the assassins chase pinocchio, catch him,and hang him to the branch of a giant oak treeas he ran, the marionette felt more and more certain thathe would have to give himself up into the hands of hispursuers. suddenly he saw a little cottage gleaming whiteas the snow among the trees of the forest.

"if i have enough breath left with which to reach thatlittle house, i may be saved," he said to himself.

not waiting another moment, he darted swiftly throughthe woods, the assassins still after him.

after a hard race of almost an hour, tired and out ofbreath, pinocchio finally reached the door of the cottageand knocked. no one answered.

he knocked again, harder than before, for behind himhe heard the steps and the labored breathing of hispersecutors. the same silence followed.

as knocking was of no use, pinocchio, in despair,began to kick and bang against the door, as if he wantedto break it. at the noise, a window opened and a lovelymaiden looked out. she had azure hair and a face whiteas wax. her eyes were closed and her hands crossed onher breast. with a voice so weak that it hardly could beheard, she whispered:

"no one lives in this house. everyone is dead.""won't you, at least, open the door for me?"cried pinocchio in a beseeching voice.

"i also am dead.""dead? what are you doing at the window, then?""i am waiting for the coffin to take me away."after these words, the little girl disappeared and thewindow closed without a sound.

"oh, lovely maiden with azure hair," criedpinocchio, "open, i beg of you. take pity on a poor boy whois being chased by two assass--"he did not finish, for two powerful hands grasped himby the neck and the same two horrible voices growledthreateningly: "now we have you!"the marionette, seeing death dancing before him,trembled so hard that the joints of his legs rattled andthe coins tinkled under his tongue.

"well," the assassins asked, "will you open yourmouth now or not? ah! you do not answer? very well,this time you shall open it."taking out two long, sharp knives, they struck twoheavy blows on the marionette's back.

happily for him, pinocchio was made of very hardwood and the knives broke into a thousand pieces. theassassins looked at each other in dismay, holding thehandles of the knives in their hands.

"i understand," said one of them to the other, "thereis nothing left to do now but to hang him.""to hang him," repeated the other.

they tied pinocchio's hands behind his shoulders andslipped the noose around his neck. throwing the rope the poor marionette hung far up in space.

satisfied with their work, they sat on the grass waitingfor pinocchio to give his last gasp. but after three hoursthe marionette's eyes were still open, his mouth still shutand his legs kicked harder than ever.

tired of waiting, the assassins called to him mockingly:

"good-by till tomorrow. when we return in the morning,we hope you'll be polite enough to let us find youdead and gone and with your mouth wide open."with these words they went.

a few minutes went by and then a wild wind startedto blow. as it shrieked and moaned, the poor littlesufferer was blown to and fro like the hammer of a bell.

the rocking made him seasick and the noose, becomingtighter and tighter, choked him. little by little a filmcovered his eyes.

death was creeping nearer and nearer, and the marionettestill hoped for some good soul to come to his rescue,but no one appeared. as he was about to die, he thoughtof his poor old father, and hardly conscious of what hewas saying, murmured to himself:

"oh, father, dear father! if you were only here!"these were his last words. he closed his eyes, openedhis mouth, stretched out his legs, and hung there, as ifhe were dead.

这时木偶已经完全泄气，到了要扑倒在地向两个强盗告饶的地步，可一下子看见深绿的树林子里，远远有一座雪白的小房子在耀眼。

“我要是有口气跑到那房子，就有救了，”他心里说。

他一分钟也不耽搁，重新一个劲跑起来，穿过林子。两个杀入强盗依然在后面追。

他拼命跑了近两个钟头，终于上气不接下气地跑到那座小房子门口，连忙嘭嘭嘭敲门。

可没人答应。

他使劲把门敲得震天价响，因为他听见追来的脚步声、又响又急的呼吸声越来越近了。

可还是静悄悄的。

他看见敲门毫无用处，就开始在门上用脚拼命地踢，用头拼命地撞。这时窗口探出个头来，这是个美丽的小女孩，天蓝色的头发，脸白得跟蜡像似的，眼睛闭着，双手交叉在胸前。她说话时嘴唇也不动，声音很轻很轻，像是从另一个改界来的：

“这座房子里没人，所有的人都死了。”

“至少你给我开开门！”皮诺乔哭叫着求她，

“我也死了。”

“死了，那你现在在窗口干吗？”

“我在等棺材，它要来把我给装走。”

小女孩子一说完这句话，就不见了。窗子也悄没声儿地重新关上了。

“噢，天蓝色头发的美丽小姑娘，”皮诺乔大叫，“帮帮忙，给我开开门吧！请你同情一个可怜的孩子，他后面追着杀人的……”

他这句话没能说完，因为他觉得脖子给掐住了，还听到那两个声音在咆哮着威胁说：

“现在你再逃不掉啦！”。

木偶看到死在眼前，不由得一阵哆嗦，哆嗦得两条木头腿的关节卡嗒卡嗒响，藏在舌头底下的四个金币也丁丁当当响起来了。

“怎么样，”两个杀人强盗问他说。“你开口吗，开还是不开，怎么！不回答？……那我们就动手了，这一回定要把你的嘴弄开！……”

他们说着，拔出两把很长很长的刀子，锋利得像剃刀，嚓嚓！……给他背上来了两下。

幸亏木偶是用很硬很硬的木头做的，因此他没受伤，刀倒断成了好多片。两个杀人强盗手里光剩下刀柄，你看着我，我看着你。

“我明白了，”其中一个说，“咱们得吊死他！吊死他吧！”

“吊死他吧！”另一个跟着又说了一退。

说干就干，他们把他双手反绑，用活结套住他的喉咙，把他吊在一棵大橡树的树枝上。

然后他们坐在树下，就等着木偶蹬最后一次腿。可木偶过了三个钟头依然张开两只眼睛，闭着嘴巴，两腿越蹬越有劲。

他们最后等得不耐烦了，就向木偶转过脸，冷笑着对他说：“明儿见，等我们明天回到这儿，希望你帮个大忙，已经死掉了，把嘴张得大大的。”

他们说着，走了。

这时候猛乱起一阵北风，呼呼地怒号，把吊在那里的可怜木偶吹过来吹过去，狠狠地摇得他像过节时丁当丁当摇着的大钟，这样摇啊摇啊，摇得他痛苦万分。喉咙上的活结越收越紧，叫他气也透不出来。

他的两眼一点一点发黑。可他虽然感到死期已近，依然希望随时会有人经过，把他救下来，可他等啊等啊，看见还是没人来，一个人也没有，于是就想到他的可怜的爸爸……他半死不活地结结巴巴说：

“噢，我的爸爸，要是你在这儿就好了！……”

他再也说不出话来。他闭上眼睛，张开嘴巴，伸长两腿，一阵猛烈颤动，吊在那里像是僵硬了。