Stranica 210 [210]
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!”