the main road that was to take him to the Fairy's house.
When he reached it, he looked into the
valley far below
him and there he saw the wood where unluckily he had
met the Fox and the Cat, and the tall oak tree where he
had been hanged; but though he searched far and near, he
could not see the house where the Fairy with the Azure
Hair lived.
He became
terribly frightened and,
running as fast as he
could, he finally came to the spot where it had once stood.
The little house was no longer there. In its place lay a
small
marble slab, which bore this sad inscription:
HERE LIES
THE LOVELY FAIRY WITH AZURE HAIR
WHO DIED OF GRIEF
WHEN ABANDONED BY
HER LITTLE BROTHER PINOCCHIO
The poor Marionette was heartbroken at
reading these
words. He fell to the ground and, covering the cold
marblewith kisses, burst into bitter tears. He cried all night, and
dawn found him still there, though his tears had dried
and only hard, dry sobs shook his
wooden frame. But
these were so loud that they could be heard by the
faraway hills.
As he sobbed he said to himself:
"Oh, my Fairy, my dear, dear Fairy, why did you die?
Why did I not die, who am so bad, instead of you, who
are so good? And my father--where can he be? Please
dear Fairy, tell me where he is and I shall never, never
leave him again! You are not really dead, are you? If you
love me, you will come back, alive as before. Don't you
feel sorry for me? I'm so
lonely. If the two Assassins come,
they'll hang me again from the giant oak tree and I will
really die, this time. What shall I do alone in the world?
Now that you are dead and my father is lost, where shall
I eat? Where shall I sleep? Who will make my new
clothes? Oh, I want to die! Yes, I want to die! Oh, oh, oh!"
Poor Pinocchio! He even tried to tear his hair, but as it
was only painted on his
wooden head, he could not even pull it.
Just then a large Pigeon flew far above him. Seeing the
Marionette, he cried to him:
"Tell me, little boy, what are you doing there?"
"Can't you see? I'm crying," cried Pinocchio, lifting his
head toward the voice and rubbing his eyes with his sleeve.
"Tell me," asked the Pigeon, "do you by chance know
of a Marionette, Pinocchio by name?"
"Pinocchio! Did you say Pinocchio?" replied the
Marionette, jumping to his feet. "Why, I am Pinocchio!"
At this answer, the Pigeon flew
swiftly down to the earth.
He was much larger than a turkey.
"Then you know Geppetto also?"
"Do I know him? He's my father, my poor, dear father!
Has he, perhaps,
spoken to you of me? Will you take me to him?
Is he still alive? Answer me, please! Is he still alive?"
"I left him three days ago on the shore of a large sea."
"What was he doing?"
"He was building a little boat with which to cross the ocean.
For the last four months, that poor man has been wandering
around Europe, looking for you. Not having found you yet,
he has made up his mind to look for you in the New World,
far across the ocean."
"How far is it from here to the shore?" asked Pinocchio anxiously.
"More than fifty miles."
"Fifty miles? Oh, dear Pigeon, how I wish I had your wings!"
"If you want to come, I'll take you with me."
"How?"
"Astride my back. Are you very heavy?"
"Heavy? Not at all. I'm only a feather."
"Very well."
Saying nothing more, Pinocchio jumped on the Pigeon's
back and, as he settled himself, he cried out gayly:
"Gallop on,
gallop on, my pretty steed! I'm in a great hurry."
The Pigeon flew away, and in a few minutes he had
reached the clouds. The Marionette looked to see what
was below them. His head swam and he was so frightened
that he clutched wildly at the Pigeon's neck to keep
himself from falling.
They flew all day. Toward evening the Pigeon said:
"I'm very thirsty!"
"And I'm very hungry!" said Pinocchio.
"Let us stop a few minutes at that
pigeon coop down there.
Then we can go on and be at the
seashore in the morning."
They went into the empty coop and there they found nothing but
a bowl of water and a small basket filled with chick-peas.
The Marionette had always hated chick-peas. According
to him, they had always made him sick; but that night
he ate them with a
relish. As he finished them, he turned
to the Pigeon and said:
"I never should have thought that chick-peas could be so good!"
"You must remember, my boy," answered the Pigeon,
"that
hunger is the best sauce!"
After resting a few minutes longer, they set out again.
The next morning they were at the
seashore.
Pinocchio jumped off the Pigeon's back, and the Pigeon,
not
wanting any thanks for a kind deed, flew away
swiftlyand disappeared.
The shore was full of people, shrieking and tearing their
hair as they looked toward the sea.
"What has happened?" asked Pinocchio of a little old woman.
"A poor old father lost his only son some time ago and
today he built a tiny boat for himself in order to go in
search of him across the ocean. The water is very rough
and we're afraid he will be drowned."
"Where is the little boat?"
"There. Straight down there," answered the little old woman,
pointing to a tiny shadow, no bigger than a nutshell,
floating on the sea.
Pinocchio looked closely for a few minutes and then gave a sharp cry:
"It's my father! It's my father!"
Meanwhile, the little boat, tossed about by the angry
waters, appeared and disappeared in the waves. And Pinocchio,
standing on a high rock, tired out with searching,
waved to him with hand and cap and even with his nose.
It looked as if Geppetto, though far away from the
shore, recognized his son, for he took off his cap and
waved also. He seemed to be
trying to make everyone
understand that he would come back if he were able, but
the sea was so heavy that he could do nothing with his oars.
Suddenly a huge wave came and the boat disappeared.
They waited and waited for it, but it was gone.
"Poor man!" said the
fisher folk on the shore, whispering
a prayer as they turned to go home.
Just then a
desperate cry was heard. Turning around,
the
fisher folk saw Pinocchio dive into the sea and heard
him cry out:
"I'll save him! I'll save my father!"
The Marionette, being made of wood, floated easily
along and swam like a fish in the rough water. Now and
again he disappeared only to
reappear once more. In a
twinkling, he was far away from land. At last he was
completely lost to view.
"Poor boy!" cried the
fisher folk on the shore, and again
they mumbled a few prayers, as they returned home.
CHAPTER 24
Pinocchio reaches the Island of the Busy Bees
and finds the Fairy once more
Pinocchio, spurred on by the hope of
finding his father
and of being in time to save him, swam all night long.
And what a
horrible night it was! It poured rain, it
hailed, it thundered, and the
lightning was so bright that it
turned the night into day.
At dawn, he saw, not far away from him, a long stretch
of sand. It was an island in the middle of the sea.
Pinocchio tried his best to get there, but he couldn't.
The waves played with him and tossed him about as if he
were a twig or a bit of straw. At last, and luckily for him,
a
tremendous wave tossed him to the very spot where he
wanted to be. The blow from the wave was so strong that,
as he fell to the ground, his joints
cracked and almost broke.
But, nothing daunted, he jumped to his feet and cried:
"Once more I have escaped with my life!"
Little by little the sky cleared. The sun came out in full
splendor and the sea became as calm as a lake.
Then the Marionette took off his clothes and laid them
on the sand to dry. He looked over the waters to see
whether he might catch sight of a boat with a little man in
it. He searched and he searched, but he saw nothing except
sea and sky and far away a few sails, so small that they
might have been birds.
"If only I knew the name of this island!" he said to himself.
"If I even knew what kind of people I would find here!
But whom shall I ask? There is no one here."
The idea of
finding himself in so
lonesome a spot made him
so sad that he was about to cry, but just then he saw a big
Fish swimming
near-by, with his head far out of the water.
Not
knowing what to call him, the Marionette said to him:
"Hey there, Mr. Fish, may I have a word with you?"
"Even two, if you want," answered the fish,
who happened to be a very
polite Dolphin.
"Will you please tell me if, on this island, there are
places where one may eat without
necessarily being eaten?"
"Surely, there are," answered the Dolphin. "In fact
you'll find one not far from this spot."
"And how shall I get there?"
"Take that path on your left and follow your nose. You
can't go wrong."
"Tell me another thing. You who travel day and night
through the sea, did you not perhaps meet a little boat with
my father in it?"
"And who is you father?"
"He is the best father in the world, even as I am the
worst son that can be found."
"In the storm of last night," answered the Dolphin, "the
little boat must have been swamped."
"And my father?"
"By this time, he must have been swallowed by the
Terrible Shark, which, for the last few days, has been
bringing
terror to these waters."
"Is this Shark very big?" asked Pinocchio, who was
beginning to tremble with fright.
"Is he big?" replied the Dolphin. "Just to give you an idea
of his size, let me tell you that he is larger than a five
story building and that he has a mouth so big and so deep,
that a whole train and engine could easily get into it."
"Mother mine!" cried the Marionette, scared to death;
and dressing himself as fast as he could, he turned to the
Dolphin and said:
"Farewell, Mr. Fish. Pardon the
bother, and many thanks
for your kindness."
This said, he took the path at so swift a gait that he
seemed to fly, and at every small sound he heard,
he turned in fear to see whether the Terrible Shark,