ou? Oh, my dear Father, how good you are! And to think that I--Oh, but
if you only knew how many misfortunes have fallen on my head and how
many troubles I have had! Just think that on the day you sold your old
coat to buy me my A-B-C book so that I could go to school, I ran away to
the Marionette Theater and the proprietor caught me and wanted to burn
me to cook his roast lamb! He was the one who gave me the five gold
pieces for you, but I met the Fox and the Cat, who took me to the Inn of
the Red Lobster. There they ate like wolves and I left the Inn alone
and I met the Assassins in the wood. I ran and they ran after me, always
after me, till they hanged me to the branch of a giant oak tree. Then
the Fairy of the Azure Hair sent the coach to rescue me and the doctors,
after looking at me, said, 'If he is not dead, then he is surely alive,'
and then I told a lie and my nose began to grow. It grew and it grew,
till I couldn't get it through the door of the room. And then I went
with the Fox and the Cat to the Field of Wonders to bury the gold
pieces. The Parrot laughed at me and, instead of two thousand gold
pieces, I found none. When the Judge heard I had been robbed, he sent
me to jail to make the thieves happy; and when I came away I saw a fine
bunch of grapes hanging on a vine. The trap caught me and the Farmer put
a collar on me and made me a watchdog. He found out I was innocent when
I caught the Weasels and he let me go. The Serpent with the tail that
smoked started to laugh and a vein in his chest broke and so I went back
to the Fairy's house. She was dead, and the Pigeon, seeing me crying,
said to me, 'I have seen your father building a boat to look for you in
America,' and I said to him, 'Oh, if I only had wings!' and he said to
me, 'Do you want to go to your father?' and I said, 'Perhaps, but how?'
and he said, 'Get on my back. I'll take you there.' We flew all night
long, and next morning the fishermen were looking toward the sea,
crying, 'There is a poor little man drowning,' and I knew it was you,
because my heart told me so and I waved to you from the shore--"

"I knew you also," put in Geppetto, "and I wanted to go to you; but how
could I? The sea was rough and the whitecaps overturned the boat. Then
a Terrible Shark came up out of the sea and, as soon as he saw me in the
water, swam quickly toward me, put out his tongue, and swallowed me as
easily as if I had been a chocolate peppermint."

"And how long