-------------------------------------------------------
THE ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO
PART 1 CHAPTER 12
-------------------------------------------------------
Fire Eater gives Pinocchio five gold pieces for Geppetto. Soon afterwards, Pinocchio meets a lame fox and a blind cat.
THE NEXT DAY, Fire Eater called Pinocchio to him. "What is your father's name?" he asked.
"Geppetto."
"And what is his trade?"
"He's a clever artist."
"Does he earn much?"
"Oh yes! He earns so much that he never has a penny in his pockets. In order to buy me an A-B-C book for school, he had to sell the only coat he had. And, you know, it wasn't even a good coat. It was made of thin cloth, and it had many holes in it."
"Poor man! I feel quite sorry for him. Here, take these five sovereigns. Go now, back to your father, and give them to him."
Pinocchio, as I am sure you will guess, thanked Fire Eater a thousand times. Just one sovereign was a lot of money in those days. He gladly put the five gold pieces in his pocket, and then, before he left, he kissed each puppet in turn --even the two thin policemen. Feeling happier than he had ever felt in his life, he left the puppet theatre, and started on his journey home.
He had not gone far when he saw two strange people in the road in front of him. One was a fox who couldn't walk at all easily --he seemed to be lame. The other seemed to be a blind cat. They were walking together closely, like two good friends. The lame fox leaned on the cat, and the blind cat let the fox lead him along.
"Good morning, Pinocchio," said the fox, greeting him politely.
"How do you know my name?" asked the puppet.
"I know your father well."
"Have you seen him? Have you really seen my father?"
"Yes, I saw him yesterday, standing at the door of his house."
"And what was he doing?"
"He was just standing there, with no coat on. He looked cold."
"Poor Father! But, after today, he will never be cold again."
"Why?"
"Because I have become a rich man."
"You, a rich man?" said the fox, and he began to laugh out loud.
"Rich man? Rich man?" repeated the cat. He was laughing, too, but he tried to hide it by stroking his long whiskers.
"I don't know what you two are laughing at," cried Pinocchio angrily. "I think you have made a mistake. These, as you know, are five new gold sovereigns."
As he spoke, he pulled from his pocket the five gold pieces that Fire Eater had given him.
When he heard the noise of the sovereigns, hitting against each other in Pinocchio's hand, the fox, without thinking, turned quickly to stand at Pinocchio's side (he had seemed to be lame, you remember). The cat (he had seemed to be a blind --you remember that, too--) opened wide his eyes, then closed them again so quickly that Pinocchio did not notice.
"And have you decided," asked the fox, "what you are going to do with all that money?"
"First," answered the puppet, "I shall buy a fine new coat for my father. I will buy him a coat made of gold and silver, with bright, shiny diamond buttons. After that, I'll buy an A-B-C book for myself."
"For yourself?"
"Yes, for myself. I want to go to school and study hard."
"Look at me," said the fox. "It is just because I wanted to go to school that I am as you see me now. For that silly reason, I have become lame."
"Look at me, too," said the cat. "For the same foolish reason, I have lost the sight of my eyes."
At that moment, a blackbird, sitting on the fence along the road, called out loud and clear: "Pinocchio, don't listen to them. If you do, you'll be sorry!"
Poor little blackbird! If he had only kept his words to himself! Quicker than lightning, the cat jumped on him, and ate him, feathers and all. And after eating the bird, he cleaned his whiskers, closed his eyes, and became blind once more.
"Poor blackbird!" said Pinocchio to the cat. "Why did you kill him?"
"To teach him a lesson. He talks too much. Next time he will keep his mouth shut!"
By this time the three of them had gone quite a long way along the road. Suddenly, the fox stopped. He turned to the puppet and said to him: "Do you want to make your money grow?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do you want one hundred, a thousand, two thousand gold sovereigns, instead of just five?"
"Oh, yes, but how?"
"It's easy. Don't go home. Come with us, instead."
"And where will you take me?"
"To Simpleton. It's a town not far from here."
Pinocchio thought for a while and then said: "No, I don't want to go. Home is near, and I'm going to where Father is waiting for me. How unhappy he must be that I have been away for so long. I have been a bad son, and the Talking Cricket was right. He said that a bad boy cannot be happy in this world, and now I know that is the truth. Last night in the theatre, when Fire Eater. . . ." And Pinocchio stopped. He could not talk about his adventure. It was too frightening.
"Well, then," said the fox, "you go home if you really want to, but you'll be sorry."
"Sorry," repeated the cat.
"Think about it, Pinocchio, you are turning your back on Lady Luck," said the fox.
"Luck," repeated the cat.
"Tomorrow your five gold pieces will become two thousand!"
"Two thousand!" repeated the cat.
"But how can that happen?" asked Pinocchio. It seemed too good to be true.
"I'll tell you," said the fox, taking Pinocchio's arm. "I am sure you know that just outside Simpleton there is a large field called Wonderland. You go into this field and dig a hole. In the hole you put one gold sovereign. You fill the hole with earth, and you water it well. If you like you can put a bit of salt and pepper on it. Then go to bed. During the night, the gold sovereign will start growing. Next morning you will find a nice little money-tree where you buried your sovereign. And the tree will have hundreds of sovereigns on it. All yours!"
"And if I bury all five gold sovereigns," cried Pinocchio, thinking about what the fox had told him, "next morning I shall find--how many?"
"It is not difficult to work out," answered the fox. "Why, you don't even need to be good at adding up. You can do it on your fingers! If each money-tree gives you five hundred gold pieces, multiply five hundred by five. Next morning you will find two thousand five hundred bright new gold pieces, just waiting for you to pick them."
"Two thousand five hundred!" cried Pinocchio excitedly, dancing about with happiness. "Well, as soon as I have them, I shall keep two thousand for myself and the other five hundred I'll give to you two."
"To us?" cried the fox. He did not sound pleased --quite the opposite. "Oh no! We never take gifts!"
"No gifts!" said the cat.
"We don't work to make money for ourselves," answered the fox. "We work only to make other people rich."
"To make others rich!" repeated the cat.
"What nice people these are," Pinocchio said to himself. And he forgot all about his father, the new coat, the A-B-C book, and all the other good things he had thought of.
"All right", he said to the fox and the cat. "I'll go with you to Simpleton."
"Simpleton!" said the cat, laughing quietly.