"One must have patience!" said Pinocchio; "if there is nothing else I
will eat a rind."
And he began to chew it. At first he made a wry face, but then one after
another he quickly disposed of the rinds: and after the rinds even the
cores, and when he had eaten up everything he clapped his hands on his
sides in his satisfaction and said joyfully:
"Ah! now I feel comfortable."
"You see, now," observed Geppetto, "that I was right when I said to you
that it did not do to accustom ourselves to be too particular or too
dainty in our tastes. We can never know, my dear boy, what may happen to
us. There are so many chances!"
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII
GEPPETTO MAKES PINOCCHIO NEW FEET
No sooner had the puppet satisfied his hunger than he began to cry and
to grumble because he wanted a pair of new feet.
But Geppetto, to punish him for his naughtiness, allowed him to cry and
to despair for half the day. He then said to him:
"Why should I make you new feet? To enable you, perhaps, to escape again
from home?"
"I promise you," said the puppet, sobbing, "that for the future I will
be good."
"All boys," replied Geppetto, "when they are bent upon obtaining
something, say the same thing."
"I promise you that I will go to school and that I will study and bring
home a good report."
"All boys, when they are bent on obtaining something, repeat the same
story."
"But I am not like other boys! I am better than all of them and I always
speak the truth. I promise you, papa, that I will learn a trade and that
I will be the consolation and the staff of your old age."
Geppetto's eyes filled with tears and his heart was sad at seeing his
poor Pinocchio in such a pitiable state. He did not say another word,
but, taking his tools and two small pieces of well-seasoned wood, he set
to work with great diligence.
In less than an hour the feet were finished: two little feet--swift,
well-knit and nervous. They might have been modelled by an artist of
genius.
Geppetto then said to the puppet:
"Shut your eyes and go to sleep!"
And Pinocchio shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep.
And whilst he pretended to sleep, Geppetto, with a little glue which he
had melted in an egg-shell, fastened his feet in their place, and it was
so well done that not even a trace could be seen of where they were
joined.
No sooner had the puppet discovered that he had feet than he jumped down
from the table on which he was lying and began to spring and to cut a
thousand capers about the room, as if he had gone mad with the greatness
of his delight.
"To reward you for what you have done for me," said Pinocchio to his
father, "I will go to school at once."
"Good boy."
"But to go to school I shall want some clothes."
Geppetto, who was poor and who had not so much as a penny in his pocket,
then made him a little dress of flowered paper, a pair of shoes from the
bark of a tree, and a cap of the crumb of bread.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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