"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 AND MOREOVER THE FAMOUS LITTLE DONKEY PINOCCHIO CALLED THE STAR OF THE DANCE WILL MAKE HIS FIRST APPEARANCE THE THEATER WILL BE BRILLIANTLY ILLUMINATED [Illustration: In Less Than an Hour All His Friends Were Invited] On that evening, as you may imagine, an hour before the play was to begin the theater was crammed. There was not a place to be had either in the pit or the stalls, or in the boxes even, by paying its weight in gold. The benches round the circus were crowded with children and with boys of all ages, who were in a fever of impatience to see the famous little donkey Pinocchio dance. When the first part of the performance was over, the director of the company, dressed in a black coat, white breeches, and big leather boots that came above his knees, presented himself to the public, and, after making a profound bow, he began with much solemnity the following ridiculous speech: