OCR Output

190 PINOCCHIO

" Why not? But first, my dear Pinocchio,
I should like to see yours.”

" No: you must be the first.”

" No, dear! First you and then I!”

‘ Well,” said the puppet, “ let us come to
an agreement like good friends.”

" Let us hear it.”

“We will both take off our caps at the
same moment. Do you agree? ”’

“J agree.”

‘Then attention! ”

Pinocchio began to count in a loud voice:

“One! Two! Three!"

At the word three! the two boys took off
their caps and threw them into the air.

And then a scene followed that would seem
incredible if it was not true. ‘That is, that when
Pinocchio and Candlewick discovered that
they were both struck with the same misfor¬
tune, instead of feeling full of mortification
and grief, they began to prick their ungainly
ears and to make a thousand antics, and they
ended by going into bursts of laughter.

And they laughed, and laughed, and
laughed, until they had to hold themselves to¬
gether. But in the midst of their merriment,
Candlewick suddenly stopped, staggered, and
changing colour said to his friend:

" Help, help, Pinocchio!”