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PINOCCHIO 215 his arms he threw them round the little old man’s neck, and began to shout: “Oh, my dear papa! I have found you at last! I will never leave you more, never more, never more! ”’ " Then my eyes tell me true?” said the little old man, rubbing his eyes; “ then you are really my dear Pinocchio? ” " Yes, yes, I am ‘Pinocchio, really Pinocchio! And you have quite forgiven me, have you not? Oh, my dear papa, how good you are! . . . and to think that I, on the contrary . . . Oh! but if you only knew what misfortunes have been poured on my head, and all that has befallen me! Only imagine, the day that you, poor dear papa, sold your coat to buy me a Spelling-book that I might go to school, I escaped to see the puppet-show, and the showman wanted to put me on the fire that I might roast his mutton, and he was the same that afterwards gave me five gold pieces to take them to you, but I met the Fox and the Cat, who took me to the inn of the Red Craw-fish, where they ate like wolves, and I left by myself in the middle of the night, and I encountered assassins who ran after me, and I ran away, and they followed, and I ran, and they always followed me, and I ran, until they hung me to a branch of a Big Oak, and the beautiful Child
