answered Pinocchio, "if I am to choose, I should
prefer to be set at liberty and to return home."

"You are joking! Do you imagine that I would lose the opportunity of
tasting such a rare fish? It is not every day, I assure you, that a
puppet fish is caught in these waters. Leave it to me. I will fry you in
the frying-pan with the other fish, and you will be quite satisfied. It
is always consolation to be fried in company."

At this speech the unhappy Pinocchio began to cry and scream and to
implore for mercy, and he said, sobbing: "How much better it would have
been if I had gone to school! I would listen to my companions and now I
am paying for it."

And he wriggled like an eel and made indescribable efforts to slip out
of the clutches of the green fisherman. But it was useless: the
fisherman took a long strip of rush and, having bound his hands and feet
as if he had been a sausage, he threw him into the pan with the other
fish.

He then fetched a wooden bowl full of flour and began to flour them
each in turn, and as soon as they were ready he threw them into the
frying-pan.

The first to dance in the boiling oil were the poor whitings; the crabs
followed, then the sardines, then the soles, then the anchovies, and at
last it was Pinocchio's turn. Seeing himself so near death, and such a
horrible death, he was so frightened, and trembled so violently, that he
had neither voice nor breath left for further entreaties.

But the poor boy implored with his eyes! The green fisherman, however,
without caring in the least, plunged him five or six times in the flour,
until he was white from head to foot and looked like a puppet made of
plaster.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIX

HE RETURNS TO THE FAIRY'S HOUSE

Just as the fisherman was on the point of throwing Pinocchio into the
frying-pan a large dog entered the cave, enticed there by the strong and
savory odor of fried fish.

"Get out!" shouted the fisherman, threateningly, holding the floured
puppet in his hand.

But the poor dog, who was as hungry as a wolf, whined and wagged his
tail as much as to say:

"Give me a mouthful of fish and I will leave you in peace."

"Get out, I tell you!" repeated the fisherman and he stretched out his
leg to give him a kick.

But the dog, who, when he was really hungry, would not stand trifling,
turned upon him, growling and showing his terrible tusks.

At that moment a little feeble voice was heard in the cave, sa