Scopri, impara e cresci

Pinocchio

Once upon a time there was a very nice piece of wood that happened to be in the shop of a good old carpenter: his name was Mastro Cherry. The good man, happy, immediately decided to use the wood in order to make a leg of a table. But, Woe is me, as soon as he started to work with the axe and the block plane, he heard a little voice shouting: “Ouch, ouch, it’s painful!” and also “Ah! Ah! With that tool you make me laugh!”
Many times the old man stopped to hear that voice, looking all around with a suspicious look…until when, the fear overwhelmed him and the carpenter fell on the ground almost fainted, and his eyes popped out of his head. Right in that moment someone knocked on his doorway.
A lively man named Geppetto, entered. “Hi!”, he said, greeting his friend who was lying on the floor. “What are you doing there? Are you counting the ants?”
The carpenter stood on his knees: what could be wanting that curious and wet blanket?
“See” went on Geppetto “I came here in order to ask you a favour. I would like to create a Marionette that could be able to dance, fence, and make flips. With him I would travel the world in order to earn some bread!”
“And so?” asked Mastro Cherry, who wasn’t in the mood for chatting. “What do you want form me?”
“So” went on the man. “I would like a piece of wood to make my Marionette. Can you please help me?”
“But sure!” answered the carpenter, running to get the “rebel” piece of wood.
Geppetto thanked and, with his piece of wood under his arm, he set off for his home.
In the humble room of his home, the old man started straight away to make his Marionette.
“I will call him Pinocchio!” he exclaimed with a loud voice, proud of his work that was taking shape as soon as he worked. “Hair are done, forehead is done and also the eyes are done…here is the nose…and here we have his mouth.”
The mouth wasn’t yet finished but it was already laughing and making a mockery of him.
Geppetto felt insulted and started to reproach the Marionette…but the worse was yet to come! When the feet were ready, Geppetto felt a kick on his nose. The poor old man sat down aching and feeling disconsolate, and Pinocchio took advantage to jump off the table and try to walk.
At first his paces were short and uncertain, afterwards, suddenly, the Marionette started to run, he jumped on the street and went away! Geppetto tried to run after him but the Marionette run here and there quick as a hare. Fortunately a policeman managed to catch Pinocchio by his nose and gave him back to his father, who took his collar in order to try to bring him back home. A crowd of curious people gathered in order to watch the scene: “That man must be a violent person. How can he treat a poor Marionette like that? Who knows how many smacks he will get! Policeman, can’t you do something?” these were the words of the people. The policeman was persuaded: he put Geppetto in jail and the naughty Pinocchio was set free.
The Marionette went back home quite sad: it never happened to him to be alone.
Suddenly he heard a weird voice: Cri-cri. I am the Talking Cricket.”
“And what do you want from me?” said rudely Pinocchio, staring at the wall where the Cricket was climbing.
“I’ve been leaving into this house for more than hundred years and I have to talk to you.”
“Uh, so boring!” exclaimed the Marionette.
“Listen to me” went on the Cricket. “Troubles for those guys who don’t obey to their parents and run away from home. During their whole life, they will repent bitterly!”
“Stop!” shouted Pinocchio. “I have enough!” With these words, he grabbed a wood hammer and he threw it against the Cricket…who was stick on the wall, deadly stiff. Tired and sleepy Pinocchio seated and rested his legs on the heating coal of the fire.
“Oh, what a nice warmth!” he said before falling asleep. During his sleep, his wooden feet caught fire, and, very slowly, they got burnt and became ashes.
Finally, at sunrise, Pinocchio suddenly woke up: someone was knocking at the door. “Who is there?” he asked still sleepy.
“It’s me, Geppetto” answered a tired voice. The Marionette tried to run towards the door but…boom! He fell on the ground lying down.
“What’s happening?” asked Geppetto hearing that fuss.
“Dad, oh daddy” was crying Pinocchio.
“Someone has eaten my feet!”
The man climbed up to the wall and entered into the house through the window. Realizing how was desperate Pinocchio, Geppetto built two new wooden feet for his son.
“In order to repay you for all the things you’ve done for me” said Pinocchio “I want to go to school straight away.”
“That is a good idea!” said the father.
“But I need some clothes…” added thoughtful the Marionette.
Once again Geppetto in a flash made a dress of flowered paper for him, a pair of shoes of tree peel and a hat made of breadcrumb.
“Oh, thanks!” exclaimed delighted the Marionette. “Now the last thing I need is the spelling book.”
Geppetto, silently, went out and reappeared soon after with the book in his hands.
“But daddy, how do you make it to buy the book, poor as you are?” asked Pinocchio.
“I sold my jacket” said the old man. “It was too warm anyway!”
Pinocchio knew that Geppetto didn’t say the truth: he ran towards him and hugged him with love.
The next day Pinocchio woke up very early, determined to go to school.
After a long walk, he happened to be in a big square crowded of people that were gathering around a big tent made of wood and cloth painted with thousands of colours. It was the GREAT MARIONETTE THEATER. Pinocchio didn’t manage to resist to the temptation: in a while he sold the spelling book in order to go and see the show.
The Marionettes recognized their brother Pinocchio and they greeted him with enthusiasm…interrupting the show in its crucial moment. All at once came out the Director, Fire Eater: a big, ugly and very scary man with a long black beard!
“Why did you come to mess up my theatre show? He said with his loud voice. “You will pay dearly you intrusion! This evening I will throw you in the fire and you will flare very well!”
Pinocchio, terrified by those words, started to shout with all his breathe: “I don’t want to die! Please help me!”
You have to know that, Fire Eater, every time that was touched… had the bad habit of sneezing.
“E–tchee!” the Director dried his nose. “Hurrah!” exclaimed Harlequin and the other Marionettes. “Our Director has forgiven Pinocchio!”
Right! And imagine that Fire Eater also gave Pinocchio as a gift five gold coins, telling him to bring them to his poor father Geppetto. But the little naughty didn’t learn the lesson, because after that he was put upon by a cripple fox and a blind cat.
“Do you want to double your gold coins?” asked the fox, noticing the five coins of the realm of the Marionette.
“And what should I do?” asked intrigued Pinocchio.
“You should come with us to the (Land of the Barn Owl). Over there you can find a blessed field, named in fact Field of Miracles. If you make a hole in a corner and you burrow a coin…you can be sure that the day after you will find a tree full of many gold coins. You only have to wet a bit the soil and throw upon it a pinch of salt!”
“Let’s go right now…I will follow you!” exclaimed Pinocchio delighted.
“Now we can’t” said the fox taking the cat under his arm. “If you want, we can meet there tomorrow morning at the break of the day. You see that you will find the way easily!”
Pinocchio agreed, greeted his friends and went to sleep to the The Inn of the Red Lobster.
In the early morning, then, he quickly set off to the (Land of the Barn Owl) when he was reached by the two wicked, determined to steal the gold coins. The Marionette tried everything to run away, he also tried to hide his gold coins under his tongue, but the assassins succeeded in capturing him and hanged him on a branch of the big Oak.
Afterwards, the two old sly turned away wishing to be back in the evening, sure of finding Pinocchio stiff dead with his mouth opened.
Fortunately someone has followed the scene from the distance: she was the fairy godmother with turquoise hair, who was watching from the window of her home and was spying, worried, the actions of the Marionette. “Hurry up to take him safe!” she ordered to her servers, the Hawk and the Whiskered Dog.
In a while Pinocchio was dragged in a small room with the wall made of mother-of-pearl. The fairy went close to him and told him sweetly: “Dear Pinocchio, I know everything about you…but now tell me: where did you hide the gold coins?”
“I have lost them” answered weakly Pinocchio.
But that was a very big lie, because instead he had them in his pocket. As soon as he said those words, his nose started to get longer and longer.
“Oh, no!” worried the Marionette. “Now I remember, I must have swallowed them!”
With this second lie, his nose overextended.
The fairy was looking at him and was laughing.
“You’ve said a lie” she said “and the lies, my dear, have either short legs or a long nose!”
Pinocchio repented, he recounted all the truth and cried with bitterness until the fairy, having pity on him, called her friends Woodpeckers , who peck at the nose of the Marionette until it got back to his normal size.
But that naughty Pinocchio hadn’t finished yet to get into troubles! A few days later, he met again, the fox and the cat, who persuaded him to get back with them to the Field of Miracles in order to seed the famous coins.
“Here we are!” said the fox, once arrived on the place. “Now you will dig a hole, you will burrow the coins and you will cover everything with just a bit of soil…Good, exactly like that! Now you only have to water the soil and go away. In twenty minutes time you will come back and you will find a tree loaded of gold coins”
“Oh, thanks a lot, friends!” exclaimed Pinocchio going away. Alas! Dear me! The Marionette didn’t understand the trap: the Cat and the Fox, in fact, waited until Pinocchio was far away…and then they stole his coins!
Only when back, the naive understood that he was being deceived, and he ran straight away to his Good Fairy, who not only forgave him but also touched by his sincerity told him: “I want to make a big gift to you. Tomorrow you will not be a wooden Marionette anymore but a real prim boy and we will make a big party, and you will invite all your schoolmates.”
Pinocchio opened his eyes wide, he hugged the Fairy and he rushed to make his invitations in person. The first friend that the Marionette thought to invite was Lamp-Wick , the most negligent and prankster student of the whole school.
“Hi!” said Pinocchio meeting him on his way. “Do you want to come tomorrow to my party? The Fairy has promised me to make me a real boy in flesh and blood!”
“I am sorry to disappoint you” answered the boy with superiority. “But today I am leaving.”
“And where are you going?” asked Pinocchio.
“I am waiting for the stagecoach that will take me to the Land of Toys. Over there you can live the good life, you don’t study and you can live your life as you wish.”
“If so, I want to come too!” exclaimed Pinocchio, watching the stagecoach getting closer.
The wagon stopped in front of the two friends: it was dragged by many donkeys and, a funny thing, none of them was shoed like all the beasts used as shire or pack-animals. All of them, instead of the hoofs, wore elegant white boots!
The stagecoach was full of boys, lumped together one upon the other.
None of them could complain: the joy was too much! In a while they will be arrived in the Land of Toys. You have to know that the Land of Toys wasn’t similar to any other village in the world. His inhabitants were all young boys and in the streets it was always going on a party: who was playing blind man’s bluff, who was running after each other, who was biking, and who was making flips.
So, in every square and at every time there was a wild noise!
Pinocchio and Lamp-Wick became quickly friends with everyone and they lived five months of plenty…until when the Marionette, one sad day, watching his face in the mirror, noticed a good pair of donkey hears…Very slowly, Pinocchio became a donkey in flesh and blood, exactly as the asses that were dragging the truck.
“Now I see!” said crying the Marionette.” “Those donkeys with white boots were…yes, they were boys! “This is what happens to be naughty!”
But the misadventures for Pinocchio weren’t finished yet.
Firstly he was bought from the Director of a company of clowns, who wanted to teach to the donkey to dance and to jump into the circle. Unfortunately for the Director, however, that animal wasn’t mild at all and in a few days the man was persuaded to get rid of the laggard.
And so Pinocchio ended to be in the hands of a merchant, who wanted to make with the skin of the donkey a nice drum for the musical band of his country.
The man took the donkey to the seaside and, tightened his foot with a rope, and lashed a stone unto his neck, he pushed the donkey and threw him into the water in order to make him drown.
With calm, afterwards, he would have removed his skin in order to make a drum. But in that moment, the donkey shifted into the wooden Marionette, and Pinocchio was very quick in getting rid of the rope and he swam away from the shore, and the buyer was left empty-handed.
Swimming and swimming, suddenly Pinocchio saw an horrible head of a sea monster, coming out of the water and going straight towards him: it was the white shark! The monster reached him in a flash and swallowed him in one bite! Pinocchio, appalled, tried to be brave. But when he realized to be in the stomach of the monster, he started to cry desperately. All at once, it seemed to appear a light coming from the deep bowel of the shark.
“Oh!” he exclaimed surprised. “What could it be that feeble light so far away?”
Pinocchio started to walk following the direction of the light…and what did he find? A small table all set for dinner and upon it an heated candle placed into a bottle of glass.
Sitting at the table there was an old man…but yes, it was really Geppetto!
“Dad, my daddy” screamed the Marionette throwing his arms on his father’s neck. “Do you reckon me? It’s me, Pinocchio!”
“Oh, my son!” exclaimed Geppetto with a feeble voice. “I have been looking for you through the lands and the seas…and it’s been really into the sea that has happened the fact! You have to know that a long time ago, I was on my little boat and I was wandering from one shore to another, with the hope of finding you, when, suddenly, the sea became slight and a huge billow swept me up…I saw, arriving towards me, the terrible white shark, who swallowed me in one bite, without any compliments…and, as you can see, here I am! I managed to survive all this time long because, a few days later, the monster swallowed a whole ship full of food! Now, unfortunately, in the storeroom, is left nothing…How could we survive my boy?”
“We need to find a way to run away…and we have to do it now!” exclaimed Pinocchio.
“Run away?” leaped up the old man “I don’t see how!”
“We will run away from the mouth of the shark and we will plunge into the sea!” said the Marionette.
“But I can’t swim!” exclaimed Geppetto.
“This isn’t important, dear dad. You will ride on my back and I will swim up to the shore!”
“No, Pinocchio, we will never make it. You are just a Marionette, you can’t make this feat!”
“So, if we have to die at least we will have the consolation of dying embraced. Come here daddy, don’t be afraid.”
Said these words, Pinocchio took the candle and made his way up to the throat of the monster.
Looking up, from the opened mouth of the Shark, it was visible a beautiful starred sky and a shining moon.
“Well! The shark is having a deep sleep. This is the right moment to run away!” whispered Pinocchio. The two arrived up to the mouth of the monster, then Geppetto climbed up on his son’s shoulders.
“Go!” said Pinocchio plunging into the sea with a big jump.
Briefly dad and son reached the shore and, after a few hours of walking, they arrived to a desolate hut.
Pinocchio left his dad to lay down on a straw couch, then he went out quickly to buy some milk.
“How much milk do you need?” asked the farmer.
“A full glass…is for my old father.”
“And do you have money?”
“Hem, actually no…” said sincerely Pinocchio.
“Therefore, you will have to work for me. You will steer that wooden tool that I use to draw the water out from the cistern, in order to water the vegetables” said the farmer.
“That is ok, I accept any job” answered Pinocchio determined. And so it is, that from that day, the Marionette got his head together, he worked and studied diligently in order to make his father happy but, what counts most, he worked in order to be proud of himself.
The Fairy didn’t miss the big and sincere change happened to Pinocchio.
One night, she appeared to the Marionette in a dream: “Good, Pinocchio!” she said “You’ve proved to have a warm heart and I forgive you for all the naughtiness of the past. Now, then, you became the walking stick of the oldness of your good father, who sacrificed all your life for you.”
Wakening …oh astonishment! Pinocchio wasn’t a Marionette anymore, but he shifted into a boy lively and intelligent.
Pinocchio ran towards his father and he jumped on his neck, overwhelming him with kisses. “Your change has allowed the miracle!” said happily Geppetto. “It’s only thanks to you if now you are a really prim boy!”