pinocchio runs the danger of being fried in a pan like a fishduring that wild chase, pinocchio lived through aterrible moment when he almost gave himself up as lost.

this was when alidoro (that was the mastiff's name),in a frenzy of running, came so near that he was on thevery point of reaching him.

the marionette heard, close behind him, the laboredbreathing of the beast who was fast on his trail, and nowand again even felt his hot breath blow over him.

luckily, by this time, he was very near the shore, andthe sea was in sight; in fact, only a few short steps away.

as soon as he set foot on the beach, pinocchio gave aleap and fell into the water. alidoro tried to stop, butas he was running very fast, he couldn't, and he, too,landed far out in the sea. strange though it may seem,the dog could not swim. he beat the water with his paws tohold himself up, but the harder he tried, the deeper he sank.

as he stuck his head out once more, the poor fellow's eyeswere bulging and he barked out wildly, "i drown! i drown!""drown!" answered pinocchio from afar, happy at his escape.

"help, pinocchio, dear little pinocchio! save me from death!"at those cries of suffering, the marionette, who afterall had a very kind heart, was moved to compassion.

he turned toward the poor animal and said to him:

"but if i help you, will you promise not to bother meagain by running after me?""i promise! i promise! only hurry, for if you waitanother second, i'll be dead and gone!"pinocchio hesitated still another minute. then, rememberinghow his father had often told him that a kind deed is never lost,he swam to alidoro and, catching hold of his tail, dragged him to the shore.

the poor dog was so weak he could not stand. he hadswallowed so much salt water that he was swollen like aballoon. however, pinocchio, not wishing to trust himtoo much, threw himself once again into the sea. as heswam away, he called out:

"good-by, alidoro, good luck and remember me to the family!""good-by, little pinocchio," answered the dog.

"a thousand thanks for having saved me from death.

you did me a good turn, and, in this world, what is givenis always returned. if the chance comes, i shall be there."pinocchio went on swimming close to shore. at lasthe thought he had reached a safe place. glancing up anddown the beach, he saw the opening of a cave out of whichrose a spiral of smoke.

"in that cave," he said to himself, "there must be a fire.

so much the better. i'll dry my clothes and warm myself,and then--well--"his mind made up, pinocchio swam to the rocks, butas he started to climb, he felt something under him liftinghim up higher and higher. he tried to escape, but he wastoo late. to his great surprise, he found himself in a hugenet, amid a crowd of fish of all kinds and sizes, who werefighting and struggling desperately to free themselves.

at the same time, he saw a fisherman come out of thecave, a fisherman so ugly that pinocchio thought he was asea monster. in place of hair, his head was covered by athick bush of green grass. green was the skin of his body,green were his eyes, green was the long, long beard thatreached down to his feet. he looked like a giant lizardwith legs and arms.

when the fisherman pulled the net out of the sea,he cried out joyfully:

"blessed providence! once more i'll have a fine meal of fish!""thank heaven, i'm not a fish!" said pinocchio to himself,trying with these words to find a little courage.

the fisherman took the net and the fish to the cave,a dark, gloomy, smoky place. in the middle of it, a panfull of oil sizzled over a smoky fire, sending out a repellingodor of tallow that took away one's breath.

"now, let's see what kind of fish we have caughttoday," said the green fisherman. he put a hand as bigas a spade into the net and pulled out a handful of mullets.

"fine mullets, these!" he said, after looking at them andsmelling them with pleasure. after that, he threw theminto a large, empty tub.

many times he repeated this performance. as he pulledeach fish out of the net, his mouth watered with thethought of the good dinner coming, and he said:

"fine fish, these bass!""very tasty, these whitefish!""delicious flounders, these!""what splendid crabs!""and these dear little anchovies, with their heads still on!"as you can well imagine, the bass, the flounders, thewhitefish, and even the little anchovies all went togetherinto the tub to keep the mullets company. the last to comeout of the net was pinocchio.

as soon as the fisherman pulled him out, his green eyesopened wide with surprise, and he cried out in fear:

"what kind of fish is this? i don't remember evereating anything like it."he looked at him closely and after turning him over andover, he said at last:

"i understand. he must be a crab!"pinocchio, mortified at being taken for a crab, said resentfully:

"what nonsense! a crab indeed! i am no such thing.

beware how you deal with me! i am a marionette,i want you to know.""a marionette?" asked the fisherman. "i must admit thata marionette fish is, for me, an entirely new kind of fish.

so much the better. i'll eat you with greater relish.""eat me? but can't you understand that i'm not a fish?

can't you hear that i speak and think as you do?""it's true," answered the fisherman; "but since i seethat you are a fish, well able to talk and think as i do,i'll treat you with all due respect.""and that is--""that, as a sign of my particular esteem, i'll leave toyou the choice of the manner in which you are to becooked. do you wish to be fried in a pan, or do you preferto be cooked with tomato sauce?""to tell you the truth," answered pinocchio, "if i must choose,i should much rather go free so i may return home!""are you fooling? do you think that i want to losethe opportunity to taste such a rare fish? a marionettefish does not come very often to these seas. leave it to me.

i'll fry you in the pan with the others. i know you'll like it.

it's always a comfort to find oneself in good company."the unlucky marionette, hearing this, began to cry andwail and beg. with tears streaming down his cheeks, he said:

"how much better it would have been for me to go to school!

i did listen to my playmates and now i am paying for it!

oh! oh! oh!"and as he struggled and squirmed like an eel to escape from him,the green fisherman took a stout cord and tied him hand and foot,and threw him into the bottom of the tub with the others.

then he pulled a wooden bowl full of flour out of acupboard and started to roll the fish into it, one by one.

when they were white with it, he threw them into the pan.

the first to dance in the hot oil were the mullets,the bass followed, then the whitefish, the flounders, andthe anchovies. pinocchio's turn came last. seeing himselfso near to death (and such a horrible death!) he beganto tremble so with fright that he had no voice left withwhich to beg for his life.

the poor boy beseeched only with his eyes. but thegreen fisherman, not even noticing that it was he, turnedhim over and over in the flour until he looked like amarionette made of chalk.

then he took him by the head and--

这场你死我活的赛跑，已经到了千钧一发的时刻，皮诺乔心想，这回准定要输了，因为要知道，阿利多罗（就是那条猛犬的名字）使劲地跑啊，跑啊，差不多就要追上他。

只说一点就够了：木偶已经听到这条恶犬在他身后一巴掌远的地方很急促的喘气声，甚至感觉到了它呼吸的热气。

幸亏这时已经到了海边，眼看大海只有那么几步远了。

木偶一到海边，就像小青蛙似的，很利落地扑通一声，跳到了水里。阿利多罗正好相反，想马上停住脚步，可跑得太快了，脚步收不住，跟着也扑通一声落到了水里。这只倒霉的狗不会游泳，因此两条脚马上乱划，想要浮在水面。可它越划越往下沉，连头都沉到水底下去了。

等到这条可怜的狗把头伸出来，它吓得两眼瞪大，汪汪叫着说：

“我要淹死了！我要淹死了！”

“那就死吧！”皮诺乔在远处回答。现在他看到，他再也没有什么危险，已经万无一失了。

“救救我，我的小皮诺乔！……快救救我的命吧！……”

这几声汪汪叫十分悲惨，木偶本心很好，禁不住心软下来，转脸对狗说：

“可我救了你，你保证不再找我麻烦，不再追我对吗？”

“我保证，我保证！快帮忙吧，再过半分钟，我就完蛋了。”

皮诺乔先还犹豫了一下，可终于记起他爸爸一再说过的话，做好事永远不吃亏，就游到阿利多罗身边，伸出两手，一把抓住了它的尾巴，把它活生生拉上干燥的沙滩。

这条可怜的狗站都站不住了。它不得已喝了那么多咸水，肚子胀得像个大皮球。可是木偶不太相信它，觉得还是小心点好，于是重新跳到海里。他离岸远远的，对他救起来的朋友叫道：

“再见，阿利多罗，一路平安，给我向你一家问好。”

“再见，小皮诺乔，”狗回答说，“万分感谢您救了我的命。您帮了我一个天大的忙。在这个世界上善有善报，一有机会，我要报答您的。”

皮诺乔继续紧靠着岸边游。最后他觉得已经到了安全的地方，朝岸上看看，看见礁石上有个山洞，山洞里冒出烟来，飘得高高的。

“这山洞里一定有火，”他自言自语说。“那多好啊！让我上去把身子烤烤干，烤烤暖和。然后呢？……然后该怎么办就怎么办吧。”

他拿定了主意，就向礁石游过去。可他到了那里正要上岸，忽然觉得水底下有样东西升起来，升啊，升啊，把他一直托到空中，他马上打算逃走，可已经来不及了，因为使他惊奇万分的是，他竟在一个大鱼网里，夹在一大堆鱼中间。这些鱼形形色色，有大有小，正拼了命啪哒啪哒摇着尾巴挣扎。

正在这时候，他看见山洞里走出一个渔夫，样子太难看了，难看得简直像个海怪。他的头发不是头发，是一大蓬绿草。他身上的皮肤是绿的，眼睛是绿的，胡子老长老长，一直垂到脚上，也是绿的。他活像一条用后脚直立的绿色大晰蜴。

渔夫把鱼网打海里拉出来，兴高采烈地叫道：

“老天爷保佑！今天我又可以大吃一顿鲜鱼了！”

“幸亏我不是鱼！”皮诺乔心里说。他又有了点勇气。

一网鱼都拿到山洞里。山洞里很黑，满是烟。山洞当中有一只大油锅在沸腾，发出一股叫人没法呼吸的烧灯芯气味。

“我来看看捉到了什么鱼！”绿莹莹的渔夫说着，把烘炉铲子似的一只大手伸进鱼网，抓出一把火鱼。

“这些火鱼不错！”他看了看，很满意地闻了闻，说。他闻过以后，就把它们扔进一个没水的缸里。

接看他又照样来一次。就这样，他一次又一次把鱼捞出来，觉得要流口水，欢天喜地说：

“这些鳕鱼好极了！……”

“这些鰡鱼妙极了！……’’

“这些板鱼味道不错！……”

“这些狼鱼味道很鲜！……”

“这些鳀鱼八成很好吃！……”

诸位可以想象，这些鳕鱼、鰡鱼、板鱼、狼鱼、鳀鱼全都劈哩啪啦落到缸里，跟最先扔进去的火鱼在一起。

最后—个留在网里的是皮诺乔。

渔夫把他一抓出来，两只绿色大眼睛登时都吓得瞪圆了。他几乎是害怕地叫起来：

“这是什么鱼？我想不起我曾经吃过这种鱼！”

他把木偶再仔仔细细地看了一遍，等到看仔细了，最后说：

“我明白了。这准是海里的螃蟹。”

皮诺乔听说把他当作螃蟹，觉得是个耻辱，生气地说：

“什么螃蟹不螃蟹？瞧你把我当什么啦！告诉你，我是木偶。”

“木偶？”渔夫反问。“说真个的，木偶鱼对我来说是一种新的鱼！那更妙了，我更想吃你了。”

“吃我？可您不懂吗，我不是鱼？您不觉得我跟您一样，会说话会思想吗？”

“那倒是一点不错，”渔夫往下说，“我看你鱼还是鱼，可是很幸运，跟我一样会说话，会思想，因此我很愿意给你应有的照顾。”

“什么照顾？……”

“为了表示友好和对你的特殊敬意，我让你自由选择怎么烧法。你要在油锅里炸呢？还是要在平底锅里加上番茄酱煎呢？”

“说老实话，”皮诺乔回答说，“如果要我选择的话，我宁可请您放了我，让我回家去。”

“你在开玩笑！这么一条少有的鱼，你以为我会放过机会不尝它一尝吗？在这里海上还从来不知道有木偶鱼！依我的办吧，我把你跟所有的鱼一块儿放在油锅里炸，你会满意的。有那么多鱼作伴一起挨炸，总归是一种安慰。”

不幸的皮诺乔一听明白这意思，就开始哇哇大哭，怨天怨地说：

“我当初去上学该多好！……可我听了同学的话，现在报应来了！……咿！……！咿……！咿……”

由于他扭得像条鳗鱼，使出叫人难以相信的力气要挣脱绿莹莹的渔夫的手，这双手就拿起一束结实的蒲草，把皮诺乔的双手双脚捆起来，捆得像根香肠，扔到缸底跟其他的鱼在一起。

接着他拉出一大木盘面粉来拌所有的鱼，一条一条都拌好了，就扔到油锅里炸。

最先在沸腾的油里跳舞的是可怜的鳕鱼，接着挨到狼鱼，接着挨到鰡鱼，接着挨到板鱼和鳀鱼，最后挨到了皮诺乔。皮诺乔看到死期已至（死得多惨啊！），不由得浑身发抖，害怕得既发不出声音，也透不过气来，根本没法子哀求饶命。

这可怜的孩子只好用眼睛来哀求！可是那绿莹莹的渔夫根本没注意到。他把木偶在面粉里拌了五六遍，从头到脚拌了个透。皮诺乔浑身都是面粉，就像个小石膏像。