As he went along, thinking over these things, he noticed ahead of him a bird about the size of a canary, which looked at him as if it longed to console him in his misery. It went on before Pinocchio, flying from one branch to another, stopping when the marionette stopped, and moving every time the marionette moved. Pinocchio said to himself: “Does his dear little bird wish to be eaten? I’ll pluck its feathers, stick a twig through it, put it in the sun, and in half an hour it will be cooked and ready to eat.”
While the hungry marionette was giving himself up to this thought, the bird began to sing,
“Pinocchio, my dear,
If you would honey eat,
Come closer to me here,
And you will find a treat.”
Imagine Pinocchio’s surprise! He approached the little songster and looked up. Sure enough, there on a branch of a great tree was a beehive.
One would think that Pinocchio would at least stop to thank the bird, but not he! Up the tree he went like a squirrel, while the bees buzzed about him angrily. The marionette laughed.
“Sting away! sting away, brave bees! I am a marionette and made of wood. You may sting me as much as you please.” He thrust his hand into the hive and drew out a handful of sweet honey.
“This time at least I shall not die of hunger.”
CHAPTER 23
His Adventure With A Lion
The marionette was on the point of filling his mouth a second time, when he heard a frightful roar directly under his feet. The shock almost tumbled him down headfirst. Had he fallen, how unfortunate it would have been! He would have gone straight into the deep mouth of an African lion which was ready to devour him at one gulp.
“Oh, mercy!” cried the marionette. And the lion gave another dreadful roar which seemed to say: “Mercy indeed! I have you now, you little thief.”
“Dear lion,” pleaded Pinocchio, “have pity on a poor orphan lad who is nearly starving!”
The lion roared still louder. “Who has given you permission to take what belongs to another without having earned it by useful and honest work? In this world he who does not work must starve.”
“You are right, my dear lion, you are right. I am ready to pay to the last cent for all the honey I eat, but please don’t seem so angry or I shall die of fear.”
Then the lion stopped roaring, and sitting down upon the ground, he looked at the marionette as if to say: “Well, what are you going to do about it? Are you coming down or not?”
“Listen, my dear lion,” answered Pinocchio; “so long as you stay there, I shall not come down. If you want me to go away and leave the honey, remove yourself a hundred miles or so, and then I will obey you.”
The lion did not move.
For almost an hour Pinocchio sat glued to the tree, not daring to eat the honey or to come down to the waiting lion. The hot rays of the sun beat upon him. He felt that he must die, for hunger, fear, and heat seemed ready to destroy him.
“Surely there must be away out of this,” he thought. “That lion must have in him some spark of kindness. He has made up his mind to keep me company, and perhaps it is my duty to thank him.”
Then the marionette raised his hand to ask permission to speak. It would have been better had he kept still.
At this gesture the lion uttered a roar so loud that it shook the whole forest. He began to lash the ground with his tail, sending up a cloud of dust that nearly choked the marionette, and repeating all the while in lion language, “If you move hand or foot, you will die!”
Pinocchio sat still. Another hour passed in silence. Pinocchio still suffered from the heat and from hunger. Both honey and shade were within easy reach, and he could enjoy neither.
“What an obstinate beast!” he muttered. “How stupid he is to wait there! There is enough room in the forest for us both.”
But the lion did not move, and Pinocchio’s suffering was great. He was sure now that he was going to die, and he looked sadly at those wooden legs which had carried him through so many adventures. There was the shade, but he could not reach it. There was the honey that must not be touched.
“Eat! eat!” said the honey. “Come! come!” said the shade.
Fortunately a new character now arrived on the scene. A magnificent giraffe came along through the bushes, eating the tender shoots as it approached the spot. Pinocchio saw the giraffe and recognized it at once from a picture of one he had seen in school. The lion saw it also. What should he do? Continue to watch the marionette, or attack and carry off the giraffe? He decided to take the giraffe. As the animal raised its head to bite off the leaves from a tall acacia, the lion leaped at its throat and killed it. Seizing the body in his powerful jaws, the lion disappeared through the forest, and Pinocchio was left behind to have his fill of honey. He ate as he had never eaten before.
When he could eat no longer he came down from the tree, but how strange he felt! His eyes were dim, and his head began to swim, while his legs went here and there in every direction. He could not even talk clearly.
“African honey plays jokes upon those who eat too much of it!” he seemed to hear some one say. He turned to see who it was that had spoken to him, but no one was there. The next moment he fell heavily to the ground as if he had been knocked down with a club.
“That is what happens to greedy boys!” continued the voice of the little bird who had shown him the honey, but Pinocchio lay fast asleep.
CHAPTER 24
Pinocchio Is Brought Before The King
Pinocchio had slept for hours when he was aroused by strange sounds. Were these the voices of human beings.
“Yah! Yah! Hoi! Hoi! Uff! Uff!”
What could it possibly be? The marionette opened an eye, but quickly shut it again when he saw a number of coal-black faces turned toward him.
“What do these ugly people want of me?” he asked himself, as he lay there perfectly still.
When Pinocchio next opened his eyes he saw to his great surprise that the men had formed a circle about him. At their chief’s command they began to dance. It was all so funny that Pinocchio could hardly keep from laughing. Then the chief made a sign, at which the savages advanced toward the marionette, took him up by his arms and legs, and started away with him.
“This is not so bad,” thought the marionette.
After a time his bearers laid him gently upon the ground and commenced to examine him. Pinocchio decided to make believe he was dead.
For that reason he kept his eyes shut tightly and lay still.
Suddenly there was a great noise. He was startled. Opening one eye, he saw approaching a chief followed by a crowd of attendants. Judging from the manner in which the new arrivals were received, they were persons of high rank. At their approach the savages knelt down, raised their hands high in the air, and bent their foreheads to the ground.
A man stepped out from the ranks and came toward Pinocchio. He examined the marionette from head to foot, while all the others looked on in silence.
When the examination was over the marionette hoped to be left in peace, but another approached him and went through the same performance. Then came a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on.
Pinocchio was somewhat tired of this. As the last one came up he muttered, “Now I shall see what they are going to do with me.”
The man who had first examined Pinocchio now approached him again, and calling the bearers, said, in a tongue which, curiously enough, the marionette understood, “Turn the little animal over!”
Upon hearing himself called an animal, Pinocchio was seized with a mad desire to give his tormentor a kick, but he thought better of it.
The bearers advanced, took the marionette by the shoulders, and rolled him over.
“Easy! easy! this bed is not too soft,” Pinocchio said to himself.
&n
bsp; A second examination followed, and then another command, “Roll him over again!”
“What do you take me for, a top?” muttered the marionette in a burst of rage. But he pricked up his ears when the man who had been rolling him over turned to another and said, “Your majesty!”
Indeed!” thought Pinocchio, “we are not dealing with ordinary persons! We are beginning to know great people. Let me hear what he has to say about me to his black majesty,” and the marionette listened with the deepest attention.
“Your majesty, my knowledge of the noble art of cooking assures me that this creature”—and he gave Pinocchio a kick—“is an animal of an extinct race. It has been turned into wood, carried by the water to the beach, and then brought here by the wind.”
“Not so bad for a cook,” thought Pinocchio. He felt half inclined to strike out and hit the nose of the wise savage, who had again knelt down to examine him.
“Your majesty,” continued the cook, “this little animal is dead, because if it were not dead—”
“It would be alive,” Pinocchio muttered. “What a beast! How stupid!”
“Because if it were not dead, it would not be so hard. To conclude, had it not been made of wood, I could have cooked it for your majesty’s dinner.”
Pinocchio said to himself: “Listen to this black rascal! Eaten alive! What kind of country have I fallen into? What vulgar people! It’s lucky for me that I am made of wood!”
His majesty then commanded that as the animal was not good to eat it should be buried.
Immediately three or four of the men began to dig a hole, while the unfortunate marionette, half dead with fright, tried to form some plan of escape. The time passed. The hole was dug, and the poor fellow could not think of any plan. Run away! But how? And if they found out that he was alive would he not be cooked and eaten? The marionette did not know what to do.
In the meantime two men had raised him from the ground and stood ready to throw him into the hole. Then in spite of himself, the marionette began to shout at the top of his lungs: “Stop! Stop! I will not be buried alive! Help! Help! My good Fatina!—Fatina!—my Fatina! Help!”
At the first shout the two men who were holding him let him fall to the ground and started off in a great fright. All the others followed their example.
“What funny people!” said Pinocchio. “If I had known that they would all run away like this, I should not have been so uneasy. However, I really do not know why I have come here. If I only knew where to find diamonds and gold, it would not be so hard. I might return home to my father, for who knows how much he is suffering because I am not there!”
At that moment he would have given up the whole trip, but he was too stupid to keep an idea in his head for more than a few seconds. Another thought flashed across his mind, and he forgot his poor father.
“If these people run away, it means that they are afraid, and if they are afraid, it means that they have no courage. Now then, I, being very brave, may in a short time come to rule over everything in Africa. Perhaps—who knows!—I may become a king or an emperor!”
Pinocchio, you lazy dreamer, are you never going to learn wisdom? Only a blockhead like you could be so foolish. A wooden emperor, indeed!
CHAPTER 25
The Monkeys Stone The Marionette
Filled with these hopes and forgetting his fright, Pinocchio set boldly forth without the least alarm at the difficulties of the journey. He was going merrily along, dreaming of all the great things he would do as emperor of Africa, when at a turn in the road there came flying after him a volley of stones. Had any struck him he would have been killed. Astonished and frightened at this strange turn of affairs, he glanced around, but saw no one. He looked up at the trees, and then from right to left, but nobody was in sight.
“This is pleasant!” exclaimed the marionette. “Have those pebbles fallen from the sky?” And he started to go on his way.
He had taken only a few steps, when a second discharge drove him to the shelter of a large tree. Thence he looked carefully in the direction from which the stones continued to come. To his surprise he discovered among the bushes and twigs a large number of monkeys.
“Well! What is this?” cried the marionette. “Those rogues must not be allowed to play such mean tricks. I had better be on my guard.”
He picked up a stout stick lying on the ground near by. To his amazement, the monkeys threw away the stones and began to pick up sticks likewise.
“I hope I shall get through this safely!” thought Pinocchio. He raised his stick and threatened the whole army of monkeys.
The monkeys, as if obeying his command, raised their sticks and held them erect, imitating exactly the action of the marionette. Then Pinocchio lowered his stick, and the monkeys lowered theirs. Again Pinocchio lifted his stick as high as he could, and the monkeys raised theirs, holding them stiffly like soldiers on drill.
“Arms rest!” cried Pinocchio.
All the monkeys, imitating the marionette, lowered their sticks in perfect order, just as soldiers do at the officer’s command.
“That’s a good idea,” thought Pinocchio, “I might become the leader of the monkeys, and within a month conquer all Africa.” And he laughed at the joke.
The monkeys looked straight at him, standing erect and in line waiting for further orders.
“Ah! you wish to follow me!” said the marionette. “This might suit your taste, but not mine, thank you! I will give you marching orders. Then I shall be left in peace.”
Accordingly Pinocchio, who was determined to get away from these annoying beasts, moved two steps forward. The monkeys advanced two steps also. Then he took three steps to the rear, and the monkeys went back three steps.
“At—tention!” and facing about quickly, he started to run. All the monkeys also turned, and began to run in the direction opposite to that taken by the marionette. Pinocchio, laughing at his own cunning, went his way, only now and then turning to watch the dark forms as they disappeared in the distance.
“They all run away in this country,” he said to himself, and he too ran on, fearing that the worthy beasts would return for further orders.
CHAPTER 26
Pinocchio Dreams Again
“If these people are such cowards that they run at the sound of my voice, in a few days I shall be master of all Africa. I shall be a great man. However, this is a country of hunger and thirst and fatigue. I must find a place where I can rest a little before I begin my career of conquest.”
Fortune now seemed to favor Pinocchio. Not far off he thought he saw a group of huts at the foot of a hill. He felt that besides getting rest and shelter, he might also find something to eat. Greedy marionette!
As he approached he was struck by the strangeness of these buildings. They looked like little towers topped with domes. He went along wondering what race of people lived in houses built without windows or doors. He saw no one, and he was filled with a sort of fear.
“Shall I go on or not?” he mused. “Perhaps it would be best to call out, Some one will show me where to go for food and shelter.”
“Hello there!” he said in a low voice. No one answered.
“Hello there!” repeated the marionette a little louder. But there was no answer.
“They are deaf, or asleep, or dead!” concluded the marionette, after calling out at the top of his voice again and again.
Then he thought it might be a deserted village, and he entered bravely between the towers. There was no one to be seen. As he stretched out his tired limbs on the ground he murmured. “Since it is useless to think of eating, I may at least rest.” And in a few minutes he was sound asleep.
He dreamed that he was being pulled along by an army of small insects that resembled ants. It seemed to him that he was making every effort to stop them, but he coul
d not succeed. They dragged and rolled him down a slope toward a frightful precipice, over which he must fall. I even seemed as if they had entered his mouth by hundreds, busying themselves in tearing out his tongue. It served him right, too, because his tongue had made many false promises and caused everybody much suffering.
“You will never tell any more lies!” the ants seemed to say.
Then the marionette awoke with a struggle and a cry of fear. His dream was a reality. He was covered with ants. He brushed them off his face, his arms, his legs,—in short, his whole body. They had tortured him for four or five hours, and only the fact that he was made of very hard wood had saved his life.
“Thanks to my strong constitution.” thought the marionette, “I am as good as new.”
CHAPTER 27
Pinocchio Is Carried Away In An Eggshell
Pinocchio now found himself in a dense growth of shrubbery which made his progress difficult. He pushed on among the thorny plants. They would have stopped any one but a wooden marionette. His clothes were torn, to be sure, but he did not mind that.
“Soon I shall have a suit that will make me look like a price. Goods of the best quality, and tailoring that has never been equaled! The gold, the silver, and the diamonds must be found.” And he went on at a brisk gait as if he had been on the highway.
Trees, shrubs, underbrush, nothing else! The scene would have grown tiresome had it not been for a swarm of butterflies of the most beautiful and brilliant colors. They flew here and there, now letting themselves be carried by the wind, now hovering about in search of the flowers hidden in the thick foliage. From time to time a hare would run between Pinocchio’s feet, and after a few bounds would turn sharply around to stare at him with curious eyes, as much as to say that a marionette was a comical sight. Young monkeys peeped through the leaves, laughed at him, and then scampered away.
The Pinocchio Megapack: 4 Classic Puppet Tales Page 36