Stranica 179 [179]
PINOCCHIO 159
“Do not mention it!” groaned Pinocchio,
who was still trembling with fright. " Do not
mention it! If you had arrived a second later
I should by this time have been fried, eaten,
and digested. Brrr!... it makes me shudder
only to think of 1t! . . ."
Alidoro, laughing, extended his right paw
to the puppet, who shook it heartily in token
of great friendship, and they then separated.
The dog took the road home; and Pinoc¬
chio, left alone, went to a cottage not far off,
and said to a little old man who was warming
himself in the sun:
“Tell me, good man, do you know any¬
thing of a poor boy called Kugene who was
wounded in the head? . . ."
" The boy was proniht some fishermen
to this cottage, and now.
“ And now he is dead! . .. Interrupted
Pinocchio with great sorrow.
“No, he is alive, and has returned to his
home.”
‘Not really? not really? " cried the puppet,
dancing with delight. " Then the wound was
not serious? ...”
" It might have been very serious and even
fatal,” answered the old man, “ for they threw
a thick book bound in cardboard at his head."
c And who threw it at him?”