The Pinocchio Megapack: 4 Classic Puppet Tales

by Carlo Collodi

  “All right! Come along!” said the dolphin, stretching a fin out to help Pinocchio along.

  The marionette started to walk into the water. He had not gone far, however, before his paper suit began to leave him. Hastening back to the shore, he very meekly put on the ray-leather suit which Globicephalous handed to him.

  “Remember, my boy,” said Tursio, “that in this world of ours we must think not only of the beauty but also of the usefulness of things. Also, do not forget that a boy who never learns anything will never be anything.”

  “But I have learned much,” answered Pinocchio. “To prove this to you, I can now tell you of what material this suit is made.”

  “I have told you already. It is of ray leather. Do you know what a ray is?”

  “Surely I know. You may give it another name. Still, it must be that white animal on four legs. You know. The one the shepherds shear during some month or other.”

  “Mercy!” cried Tursio. “You are talking about sheep. They give wool to man.”

  Pinocchio, without moving an eyelid, went on:

  “Yes, that’s true. I have made a mistake. I should have said it is that plant that bears round fruit, that when it opens…”

  “Worse and worse,” interrupted the old dolphin. “What are you talking of, anyway? That is the cotton plant. Marsovino, please explain to this boy, who has read all the books in the world, what a ray is.”

  So Marsovino went on: “A ray is a fish, in shape like a large fan. It has a very long tail, which it uses as a weapon.”

  “To what class of fishes does it belong?” asked Pinocchio.

  “It belongs to the same class as the lampreys, which look like snakes, the torpedo—”

  “Be careful never to touch that fellow,” here interrupted Tursio.

  “—the sawfish and the squaloids—that is, the common shark and the hammerhead.”

  “The saw? The hammer?” observed Pinocchio. “If I find them, I must keep them for my father. He is a carpenter, but so poor that he seldom has money with which to buy tools.”

  “Let us hope that you will never meet the saw, the terrible hammerhead, or even the common shark,” said Tursio.

  Pinocchio made no answer, but in his heart he kept thinking, “I am very much afraid that the dolphins are teaching me, not I the dolphins.”

  Tursio then handed Pinocchio a small shell of very strange shape. It looked like a helmet.

  “Wear this, Pinocchio,” he said. “It will make a pretty cap for you.”

  “It is very pretty. What is it?”

  “It is a very rare shell.”

  “But it is only one shell. Where is its mate?”

  It has none. It is a univalve. That means it has only one shell. The tellines have two shells, and are therefore called bivalve. Another kind looks like a box with—”

  “But does an animal live in there?”

  “Of course. Every shell has its mollusk.”

  “Mollusk?” repeated Pinocchio.

  “Yes. The small animals that live in shells are called by that name. They have a very soft body. By means of a member, called a foot, they get such a strong hold on rocks that it is very hard to tear them off. Some mollusks have a strong golden-colored thread by which they also hang to rocks. Why, people have even made cloth out of these threads.”

  Pinocchio cared little for all this explanation. He looked at himself in the water, and was, after all, very much pleased with himself.

  “This cap seems made for me,” he said. “Too bad I have no feather for it.”

  “Perhaps we shall find one on our journey,” laughed Tursio.

  “Where will you get it? In the sea?”

  “Yes, in the sea,” answered Tursio, in a tone which made the impudent marionette almost believe him.

  CHAPTER IV

  Well, children, let us hasten. If we talk so much, the sun will rise and find us here. Come, Pinocchio! Jump on my back and let us start.”

  There was no need for Tursio to repeat his command. In the twinkling of an eye, Pinocchio was riding on the dolphin’s back, holding on tightly to the dorsal fin.

  “Gallop and gallop, my pretty horse,

  Swiftly over the boundless sea.

  Straight through the water take thy course,

  Till my dear father again I see.

  “Gallop and gallop, my pretty horse,

  Gallop away under the sea.

  Swim to the south, and swim to the north,

  Till my dear father again I see.”

  So sang Pinocchio gleefully.

  Tursio and his swimming companions, with a few shakes of their strong tails, were soon far away from shore. This is not to be wondered at, for dolphins are known to be very swift. Very soon Pinocchio saw nothing but sea and sky. Always holding on tightly to Tursio’s fin, he looked to the right and to the left; but nothing could he see of his dear father.

  “Hold fast, Pinocchio,” suddenly cried Tursio.

  “All right, Mr. Tursio,” replied Pinocchio, but he could say no more. For suddenly, with a great jump, the dolphin was under water.

  What a moment for our poor wooden hero!

  “Now I understand it all,” he thought. “This dolphin wants to get me into the sea that he may eat me at his leisure. Oh, poor me! I shall never again see the light of day.”

  But marvel of marvels! He suddenly awoke to the fact that, instead of drowning, he was breathing easily. Not only that, but he could actually talk!

  “This is strange,” said he. “I have always thought that people would drown in the water.”

  “And it is true,” answered the dolphin, “that men usually drown in the sea. But I have given you the power to live under water. You see, then, you have become a real amphibian.”

  “A real what? What am I now?”

  “An amphibian. That is, you have the power to live both in the air and in the water.”

  “But are there such animals?”

  “Why, of course, child. Frogs, for example, which belong to the Batrachia family. In the water they breathe with branchiae, or gills, and in the air with lungs. Usually, however, the name is given only to those mammals that live in the water and move only with great difficulty on the earth. To this class belong the seals and the sea lions.”

  “Well, then, I shall never drown.”

  “No; and you will have a wonderful journey under the sea. Just hold on to me, and I will carry you. Do not be afraid.”

  “Afraid? Of course not. But I don’t like the darkness very much.”

  “That is too bad. But the darkness will not last very long. You know, I promised that we should make our journey by the light of the sun. Wait awhile.”

  Through the water Tursio went like an arrow, followed by Marsovino and the servant.

  Pinocchio, to gain courage, shut his eyes. When he opened them again, wonder of wonders! Very near to him a large sun was moving back and forth. It looked as if it were alive.

  “The sun at the bottom of the sea!” yelled Pinocchio, frightened almost to death.

  “Do you want me to believe that? You must be a wizard playing tricks on me.

  “I am not a wizard, Pinocchio, and the sun is not a trick. It is nothing more nor less than a fish.”

  “I never heard of such a thing.”

  “And you have been in all the schools of the kingdom! Marsovino, please explain to this boy what a sunfish is.”

  “The sunfish is so called because of the bright light that comes from its body. When several of these fish are together, the sea looks as if it were full of little, shining suns.”

  As usual, Pinocchio was silent. He was beginning to think that even dolphins knew more than he did.

  Stretching out hi
s hand, he touched a small fish that was passing by. Another surprise! As soon as he touched it, it began to swell and swell, until it was as round as a ball. And from this ball, countless points began to stick out.

  “Oh!” yelled Pinocchio again. “What is it this time?”

  “It is only a globefish, my marionette. It is harmless, if you don’t touch it.”

  “But why should it turn into a balloon?”

  “It does that to protect itself,” answered Tursio. “It is possible for the globefish to do that, because it can take in a large quantity of air. With bristles ready, it can then meet the attacks of other fish, as each point is as sharp as a needle.”

  “I never knew that before,” exclaimed Pinocchio, forgetting his previous boast.

  Tursio and Marsovino looked at each other and laughed.

  CHAPTER V

  THE night passed without further adventure. As soon as morning dawned, the four friends rose to the surface. Our marionette was delighted to see the sun again. The pure morning air, though, reminded him that he was hungry. The day before, if you remember, he had eaten very little.

  “I should like something to eat,” he said in a weak voice.

  “Let us go to breakfast,” answered the dolphin. Gayly he dove into the water, and led the party deep into the sea. After a short swim, he stopped. But, unfortunately, the four friends found themselves in a place where there were very few herring and salmon. These, you know, are the dolphin’s favorite food.

  The salmon is a fish that lives both in rivers and in seas. Like the swallow, he looks for warm places in which to pass the winter. So, in large numbers he migrates to the sea at that time of the year, and in the spring he returns to the rivers.

  “This morning our breakfast will be light,” observed Tursio, swallowing three herring at once.

  “I shall not eat anything. I don’t feel very well. Besides, salmon is the only thing I can eat,” said Marsovino.

  Tursio, wishing to please his pupil, started to swim toward two very high rocks. They were so high that their tops stuck out of the water. Very probably they were the base although he looked here, there, and everywhere, he could find no salmon.

  Globicephalous satisfied his hunger with three dozen herring and half a bushel of smelts.

  And Pinocchio? Pinocchio this time certainly did not suff’er from lack of food.

  Tursio had shown him a large rock, attached to which were hundreds of oysters. Some were of the size of a pinhead. Others were as large as a boy’s cap, and these were two years old.

  “Go and have your breakfast,” said Tursio.

  “Must I eat those horrible-looking things?” asked Pinocchio.

  “Open them and see what is inside,” was the reply.

  After Pinocchio had opened and eaten one, he no longer thought of the looks of the oyster shells. He opened and ate so many, that it was a wonder to Marsovino that so small a person could hold so much.

  Suddenly Pinocchio noticed numberless tiny, tiny white specks coming out of some oysters. To him they looked like grains of sand. But when he saw the specks moving and trying hard to attach themselves to rocks, he could not help crying out, “O look at the live sand, Tursio.”

  “Who told you it is live sand?” asked Tursio. “Those are the newborn oysters, looking for a place on which to spend their lives. Where those small grains hang, there the oysters will live, grow, and die.”

  “If no one gets them before that,” added Globicephalous.

  “And are all those little dots oysters?”

  “Yes. All of them. And many of them come from a single oyster, for an oyster gives forth almost two millions of eggs at a time. These little things have so many enemies, however, that very seldom do more than ten of the millions grow old.”

  “Two millions! Then I may eat all I want to,” continued Pinocchio, unmercifully tearing away the poor oysters, young and old.

  “Look, Pinocchio,” here called Tursio, pointing to a small fish, colored with brilliant blues and reds. “That is the stickleback. You may have heard that this fish makes a nest, as do birds. Also that the male, not the female, takes care of the eggs.”

  “Surely I have,” answered Pinocchio, seriously.

  The stickleback seemed to be very much excited. He moved around the nest he had made and watched it anxiously. The cause for this was soon evident. A second stickleback made its appearance from behind the rocks. At once the two engaged in a terrific struggle. They bit each other, used their tails as weapons, and charged each other viciously. During the battle they changed color—to a beautiful blue mottled with silver.

  Pinocchio was struck with wonder. “Look! Look! One is wounded.… He falls.… He dies!” he cried. “And look at the other. How quickly he returns to the nest to guard the eggs!”

  “But how is it,” here asked Marsovino, “that once I saw a stickleback swallow one of his little ones?”

  “If you had followed him, you would later have seen the small fish come safely out of the large one’s mouth,” answered Tursio.

  “But why did the large one swallow the small one?” asked Pinocchio.

  “Because the little one probably wanted to run away from the nest. It was too soon, the little one was too young to take care of himself; so the father took the only means he had to save the youngster from an enemy,” patiently explaijied Tursio.

  Just then a small fish attracted the dolphin’s attention.

  “Boys,” he said, “do you see that tiny fish? It is called the pilot fish. It is the shark’s most faithful friend. Wherever goes the shark, there goes the pilot fish.”

  “Now, Pinocchio,” he continued after a pause, “I shall leave you with Globicephalous. Marsovino and I are going to pay a visit to the dolphin Beluga, who is a great friend of mine. He usually lives health, he has come to warmer waters. We shall return this evening, if all be well. Meet us near those two mountains which are so close together that they form a gorge. You may take a walk with Globicephalous, but be sure to be at that spot tonight.”

  “I am ashamed to be seen with a servant,” began Pinocchio.

  “You are a fine fellow,” answered Tursio, with sarcasm. “Do you know what you should do? Buy a cloak of ignorance and a throne of stupidity, and proclaim yourself King of False Pride of the Old and the New World!”

  With this remark Tursio turned to his pupil, and the two swam away.

  CHAPTER VI

  “Illustrious Mr. Pinocchio,” began Globicephalous, “if you do not wish to stay with me, I can walk by myself. We can meet tonight.”

  “No, Globicephalous, do not leave me,” begged the brave son of Mr. Geppetto, the carpenter. The idea of being alone with all those fish gave him the shivers.

  “But you may be ashamed,” began Globicephalous.

  “Please forget that. Now listen to me. You are a servant, and you can’t have studied much. Still you may know this: Mr. Tursio does not want me to call him a fish. What is he, if not a fish?”

  “Do you think Mr. Tursio would dare tell a lie to such an important personage as you are?” said Globicephalous, who was having some fun all by himself. “Neither Mr. Tursio nor Master Marsovino should be called fish. Nor I either, for that matter.”

  “What are you, then? Birds? You have about their shape, and you live in the water. I know that in the sea there are only fish.”

  “But you are mistaken. To many animals that live in the sea you cannot give the name fish,” continued Globicephalous. “Fish have a flat body, wedge-shaped fore and aft, as the sailors say, so that they may move rapidly both forward and backward. They are each provided with fins and a tail. These fins and the tail enable the fish to swim about in the water. Some fish have only a few fins, others have more. Then the fish has no lungs. It breathes in the water by means of gills. These are
the chief characteristics of fish. But in the sea are many animals which do not possess them.”

  “Please explain yourself,” said Pinocchio, who had understood little.

  “Very well. Listen. There are the cetaceans, to which belong the whales, the narwhals, and the dolphins; the amphibians, to which belong the frogs and the seals; the mollusks, which is what the little animals that live in shells are called; the crustaceans, which is the correct name for the lobsters, crayfishes, and crabs; and the zoophytes, among which are the corals, sponges, and the many varieties of polyps. All these, you must know, are not fish.”

  “What hard names!” said Pinocchio, to whose wooden head these big names meant but little. “What are you, then?”

  “My masters and I are all cetaceans. We cannot stay in the water all the time. We must often come to the surface, because we need air. We have no scales like fishes nor fur like seals, but we have a smooth thick skin under which is a layer of fat.”

  “Thank you. But why, if you and your masters are all dolphins, are you so unlike?”

  “For the simple reason that there are different kinds of dolphins, just as on the earth there are different kinds of dogs. As you have noticed, we are of different shapes and sizes. We have different names, too. I am a globiceps, my master is a tursian, and the young master is a marsouin.”

  “Who would ever think the sea is full of so many wonderful things!”

  “Still you have not seen anything of what there is to see! On all sides there are new things. Look at this,” continued Globicephalous, picking up a shell and showing it to Pinocchio.

  “Well, what is it? A lobster with a flower riding on its back?”

  “Almost that. It is a small crustacean called the hermit crab.”

  “Hermit?”

  “Yes. It is called that because it shuts itself up in a shell as a hermit does in his cell. This crab’s cell is the empty shell of a mollusk. And do you know why it shuts itself up?”