Stranica 222 [222]
200 PINOCCHIO
“Trot!” and Pinocchio, obeying the order,
changed to a trot.
“Gallop!” and Pinocchio broke into a
gallop.
“Full gallop!” and Pinocchio went full
gallop. But whilst he was going full speed
like a racehorse the director, raising his arm
in the air, fired off a pistol.
At the shot the little donkey, pretending
to be wounded, fell his whole length in the cir.
cus, as if he was really dying.
As he got up from the ground amidst an
outburst of applause, shouts, and clapping of
hands, he naturally raised his head and looked
up . . . and he saw in one of the boxes a beau¬
tiful lady who wore round her neck a thick
gold chain from which hung a medallion. On
the medallion was painted the portrait of a
puppet.
“That is my portrait! . . . that lady is the
Fairy! " said Pinocchio to himself, recognising
her immediately; and overcome with delight he
tried to cry:
“Oh, my little Fairy! Oh, my little
Fairy!”
But instead of these words a bray came from
his throat, so sonorous and so prolonged that
all the spectators laughed, and more especially
all the children who were in the theatre.