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THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO
PART 1 CHAPTER 4
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What happens when bad children do not listen to people who know better than they do.
POOR OLD GEPPETTO did not have to stay at the police station for long. However, in that short time, the naughty little puppet was running across fields and through gardens, this way and that, all over the place. He did not really know where he was going. He just loved the feeling of using his legs. He ran here and there, any way that pleased him, and as he ran he jumped over garden walls and over the fences that farmers had put round their fields, and across small streams. He looked just like a happy little lamb, or a young rabbit running away from the farmer and his gun!
Pinocchio did not know where his home was, but after a while he got back there. The door was half open. He ran in, shut the door and locked it, and threw himself on the floor for a rest. He was so happy. He was happy to have got away from the big policeman, and from angry old Geppetto. He was happy to be free.
But his happiness did not last long, for just then he heard a noise: ". . . crick-crick-crick!"
"What's that?" Pinocchio yelled out. The noise was loud, and it frightened him badly. "Who's there?"
"Me . . . crick-crick-crick!"
Pinocchio turned and saw a cricket climbing slowly up the wall.
A cricket? It's an insect that likes to live in people's homes, and sometimes makes a big noise --"crick-crick-crick".
"And who are you?" asked Pinocchio, who had never seen a cricket before.
"I am the Talking Cricket. I have been living in this room for more than one hundred years," the insect explained.
"Well, this room is mine, now," said the puppet. "So, please go away. Don't even think of coming back."
"I will not go," answered the Cricket, "until I have given you some advice. I want to tell you a great truth."
"All right. Hurry up and tell me, then."
"Boys who do not to obey their parents or who run away from home, will never be happy in this world. When they are older they will be sorry for it."
"Oh, is that all! Well, you can think what you like, Cricket, my friend. What I know is that tomorrow, as soon as the sun comes up, I shall leave this place and I'll not come back. If I stay here, I am sure the same thing will happen to me as happens to all other boys and girls. They have to go to school and they have to study, even if they do not want to. Well, let me tell you, I hate studying! It's much more fun being out in the sunshine, running after butterflies, climbing trees, playing games and having a good time."
"Poor child!" said the Cricket, sadly. "Don't you know that if you do things like that, you will become nothing but a silly donkey. Everyone will laugh at you?"
"Be quiet, you ugly insect!" cried Pinocchio.
But the Cricket, who had lived long and was a wise old thing, took no notice. He thought Pinocchio should listen to some more of his good advice.
"If you do not like going to school, why don't you learn a trade?" he asked. "That way you can work to earn your living."
"Shall I tell you something?" asked Pinocchio, who was beginning to get angry. "There is only one trade that I really like."
"And what is that?"
"The trade of eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, and going anywhere I like in the world from morning to night."
"Let me tell you, for your own good, Pinocchio," said the Talking Cricket, "people who follow that trade always end up in hospital or in prison."
"Careful, Cricket! My advice to you is that if you make me any more angry, you'll end up in a far worse place!"
"Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you."
"Why?"
"You are a puppet. You cannot think properly. You have no brains!" said the insect.
At these words, Pinocchio jumped up, took Geppetto's hammer from his tool box, and threw it at the Talking Cricket.
Perhaps he did not think he would hit the little animal, but, I am sorry to say, my dear children, that he hit the Cricket right on its head.
With a last weak "crick-crick-crick" the poor Cricket fell from the wall onto the floor, dead!