ng to his feet,
and putting on his old corduroy coat, all patched and darned, he ran out
of the house.

He returned shortly, holding in his hand a spelling-book for Pinocchio,
but the old coat was gone. The poor man was in his shirt-sleeves and out
of doors it was snowing.

"And the coat, papa?"

"I have sold it."

"Why did you sell it?"

"Because I found it too hot."

Pinocchio understood this answer in an instant, and unable to restrain
the impulse of his good heart he sprang up and, throwing his arms around
Geppetto's neck, he began kissing him again and again.

CHAPTER IX

PINOCCHIO GOES TO SEE A PUPPET-SHOW

As soon as it stopped snowing Pinocchio set out for school with his fine
spelling-book under his arm. As he went along he began to imagine a
thousand things in his little brain and to build a thousand castles in
the air, one more beautiful than the other.

And, talking to himself, he said:

"Today at school I will learn to read at once; then tomorrow I will
begin to write, and the day after tomorrow to figure. Then, with my
acquirements, I will earn a great deal of money, and with the first
money I have in my pocket I will immediately buy for my papa a beautiful
new cloth coat. But what am I saying? Cloth, indeed! It shall be all
made of gold and silver, and it shall have diamond buttons. That poor
man really deserves it, for to buy me books and have me taught he has
remained in his shirt-sleeves. And in this cold! It is only fathers who
are capable of such sacrifices!"

Whilst he was saying this with great emotion, he thought that he heard
music in the distance that sounded like fifes and the beating of a big
drum: Fi-fie-fi, fi-fi-fi; zum, zum, zum.

He stopped and listened. The sounds came from the end of a cross street
that led to a little village on the seashore.

"What can that music be? What a pity that I have to go to school, or
else--"

And he remained irresolute. It was, however, necessary to come to a
decision. Should he go to school? or should he go after the fifes?

"Today I will go and hear the fifes, and tomorrow I will go to school,"
finally decided the young scapegrace, shrugging his shoulders.

The more he ran the nearer came the sounds of the fifes and the beating
of the big drum: Fi-fi-fi; zum, zum, zum, zum.

At last he found himself in the middle of a square quite full of people,
who were all crowded round a building made of wood and canvas, and
painted a t