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104 PINOCCHIO approached to within a few steps, and said to the Serpent in a little, soft, insinuating voice: “ Excuse me, Sir Serpent, but would you be so good as to move a little to one side, just enough to allow me to pass?” He might as well have spoken to the wall. Nobody moved. He began again in the same soft voice: " You must know, Sir Serpent, that I am on my way home, where my father is waiting for me, and it is such a long time since I saw him last! . . . Will you therefore allow me to pass? " He waited for a sign in answer to this request, but there was none: in fact, the Serpent, who up to that moment had been sprightly and full of life, became motionless and almost rigid. He shut his eyes and his tail ceased smoking. ‘Can he really be dead?” said Pinocchio, rubbing his hands with delight; and he determined to jump over him and reach the other side of the road. But just as he was going to leap the Serpent raised himself suddenly on end, like a spring set in motion; and the puppet, drawing back, in his terror caught his feet and fell to the ground. And he fell so awkwardly that his head stuck in the mud and his legs went into the air. At the sight of the puppet kicking violently with his head in the mud the Serpent went into
