mpanions, the Fox and the Cat, with whom
he had supped at the inn of The Red Craw-Fish.

"Why, here is our dear Pinocchio!" cried the Fox, kissing and embracing
him. "How came you to be here?"

"How come you to be here?" repeated the Cat.

"It is a long story," answered the puppet, "which I will tell you when I
have time. But do you know that the other night, when you left me alone
at the inn, I met with assassins on the road?"

"Assassins! Oh, poor Pinocchio! And what did they want?"

"They wanted to rob me of my gold pieces."

"Villains!" said the Fox.

"Infamous villains!" repeated the Cat.

"But I ran away from them," continued the puppet, "and they followed me,
and at last they overtook me and hung me to a branch of that oak tree."

And Pinocchio pointed to the Big Oak, which was two steps from them.

"Is it possible to hear of anything more dreadful?" said the Fox. "In
what a world we are condemned to live! Where can respectable people like
us find a safe refuge?"

Whilst they were thus talking Pinocchio observed that the Cat was lame
of her front right leg, for in fact she had lost her paw with all its
claws. He therefore asked her:

"What have you done with your paw?"

The Cat tried to answer, but became confused. Therefore the Fox said
immediately:

"My friend is too modest, and that is why she doesn't speak. I will
answer for her. I must tell you that an hour ago we met an old wolf on
the road, almost fainting from want of food, who asked alms of us. Not
having so much as a fish-bone to give him, what did my friend, who has
really the heart of a Caesar, do? She bit off one of her fore paws and
threw it to that poor beast that he might appease his hunger."

And the Fox, in relating this, dried a tear.

Pinocchio was also touched and, approaching the Cat, he whispered into
her ear:

"If all cats resembled you, how fortunate the mice would be!"

"And now, what are you doing here?" asked the Fox of the puppet.

"I am waiting for my papa, whom I expect to arrive every moment."

"And your gold pieces?"

"I have got them in my pocket, all but one that I spent at the inn of
The Red Craw-Fish."

"And to think that, instead of four pieces, by tomorrow they might
become one or two thousand! Why do you not listen to my advice? Why will
you not go and bury them in the Field of Miracles?"

"Today it is impossible; I will go another day."

"Another day it will be too late!" said the Fox.

"Why