u now, but I'll wait! In the morning you may come
with me to the inn and there you'll make a fine dinner for some hungry
mortal. It is really too great an honor for you, one you do not deserve;
but, as you see, I am really a very kind and generous man and I am going
to do this for you!"

Then he went up to Pinocchio and began to pet and caress him.

"How did you ever find them out so quickly? And to think that Melampo,
my faithful Melampo, never saw them in all these years!"

The Marionette could have told, then and there, all he knew about the
shameful contract between the dog and the Weasels, but thinking of
the dead dog, he said to himself: "Melampo is dead. What is the use of
accusing him? The dead are gone and they cannot defend themselves. The
best thing to do is to leave them in peace!"

"Were you awake or asleep when they came?" continued the Farmer.

"I was asleep," answered Pinocchio, "but they awakened me with their
whisperings. One of them even came to the door of the doghouse and said
to me, 'If you promise not to bark, we will make you a present of one
of the chickens for your breakfast.' Did you hear that? They had the
audacity to make such a proposition as that to me! For you must know
that, though I am a very wicked Marionette full of faults, still I never
have been, nor ever shall be, bribed."

"Fine boy!" cried the Farmer, slapping him on the shoulder in a friendly
way. "You ought to be proud of yourself. And to show you what I think of
you, you are free from this instant!"

And he slipped the dog collar from his neck.

CHAPTER 23

Pinocchio weeps upon learning that the Lovely Maiden with Azure Hair
is dead. He meets a Pigeon, who carries him to the seashore. He throws
himself into the sea to go to the aid of his father.

As soon as Pinocchio no longer felt the shameful weight of the dog
collar around his neck, he started to run across the fields and meadows,
and never stopped till he came to the main road that was to take him to
the Fairy's house.

When he reached it, he looked into the valley far below him and there
he saw the wood where unluckily he had met the Fox and the Cat, and the
tall oak tree where he had been hanged; but though he searched far and
near, he could not see the house where the Fairy with the Azure Hair
lived.

He became terribly frightened and, running as fast as he could, he
finally came to the spot where it had once stood. The little house was
no longer t