Oldal 170 [170]
152 PINOCCHIO
You have done me a great service, and in this
world what is given is returned. If an occa¬
sion offers I shall not forget it.”
Pinocchio swam on, keeping always near
the land. At last he thought that he had
reached a safe place. Giving a look along the
shore he saw amongst the rocks a kind of cave
from which a cloud of smoke was ascending.
" In that cave,” he said to himself, " there
must be a fire. So much the better. I will go
and dry and warm myself, and then? . . . and
then we shall see.”
Having taken this resolution he approached
the rocks; but as he was going to climb up, he
felt something under the water that rose higher
and higher and carried him into the air. He
tried to escape, but it was too late, for to his
extreme surprise he found himself enclosed in
a great net, together with a swarm of fish of
every size and shape, who were flapping and
struggling like so many despairing souls.
At the same moment a fisherman came out
of the cave; he was so ugly, so horribly ugly,
that he looked like a sea monster. Instead of
hair his head was covered with a thick bush
of green grass, his skin was green, his eyes
were green, his long beard that came down
to the ground was also green. He had the