y hands! I might punish you, but I am not
so cruel. I will content myself instead by carrying you in the morning
to the innkeeper of the neighboring village, who will skin and cook you
as hares with a sweet and sour sauce. It is an honor that you don't
deserve, but generous people like me don't consider such trifles!"

He then approached Pinocchio and began to caress him, and amongst other
things he asked him:

"How did you manage to discover the four thieves? To think that Melampo,
my faithful Melampo, never found out anything!"

The puppet might then have told him the whole story; he might have
informed him of the disgraceful conditions that had been made between
the dog and the polecats; but he remembered that the dog was dead and he
thought to himself:

"What is the good of accusing the dead? The dead are dead, and the best
thing to be done is to leave them in peace!"

"When the thieves got into the yard, were you asleep or awake?" the
peasant went on to ask him.

"I was asleep," answered Pinocchio, "but the polecats woke me with their
chatter and one of them came to the kennel and said to me: 'If you
promise not to bark, and not to wake the master, we will make you a
present of a fine chicken ready plucked!' To think that they should have
had the audacity to make such a proposal to me! For, although I am a
puppet, possessing perhaps nearly all the faults in the world, there is
one that I certainly will never be guilty of, that of making terms with,
and sharing the gains of, dishonest people!"

"Well said, my boy!" cried the peasant, slapping him on the shoulder.
"Such sentiments do you honor; and as a proof of my gratitude I will at
once set you at liberty, and you may return home."

And he removed the dog-collar.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIII

PINOCCHIO FLIES TO THE SEASHORE

As soon as Pinocchio was released from the heavy and humiliating weight
of the dog-collar he started off across the fields and never stopped
until he had reached the high road that led to the Fairy's house. He
could see amongst the trees the top of the Big Oak to which he had been
hung, but, although he looked in every direction, the little house
belonging to the beautiful Child with the blue hair was nowhere visible.

Seized with a sad presentiment, he began to run with all the strength he
had left and in a few minutes he reached the field where the little
white house had once stood. But it was no longer there. Inste