Oldal 202 [202]
182 PINOCCHIO
hoops, or strutting about dressed as generals,
wearing leaf helmets and commanding a sguad¬
ron of cardboard soldiers. Some were laugh¬
ing, some shouting, some were calling out;
others clapped their hands, or whistled, or
clucked like a hen who has just laid an egg.
To sum it all up, it was such a pandemonium,
such a bedlam, such an uproar, that not to be
deafened it would have been necessary to stuff
one’s ears with cotton wool. In every square,
canvas theatres had been erected, and they were
crowded with boys from morning till evening.
On the walls of the houses there were inscrip¬
tions written in charcoal: “ Long live play¬
things, we will have no more schools: down with
arithmetic: " and similar other fine sentiments
all in bad spelling.
Pinocchio, Candlewick, and the other boys
who had made the journey with the little man,
had scarcely set foot in the town before they
were in the thick of the tumult, and I need not
tell you that in a few minutes they had made
acquaintance with everybody. Where could
happier or more contented boys be found?
In the midst of continual games and every
variety of amusement, the hours, the days, and
the weeks passed like lightning.
“Oh, what a delightful life!” said Pinoc¬
chio, whenever by chance he met Candlewick.