Part 11 (2/2)

Then he pulled a wooden bowl full of flour out of a cupboard and started to roll the fish into it, one by one When they hite with it, he threw them into the pan The first to dance in the hot oil were the mullets, the bass followed, then the whitefish, the flounders, and the anchovies Pinocchio's turn ca hian to treht that he had no voice left hich to beg for his life

The poor boy beseeched only with his eyes But the Green Fisher that it was he, turned him over and over in the flour until he looked like a Marionette made of chalk

Then he took him by the head and

CHAPTER 29

Pinocchio returns to the Fairy's house and she promises him that, on the morrow, he will cease to be a Marionette and become a boy A wonderful party of coffee-and-reat event

Mindful of what the Fisher saved had gone He closed his eyes and waited for the final , attracted by the odor of the boiling oil, ca into the cave

”Get out!” cried the Fisher onto the Marionette, as all covered with flour

But the poor Dog was very hungry, and whining and wagging his tail, he tried to say: ”Give o in peace”

”Get out, I say!” repeated the Fisher a kick

Then the Dog, who, being really hungry, would take no refusal, turned in a rage toward the Fishers And at that : ”Saveinized Pinocchio's voice Great was his surprise to find that the voice came from the little flour-covered bundle that the Fisherreat leap, he grasped that bundle in his h the door and disappeared like a flash!+

The Fisher his , but a bad fit of coughing made him stop and turn back

Meanwhile, Alidoro, as soon as he had found the road which led to the village, stopped and dropped Pinocchio softly to the ground

”How much I do thank you!” said the Marionette

”It is not necessary,” answered the Dog ”You saved iven is always returned We are in this world to help one another”

”But how did you get in that cave?”

”I was lying here on the sandodor of fried fish caer and I followed it Oh, if I had come a moment later!”

”Don't speak about it,” wailed Pinocchio, still treht ”Don't say a word If you had coested by this tiht of it”

Alidoro laughingly held out his paw to the Marionette, who shook it heartily, feeling that now he and the Dog were good friends Then they bid each other good-by and the Dog went home

Pinocchio, left alone, walked toward a little hut near by, where an old oodof a poor boy with a wounded head, whose naht to this hut and now--”

”Now he is dead?” Pinocchio interrupted sorrowfully

”No, he is now alive and he has already returned ho around with joy ”Then the wound was not serious?”

”But it ht have been--and even mortal,” answered the old man, ”for a heavy book was thrown at his head”

”And who threw it?”

”A schoolmate of his, a certain Pinocchio”

”And who is this Pinocchio?” asked the Marionette, feigning ignorance

”They say he is a mischief-maker, a tramp, a street urchin--”

”Calumnies! All caluht!” answered the Marionette

”And what do you think of hiood boy, fond of study, obedient, kind to his Father, and to his whole fa all these enormous lies about hi as it should be Scared out of his wits, he cried out: ”Don't listen to s I have said are not true at all I know Pinocchio well and he is indeed a very wicked fellow, lazy and disobedient, who instead of going to school, runs aith his playood time”

At this speech, his nose returned to its natural size

”Why are you so pale?” the oldit, I rubbed ainst a newly painted wall,” he lied, asha pan

”What have you done with your coat and your hat and your breeches?”

”I ood ive o ho in which I keep hops If you want it, take it There it is”

Pinocchio did not wait for hi, which happened to be e hole at the top and two at the sides, he slipped into it as if it were a shi+rt Lightly clad as he was, he started out toward the village

Along the way he felt very uneasy In fact he was so unhappy that he went along taking two steps forward and one back, and as he went he said to hiood little Fairy? What will she say when she sees ive this last trick of mine? I am sure she won't Oh, no, she won't And I deserve it, as usual! For I am a rascal, fine on proe late at night It was so dark he could see nothing and it was raining pitchforks