ean to pretend that a little donkey like you must be kept on
breasts of chickens, and capons in jelly?" asked his master, getting
more and more angry, and whipping him again.

At this second whipping Pinocchio prudently held his tongue and said
nothing more.

The stable was then shut and Pinocchio was left alone. He had not eaten
for many hours and he began to yawn from hunger. And when he yawned he
opened a mouth that seemed as wide as an oven.

At last, finding nothing else in the manger, he resigned himself and
chewed a little hay; and after he had chewed it well, he shut his eyes
and swallowed it.

"This hay is not bad," he said to himself; "but how much better it would
have been if I had gone on with my studies! Instead of hay I might now
be eating a hunch of new bread and a fine slice of sausage. But I must
have patience!"

The next morning when he woke he looked in the manger for a little more
hay; but he found none, for he had eaten it all during the night.

Then he took a mouthful of chopped straw, but whilst he was chewing it
he had to acknowledge that the taste of chopped straw did not in the
least resemble a savory dish of macaroni or pie.

"But I must have patience!" he repeated as he went on chewing. "May my
example serve at least as a warning to all disobedient boys who do not
want to study. Patience!"

"Patience indeed!" shouted his master, coming at that moment into the
stable. "Do you think, my little donkey, that I bought you only to give
you food and drink? I bought you to make you work, and that you might
earn money for me. Up, then, at once! you must come with me into the
circus, and there I will teach you to jump through hoops, to go through
frames of paper head foremost, to dance waltzes and polkas, and to stand
upright on your hind legs."

Poor Pinocchio, either by love or by force, had to learn all these fine
things. But it took him three months before he had learned them, and he
got many a whipping that nearly took off his skin.

At last a day came when his master was able to announce that he would
give a really extraordinary representation. The many colored placards
stuck on the street corners were thus worded:

GREAT FULL DRESS REPRESENTATION

TONIGHT
WILL TAKE PLACE THE USUAL FEATS AND SURPRISING
PERFORMANCES EXECUTED BY ALL THE ARTISTS
AND BY ALL THE HORSES OF THE COMPANY
A