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PINOCCHIO 231 your foot which you had stuck through the house door? ” - I remember it all," shouted Pinocchio. - Tell me quickly, my beautiful little Snail, where have you left my good Fairy? What is she doing? has she forgiven me? does she still remember me? does she still wish me well? is she far from here? can I go and see her?” . To all these rapid, breathless questions the Snail replied in her usual phlegmatic manner: " My dear Pinocchio, the poor Fairy is lying in bed at the hospital! ...” “At the hospital? .. .” “It is only too true. Overtaken by a thousand misfortunes she has fallen seriously ill, and she has not even enough to buy herself a mouthful of bread." “Is it really so? . . . Oh, what sorrow you have given me! Oh, poor Fairy! poor Fairy! poor Fairy! . . . If I had a million I would run and carry it to her... but I have only forty pence ... here they are: I was going to buy a new coat. Take them, Snail, and carry them at once to my good Fairy.” " And your new coat?... “What matters my new coat? I would sell even these rags that I have got on to be able to help her. Go, Snail, and be quick; and in two days return to this place, for I hope I 29
