Knjigice
Fairy tale · Classic fairy tales
Pinocchio
The story of a wooden puppet who became a real boy
Also in: Ostržek (Slovenian) · Pinocchio (Slovak)
In an old carpenter's workshop lay a quite ordinary piece of wood. But when the carpenter raised his chisel, a thin little voice piped up: "Ouch! That tickles!" The carpenter got such a fright that the chisel fell from his hands. He quickly gave the wondrous log to his neighbour — old Geppetto the woodcarver, who had long dreamed of carving a puppet.
1
Geppetto carved all evening. First the eyes — and the eyes blinked! Then the nose — and the nose grew long and pointy. Last the legs — and the puppet leapt off the bench and ran out of the door, straight into the street! "Pinocchio! Come back!" cried Geppetto, puffing after him. And so began the life of a wooden boy who obeyed nobody at all.
2
Geppetto was poor, but he wanted the best for Pinocchio. He sold his only coat and bought him a spelling book for school. "I'll learn to read and buy you a new coat!" Pinocchio promised. But on the way to school he heard drums and trumpets: a puppet theatre! Pinocchio sold his spelling book for a ticket and instantly forgot every fine promise.
3
On stage, the puppets knew their wooden brother at once. "Come up with us!" they cried, and the show turned into a merry muddle. The theatre master was a giant with a beard as black as night. He looked terrifying — but in his chest beat a soft heart. When Pinocchio told him about poor old Geppetto, the giant grumbled, sneezed three times with feeling, and pressed five gold coins into his hand: "Take these home to your father!"
4
On the way home he was stopped by a fox who limped and a cat who pretended to be blind. "Only five gold pieces?" sighed the Fox. "We know the Field of Miracles! You plant a coin there, water it — and by morning a tree grows, loaded with gold coins." Pinocchio jumped for joy: "I'll bring Geppetto a whole tree of gold!" And instead of going home, he set off with them.
5
In the Field of Miracles Pinocchio dug a little hole, carefully laid in all five coins and watered them. "Now go away and wait, so the gold can sprout in peace," said the Fox. When he came back in the morning there was no tree, no coins, no fox and no cat. The field was bare and silent. Pinocchio sat down on a stone and, for the first time, truly wept.
6
His crying was heard by the Fairy with sky-blue hair, who lived in a little white house in the woods. She carried him home, washed him, bandaged the scrape on his knee and set a bowl of warm soup before him. "Now tell me, Pinocchio, what happened to you," she said, in a voice as soft as an evening bell. And Pinocchio began to tell — just a tiny bit his own way.
7
"I lost the gold coins," said Pinocchio — and his nose grew a whole finger longer. "No, they were stolen!" The nose shot out like a branch. "Actually, I swallowed them!" The nose grew right out of the window, and three sparrows perched on it. The Fairy laughed: "You see, lies have long noses!" Only when Pinocchio told the whole truth did the woodpeckers fly in and peck his nose back to size.
8
Pinocchio promised to be good, and for a while he truly did go to school. But one evening he met his friend Lampwick. "Coming with me to Playland?" whispered Lampwick. "No school there, no books — just play from morning till night!" Pinocchio wavered and wavered... then climbed onto a wagon full of rowdy boys after all, and rode off into the night.
9
In Playland the boys really did nothing but play. But one morning Pinocchio saw something dreadful in the mirror: two long grey donkey ears had sprouted from his head! "That's what happens to boys who only idle," brayed Lampwick sadly — his were just the same. Pinocchio pulled his cap over his ears and fled from Playland — he ran and ran, all the way to the sea.
10
By the sea he heard news that squeezed his wooden heart: father Geppetto had sailed out in a little boat to look for him! Pinocchio leapt into the waves — and look, the salt water washed the donkey ears away. He swam and swam, until a vast shadow rose from the deep: a terrible fish, big as a hill, opened its jaws and swallowed him like a crumb.
11
In the fish's belly, deep in the dark, Pinocchio spied a tiny light. He followed it — and what did he find? A little table, a lit candle, and beside it... father Geppetto! "Father!" he cried, leaping into his arms. "My Pinocchio!" wept Geppetto for joy. "Two years I searched the sea for you — and now one fish has swallowed us both!" Together they sat by the candle and hatched an escape plan.
12
"The fish sleeps with its jaws open," whispered Pinocchio. "Climb on my back, Father — I'm a splendid swimmer!" Along the enormous tongue, as if over a little bridge, they tiptoed past teeth as tall as doors and leapt into the sea. Pinocchio swam all night with Geppetto on his back, until the shore gleamed before them in the light of dawn.
13
From that day on, Pinocchio worked and studied. He wove baskets, carried water and read every evening, so he could care for his father. One night the Fairy with sky-blue hair smiled at him in a dream. And when he woke in the morning, he was wooden no more! He had soft hands, warm cheeks and the smile of a real boy. On the chair by the bed sat the old puppet, and Pinocchio laughed: "How funny I was, when I was still made of wood!"
14The End
