as soon as he gets home, geppetto fashions the marionetteand calls it pinocchio. the first pranks of the marionettelittle as geppetto's house was, it was neat andcomfortable. it was a small room on the ground floor, with a tiny window under the stairway. the furniture could nothave been much simpler: a very old chair, a rickety oldbed, and a tumble-down table. a fireplace full of burninglogs was painted on the wall opposite the door. over thefire, there was painted a pot full of something which keptboiling happily away and sending up clouds of what lookedlike real steam.
as soon as he reached home, geppetto took his toolsand began to cut and shape the wood into a marionette.
"what shall i call him?" he said to himself. "i thinki'll call him pinocchio. this name will make his fortune.
i knew a whole family of pinocchi once--pinocchio thefather, pinocchia the mother, and pinocchi the children--and they were all lucky. the richest of them begged forhis living."after choosing the name for his marionette, geppettoset seriously to work to make the hair, the forehead, theeyes. fancy his surprise when he noticed that these eyesmoved and then stared fixedly at him. geppetto, seeingthis, felt insulted and said in a grieved tone:
"ugly wooden eyes, why do you stare so?"there was no answer.
after the eyes, geppetto made the nose, which beganto stretch as soon as finished. it stretched and stretchedand stretched till it became so long, it seemed endless.
poor geppetto kept cutting it and cutting it, but the more he cut, the longer grew that impertinent nose. indespair he let it alone.
next he made the mouth.
no sooner was it finished than it began to laugh andpoke fun at him.
"stop laughing!" said geppetto angrily; but he mightas well have spoken to the wall.
"stop laughing, i say!" he roared in a voice of thunder.
the mouth stopped laughing, but it stuck out a long tongue.
not wishing to start an argument, geppetto madebelieve he saw nothing and went on with his work.
after the mouth, he made the chin, then the neck, theshoulders, the stomach, the arms, and the hands.
as he was about to put the last touches on the fingertips, geppetto felt his wig being pulled off. he glancedup and what did he see? his yellow wig was in the marionette'shand. "pinocchio, give me my wig!"but instead of giving it back, pinocchio put it on hisown head, which was half swallowed up in it.
at that unexpected trick, geppetto became very sadand downcast, more so than he had ever been before.
"pinocchio, you wicked boy!" he cried out. "you arenot yet finished, and you start out by being impudent toyour poor old father. very bad, my son, very bad!"and he wiped away a tear.
the legs and feet still had to be made. as soon as theywere done, geppetto felt a sharp kick on the tip of his nose.
"i deserve it!" he said to himself. "i should have thoughtof this before i made him. now it's too late!"he took hold of the marionette under the arms and puthim on the floor to teach him to walk.
pinocchio's legs were so stiff that he could not movethem, and geppetto held his hand and showed him how toput out one foot after the other.
when his legs were limbered up, pinocchio startedwalking by himself and ran all around the room. he cameto the open door, and with one leap he was out into thestreet. away he flew!
poor geppetto ran after him but was unable to catchhim, for pinocchio ran in leaps and bounds, his twowooden feet, as they beat on the stones of the street,making as much noise as twenty peasants in wooden shoes.
"catch him! catch him!" geppetto kept shouting.
but the people in the street, seeing a wooden marionetterunning like the wind, stood still to stare and to laughuntil they cried.
at last, by sheer luck, a carabineer[2] happenedalong, who, hearing all that noise, thought that it mightbe a runaway colt, and stood bravely in the middle of the street, with legs wide apart, firmly resolved to stop it andprevent any trouble.
[2] a military policemanpinocchio saw the carabineer from afar and tried hisbest to escape between the legs of the big fellow, butwithout success.
the carabineer grabbed him by the nose (it was anextremely long one and seemed made on purpose for thatvery thing) and returned him to mastro geppetto.
the little old man wanted to pull pinocchio's ears.
think how he felt when, upon searching for them, hediscovered that he had forgotten to make them!
all he could do was to seize pinocchio by the back ofthe neck and take him home. as he was doing so, he shookhim two or three times and said to him angrily:
"we're going home now. when we get home,then we'll settle this matter!"pinocchio, on hearing this, threw himself on the groundand refused to take another step. one person after anothergathered around the two.
some said one thing, some another.
"poor marionette," called out a man. "i am notsurprised he doesn't want to go home. geppetto, no doubt,will beat him unmercifully, he is so mean and cruel!""geppetto looks like a good man," added another, "butwith boys he's a real tyrant. if we leave that poormarionette in his hands he may tear him to pieces!"they said so much that, finally, the carabineer endedmatters by setting pinocchio at liberty and dragginggeppetto to prison. the poor old fellow did not know how todefend himself, but wept and wailed like a child and saidbetween his sobs:
"ungrateful boy! to think i tried so hard to make youa well-behaved marionette! i deserve it, however! i shouldhave given the matter more thought."what happened after this is an almost unbelievablestory, but you may read it, dear children, in the chaptersthat follow.
杰佩托住在一间很小的地下室，只有楼梯底行道进来一点儿光。用具简单得不能再简单，只有破破烂烂的一把椅子、一张床、一张小桌子。里面墙上有个小壁炉，生着火，可火是画出来的，火上面有个锅子，锅子也是画出来的，锅子在滚得热气腾腾，热气同样是画出来的，可画得跟真的一模一样。
杰佩托一回家，马上拿起工具，动手就刻他的木偶。
“给他取个什么名字呢？”杰佩托自言自语说，“我就叫他皮诺乔吧。这个名字会给他带来幸福。我认识一家人，都叫皮诺乔：皮诺乔爸爸，皮诺乔妈妈，皮诺乔老大、老二、老三……他们一家都过得很好，其中最富的一个讨饭吃。”
杰佩托给木偶取好了名字，就埋头干起活来，一下子就给他刻出了头发，刻出了脑门，刻出了眼睛。
眼睛刚刻好，请诸位想象一下杰佩托有多么惊奇吧，他发觉这两只眼睛自己骨碌碌动起来，接着一眨也不眨地瞪着他看。杰佩托给这双木头眼睛瞪得受不住了，生气地说：
“木头傻眼睛，干吗瞪着我？”
没有回答。
做完眼睛，又做鼻子。鼻子刚做好，它就开始长起来，长啊，长啊，长啊，才几分钟，已经变成一个很长很长的长鼻子，还没完没了地长下去。
可怜的杰佩托拼命要把鼻子截短，可他越是截，这个鼻子就毫不客气地变得越是长。
做完了鼻子做嘴巴。
嘴巴还没做完，就马上张开来笑了，
“别笑！”杰佩托生气地说。可他这句话像是对着墙说的，说了也是白搭。
“我再说一遍，别笑！”他用吓唬他的口气大叫。
嘴巴于是停了笑，可整条舌头都伸出来了，
杰佩托为了不耽误工作，假装没看见，继续干他的活。
做完嘴巴做下巴，接着做脖子，做肩膀，做肚子，做胳膊，做手。
手刚做好，杰佩托就觉得头上的假发套给拉掉了。他抬头一看，可是看见什么啦？只见他那头黄色假发拿在木偶的手里。
“皮诺乔！……马上把头发还我！”
可皮诺乔不但不把假发还他，反把它戴到自己头上。假发把他整个头套住，几乎把他闷了个半死。
木偶这么没规没矩，杰佩托觉得有生以来还没有这样悲伤难受过。他转脸向皮诺乔说：
“你这个小坏蛋！还没把你做完，你已经这样不尊敬父亲了！真坏，我的孩子，你真坏！”
他擦掉眼泪。
接下来只剩下做腿，做脚了。
杰佩托把脚一做好，就感到鼻尖上给踢了一脚。
“我这是自作自受！”杰佩托自言自语，“一开头就该想到这一点！现在已经来不及了！”
他抱住木偶的肢窝，把他放在地板上，要教他走路。
皮诺乔的腿僵硬着，不会动。杰佩托搀着他的手，教他一步一步地走。
等到腿一会动，皮诺乔就开始自己走了，接着他满屋子乱跳，最后跑出大门，蹦到街上，溜走了。
可怜的杰佩托在他后面追，可是追不上，因为皮诺乔这小坏蛋蹦蹦跳跳，像只野兔。他那双木脚却在路面上劈劈啪啪，活像二十双农民的木头鞋在响。
“抓住他！抓住他！”杰佩托大叫。可街上的人看见木偶跑得像匹小马驹，只是停下来望着他出神，哈哈地笑啊笑啊，笑得无法形容。
幸亏最后碰到一个警察，他听到人们吵吵闹闹，以为是一匹马驹从主人手里逃走了，于是大胆地站在路当中，跨开一双粗腿，决心要把马拦住，免得闯大祸。
皮诺乔远远看见警察把整条街拦住，就想在他两腿之间一下子冲过去，可是没成功，
警察动也不用动，一把就抓住了他的鼻子（这个鼻子真长、像是特地做出来给警察抓的），把他交还到杰佩托手里，杰佩托为了教训他，马上想狠狠拉他的耳朵，可诸位想象一下他是多么惊讶吧：他找来找去竟找不到耳朵，诸位知道为什么吗？因为他一个劲儿地刻啊刻啊，竟忘了给他做一对耳朵。
杰佩托没有耳朵可抓，就抓住木偶的颈背，他要把他带回家，同时摇着头吓唬他说：
“咱们现在回家，到了家，一定要算清咱们这笔账！”
皮诺乔听了这句吓唬的话，马上就倒在地上，赖在那里不肯再走了。爱看热闹和无所事事的人一下子就过来，围成了一大堆，
大家七嘴八舌舌的。
“可怜的木偶！”有人说，“他不肯回家是有道理的！谁知道杰佩托这坏蛋会怎么揍他呢！……”
又有人不怀好意地接上去说：
“杰佩托这家伙，看着挺老实，对孩子可真凶！让这个可怜木偶落到他手里，他准把木偶剁成碎木片！……”
一句话，他们这么东一锤西一棒的，那位警察竟把皮诺乔放开，反倒把可怜的杰佩托送到监狱里去了。”他一路上监狱，一路结结巴巴地哭着说：
“该死的小鬼！我辛辛苦苦本想做出个好木偶！可结果是自讨苦吃！我本该先想到这一点！……，
接下来发生的事情简直叫人没法相信，我在以下各章里，将一一讲给诸位听，