After the eyes, Geppetto made the nose, which began to stretch as soon as finished. It stretched and stretched and stretched till it became so long, it seemed endless. Poor Geppetto kept cutting it and cutting it, but the more he cut, the longer grew that impertinent nose. In despair he let it alone. Next he made the mouth. No sooner was it finished than it began to laugh and poke fun at him. “Stop laughing!” said Geppetto angrily; but he might as well have spoken to the wall. “Stop laughing, I say!” he roared in a voice of thunder. The mouth stopped laughing, but it stuck out a long tongue. Not wishing to start an argument, Geppetto made believe he saw nothing and went on with his work. After the mouth, he made the chin, then the neck, the shoulders, the stomach, the arms, and the hands. As he was about to put the last touches on the finger tips, Geppetto felt his wig being pulled off. He glanced up and what did he see? His yellow wig was in the Marionette’s hand. “Pinocchio, give me my wig!” But instead of giving it back, Pinocchio put it on his own head, which was half swallowed up in it. At that unexpected trick, Geppetto became very sad and downcast, more so than he had ever been before. “Pinocchio, you wicked boy!” he cried out. “You are not yet finished, and you start out by being impudent to your poor old father. Very bad, my son, very bad!” And he wiped away a tear. The legs and feet still had to be made. As soon as they were done, Geppetto felt a sharp kick on the tip of his nose. “I deserve it!” he said to himself. “I should have thought of this before I made him. Now it’s too late!” He took hold of the Marionette under the arms and put him on the floor to teach him to walk. Pinocchio’s legs were so stiff that he could not move them, and Geppetto held his hand and showed him how to put out one foot after the other. When his legs were limbered up, Pinocchio started walking by himself and ran all around the room. He came to the open door, and with one leap he was out into the street. Away he flew! Poor Geppetto ran after him but was unable to catch him, for Pinocchio ran in leaps and bounds, his two wooden feet, as they beat on the stones of the street, making as much noise as twenty peasants in wooden shoes. “Catch him! Catch him!” Geppetto kept shouting. But the people in the street, seeing a wooden Marionette running like the wind, stood still to stare and to laugh until they cried. At last, by sheer luck, a Carabineer* happened along, who, hearing all that noise, thought that it might be a runaway colt, and stood bravely in the middle of the street, with legs wide apart, firmly resolved to stop it and prevent any trouble. * A military policeman Pinocchio saw the Carabineer from afar and tried his best to escape between the legs of the big fellow, but without success.