od luck."

"Good-by."

"How soon will you go?"

"Within two hours."

"What a pity! If it were only one hour, I might wait for you."

"And the Fairy?"

"By this time I'm late, and one hour more or less makes very little
difference."

"Poor Pinocchio! And if the Fairy scolds you?"

"Oh, I'll let her scold. After she gets tired, she will stop."

In the meantime, the night became darker and darker. All at once in the
distance a small light flickered. A queer sound could be heard, soft
as a little bell, and faint and muffled like the buzz of a far-away
mosquito.

"There it is!" cried Lamp-Wick, jumping to his feet.

"What?" whispered Pinocchio.

"The wagon which is coming to get me. For the last time, are you coming
or not?"

"But is it really true that in that country boys never have to study?"

"Never, never, never!"

"What a wonderful, beautiful, marvelous country! Oh--h--h!!"

CHAPTER 31

After five months of play, Pinocchio wakes up one fine morning and finds
a great surprise awaiting him.

Finally the wagon arrived. It made no noise, for its wheels were bound
with straw and rags.

It was drawn by twelve pair of donkeys, all of the same size, but all
of different color. Some were gray, others white, and still others a
mixture of brown and black. Here and there were a few with large yellow
and blue stripes.

The strangest thing of all was that those twenty-four donkeys, instead
of being iron-shod like any other beast of burden, had on their feet
laced shoes made of leather, just like the ones boys wear.

And the driver of the wagon?

Imagine to yourselves a little, fat man, much wider than he was long,
round and shiny as a ball of butter, with a face beaming like an apple,
a little mouth that always smiled, and a voice small and wheedling like
that of a cat begging for food.

No sooner did any boy see him than he fell in love with him, and nothing
satisfied him but to be allowed to ride in his wagon to that lovely
place called the Land of Toys.

In fact the wagon was so closely packed with boys of all ages that it
looked like a box of sardines. They were uncomfortable, they were piled
one on top of the other, they could hardly breathe; yet not one word of
complaint was heard. The thought that in a few hours they would reach a
country where there were no schools, no books, no teachers, made these
boys so happy that they felt neither hunger, nor thirst, nor sleep, nor
discomfort.