m speaking of you, poor Pinocchio--of you who are simple
enough to believe that money can be sown and gathered in fields in the
same way as beans and gourds. I also believed it once, and to-day I
am suffering for it. To-day--but it is too late--I have at last learnt
that to put a few pennies honestly together it is necessary to know
how to earn them, either by the work of our own hands or by the
cleverness of our own brains."

"I don't understand you," said the puppet who was already trembling
with fear.

"Have patience! I will explain myself better," rejoined the Parrot.
"You must know, then, that whilst you were in the town the Fox and the
Cat returned to the field; they took the buried money and then fled
like the wind. And now he that catches them will be clever."

Pinocchio remained with his mouth open, and not choosing to believe
the Parrot's words he began with his hands and nails to dig up the
earth that he had watered. And he dug, and dug, and dug, and made such
a deep hole that a rick of straw might have stood up in it; but the
money was no longer there.

He rushed back to the town in a state of desperation, and went at once
to the Courts of Justice to denounce the two knaves who had robbed him
to the judge.

The judge was a big ape of the gorilla tribe--an old ape respectable
for his age, his white beard, but especially for his gold spectacles
without glasses that he always was obliged to wear, on account of an
inflammation of the eyes that had tormented him for many years.

Pinocchio related in the presence of the judge all the particulars of
the infamous fraud of which he had been the victim. He gave the names,
the surnames, and other details, of the two rascals, and ended by
demanding justice.

The judge listened with great benignity; took a lively interest in the
story; and was much touched and moved; and when the puppet had nothing
further to say he stretched out his hand and rang a bell.

At this summons two mastiffs immediately appeared dressed as
gendarmes. The judge then, pointing to Pinocchio said to them:

"That poor devil has been robbed of four gold pieces; take him up, and
put him immediately into prison."

The puppet was petrified on hearing this unexpected sentence, and
tried to protest; but the gendarmes, to avoid losing time, stopped his
mouth, and carried him off to the lockup.

And there he remained for four months--four long months--and he would
have remained longer still if