Oldal 213 [213]
PINOCCHIO 191
“What is the matter with you?”
“ Alas, I cannot any longer stand upright.”
" No more can I, exclaimed Pinocchio,
tottering and beginning to cry.
And whilst they were talking they both
doubled up and began to run round the room
on their hands and feet. And as they ran, their
hands became hoofs, their faces lengthened into
muzzles, and their backs became covered with
a light gray hairy coat sprinkled with black.
But do you know what was the worst mo¬
ment for these two wretched boys? The worst
and the most humiliating moment was when
their tails grew. Vanquished by shame and
by sorrow they wept and lamented their fate.
Oh, if they had but been wiser! But in¬
stead of sighs and lamentations they could only
bray like asses ; and they .brayed loudly and
said in chorus: “ j-a, J -a, J-a.
Whilst this was going on some one knocked
at the door, and a voice on the outside said:
“Open the docr! I am the little man, I
am the coachman, who brought you to this
country. Open at once, or it will be the worse
for you!”