” continued the Marionette, “and they caught me and hanged me to the limb of that oak.”
Pinocchio pointed to the giant oak.
“What an awful world!” said the Fox. “Where shall we find a safe place for gentlemen like ourselves?”
Pinocchio noticed that the Cat carried his right paw in a sling.
“What happened to your paw?” he asked.
The Cat tried to answer, but the Fox helped him,
“My friend is too modest to answer. I’ll answer for him. About an hour ago, we met an old wolf on the road. He was hungry and begged for help. What do you think my friend did kindly? With his teeth, he bit off the paw of his front foot and threw it at that poor beast. So the wolf ate that.”
The Fox wiped off a tear. Pinocchio was almost in tears himself.
“And what do you do here?” the Fox asked the Marionette.
“I want to meet my father, who will be here soon.”
“And your gold pieces?”
“I still have them in my pocket, except one which I spent at the Inn of the Red Lobster.”
“Think that those four gold pieces may become two thousand tomorrow. Why don’t you listen to me? Why don’t you sow them in the Field of Wonders?”
“Today it is impossible. I’ll go with you some other time.”
“Another day will be too late,” said the Fox.
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