‘Pinocchio, don’t listen to the advice of
bad companions: if you do you will repent
ees!
Poor Blackbird! If only he had not spoken!
The Cat, with a great leap, sprang upon him,
and without even giving him time to say Oh!
ate him in a mouthful, feathers and all.
Having eaten him and cleaned her mouth
she shut her eyes again and feigned blindness
as before.
" Poor Blackbird!” said Pinocchio to the
Cat, “ why did you treat him so badly?”
" I did it to give him a lesson. He will
learn another time not to meddle in other
people’s conversation.”
They had gone almost half-way when the
Fox, halting suddenly, said to the puppet:
-" Would you like to double your money? ”
" In what way?”
“Would you like to make out of your five
miserable sovereigns, a hundred, a thousand,
two thousand? "
" I should think so! but in what way?”
“The way is easy enough. Instead of re¬
turning home you must go with us.”
“And where do you wish to take me?”
“To the land of the Owls.”
Pinocchio reflected a moment, and then he