XXXIII
Pinocchio Is Trained for the Circus
Finding that the door remained shut the little man burst it open with a violent kick and, coming into the room, he said to Pinocchio and Candlewick with his usual little laugh:
“Well done, boys! You brayed well, and I recognized you by your voices. That is why I am here.”
At these words the two little donkeys were quite stupefied and stood with their heads down, their ears lowered, and their tails between their legs.
At first the little man stroked and caressed them; then, taking out a currycomb, he currycombed them well. And when by this process he had polished them till they shone like two mirrors, he put a halter round their necks and led them to the marketplace, in hopes of selling them and making a good profit.
And indeed buyers were not wanting. Candlewick was bought by a peasant whose donkey had died the previous day. Pinocchio was sold to the director of a company of buffoons and tightrope dancers, who bought him that he might teach him to leap and to dance with the other animals belonging to the company.
And now, my little readers, you will have understood the fine trade that little man pursued. The wicked little monster, who had a face all milk and honey, made frequent journeys round the world with his coach. As he went along he collected, with promises and flattery, all the idle boys who had taken a dislike to books and school. As soon as his coach was full he conducted them to the “Land of Boobies,” that they might pass their time in games, in uproar, and in amusement. When these poor, deluded boys, from continual play and no study, had become so many little donkeys, he took possession of them with great delight and satisfaction, and carried them off to the fairs and markets to be sold. And in this way he had in a few years made heaps of money and had become a millionaire.
What became of Candlewick I do not know, but I do know that Pinocchio from the very first day had to endure a very hard, laborious life.
When he was put into his stall his master filled the manger with straw; but Pinocchio, having tried a mouthful, spat it out again.
Then his master, grumbling, filled the manger with hay; but neither did the hay please him.
“Ah!” exclaimed his master in a passion. “Does not hay please you either? Leave it to me, my fine donkey; if you are so full of caprices I will find a way to cure you!”
And by way of correcting him he struck his legs with his whip.
Pinocchio began to cry and to bray with pain, and he said, braying:
“Hee-haw! I cannot digest straw!”
“Then eat hay!” said his master, who understood perfectly the asinine dialect.
“Hee-haw! hay gives me a pain in my stomach.”
“Do you mean to pretend that a little donkey like you must be kept on breasts of chickens, and capons in jelly?” asked his master, getting more and more angry, and whipping him again.
At this second whipping Pinocchio prudently held his tongue and said nothing more.
The stable was then shut and Pinocchio was left alone. He had not eaten for many hours and he began to yawn from hunger. And when he yawned he opened a mouth that seemed as wide as an oven.
At last, finding nothing else in the manger, he resigned himself and chewed a little hay; and after he had chewed it well, he shut his eyes and swallowed it.
“This hay is not bad,” he said to himself; “but how much better it would have been if I had gone on with my studies! Instead of hay I might now be eating a hunch of new bread and a fine slice of sausage. But I must have patience!”
The next morning when he woke he looked in the manger for a little more hay; but he found none, for he had eaten it all during the night.
Then he took a mouthful of chopped straw, but whilst he was chewing it he had to acknowledge that the taste of chopped straw did not in the least resemble a savory dish of macaroni or pie.
“But I must have patience!” he repeated as he went on chewing. “May my example serve at least as a warning to all disobedient boys who do not want to study. Patience!”
“Patience indeed!” shouted his master, coming at that moment into the stable. “Do you think, my little donkey, that I bought you only to give you food and drink? I bought you to make you work, and that you might earn money for me. Up, then, at once! you must come with me into the circus, and there I will teach you to jump through hoops, to go through frames of paper head foremost, to dance waltzes and polkas, and to stand upright on your hind legs.”
Poor Pinocchio, either by love or by force, had to learn all these fine things. But it took him three months before he had learned them, and he got many a whipping that nearly took off his skin.
At last a day came when his master was able to announce that he would give a really extraordinary representation. The many colored placards stuck on the street corners were thus worded:
Great Full Dress Representation
Tonight
will take place the usual feats and surprising
performances executed by all the artists
and by all the horses of the company
and moreover
the famous
Little Donkey Pinocchio
called
The Star of the Dance
will make his first appearanceThe theater will be brilliantly illuminated
On that evening, as you may imagine, an hour before the play was to begin the theater was crammed.
There was not a place to be had either in the pit or the stalls, or in the boxes even, by paying its weight in gold.
The benches round the circus were
