The Greatest Adventure Books for Children. Люси Мод Монтгомери

those piercing shrieks, a Dormouse came into the room, a fat little Dormouse, who lived upstairs. Seeing Pinocchio so grief-stricken, she asked him anxiously:

      “What is the matter, dear little neighbor?”

      “I am sick, my little Dormouse, very, very sick — and from an illness which frightens me! Do you understand how to feel the pulse?”

      “A little.”

      “Feel mine then and tell me if I have a fever.”

      The Dormouse took Pinocchio’s wrist between her paws and, after a few minutes, looked up at him sorrowfully and said: “My friend, I am sorry, but I must give you some very sad news.”

      “What is it?”

      “You have a very bad fever.”

      “But what fever is it?”

      “The donkey fever.”

      “I don’t know anything about that fever,” answered the Marionette, beginning to understand even too well what was happening to him.

      “Then I will tell you all about it,” said the Dormouse. “Know then that, within two or three hours, you will no longer be a Marionette, nor a boy.”

      “What shall I be?”

      “Within two or three hours you will become a real donkey, just like the ones that pull the fruit carts to market.”

      “Oh, what have I done? What have I done?” cried Pinocchio, grasping his two long ears in his hands and pulling and tugging at them angrily, just as if they belonged to another.

      “My dear boy,” answered the Dormouse to cheer him up a bit, “why worry now? What is done cannot be undone, you know. Fate has decreed that all lazy boys who come to hate books and schools and teachers and spend all their days with toys and games must sooner or later turn into donkeys.”

      “But is it really so?” asked the Marionette, sobbing bitterly.

      “I am sorry to say it is. And tears now are useless. You should have thought of all this before.”

      “But the fault is not mine. Believe me, little Dormouse, the fault is all Lamp-Wick’s.”

      “And who is this Lamp-Wick?”

      “A classmate of mine. I wanted to return home. I wanted to be obedient. I wanted to study and to succeed in school, but Lamp-Wick said to me, ‘Why do you want to waste your time studying? Why do you want to go to school? Come with me to the Land of Toys. There we’ll never study again. There we can enjoy ourselves and be happy from morn till night.’”

      “And why did you follow the advice of that false friend?”

      “Why? Because, my dear little Dormouse, I am a heedless Marionette — heedless and heartless. Oh! If I had only had a bit of heart, I should never have abandoned that good Fairy, who loved me so well and who has been so kind to me! And by this time, I should no longer be a Marionette. I should have become a real boy, like all these friends of mine! Oh, if I meet Lamp-Wick I am going to tell him what I think of him — and more, too!”

      After this long speech, Pinocchio walked to the door of the room. But when he reached it, remembering his donkey ears, he felt ashamed to show them to the public and turned back. He took a large cotton bag from a shelf, put it on his head, and pulled it far down to his very nose.

      Thus adorned, he went out. He looked for Lamp-Wick everywhere, along the streets, in the squares, inside the theatres, everywhere; but he was not to be found. He asked everyone whom he met about him, but no one had seen him. In desperation, he returned home and knocked at the door.

      “Who is it?” asked Lamp-Wick from within.

      “It is I!” answered the Marionette.

      “Wait a minute.”

      After a full half hour the door opened. Another surprise awaited Pinocchio! There in the room stood his friend, with a large cotton bag on his head, pulled far down to his very nose.

      At the sight of that bag, Pinocchio felt slightly happier and thought to himself:

      “My friend must be suffering from the same sickness that I am! I wonder if he, too, has donkey fever?”

      But pretending he had seen nothing, he asked with a smile:

      “How are you, my dear Lamp-Wick?”

      “Very well. Like a mouse in a Parmesan cheese.”

      “Is that really true?”

      “Why should I lie to you?”

      “I beg your pardon, my friend, but why then are you wearing that cotton bag over your ears?”

      “The doctor has ordered it because one of my knees hurts. And you, dear Marionette, why are you wearing that cotton bag down to your nose?”

      “The doctor has ordered it because I have bruised my foot.”

      “Oh, my poor Pinocchio!”

      “Oh, my poor Lamp-Wick!”

      An embarrassingly long silence followed these words, during which time the two friends looked at each other in a mocking way.

      Finally the Marionette, in a voice sweet as honey and soft as a flute, said to his companion:

      “Tell me, Lamp-Wick, dear friend, have you ever suffered from an earache?”

      “Never! And you?”

      “Never! Still, since this morning my ear has been torturing me.”

      “So has mine.”

      “Yours, too? And which ear is it?”

      “Both of them. And yours?”

      “Both of them, too. I wonder if it could be the same sickness.”

      “I’m afraid it is.”

      “Will you do me a favor, Lamp-Wick?”

      “Gladly! With my whole heart.”

      “Will you let me see your ears?”

      “Why not? But before I show you mine, I want to see yours, dear Pinocchio.”

      “No. You must show yours first.”

      “No, my dear! Yours first, then mine.”

      “Well, then,” said the Marionette, “let us make a contract.”

      “Let’s hear the contract!”

      “Let us take off our caps together. All right?”

      “All right.”

      “Ready then!”

      Pinocchio began to count, “One! Two! Three!”

      At the word “Three!” the two boys pulled off their caps and threw them high in air.

      And then a scene took place which is hard to believe, but it is all too true. The Marionette and his friend, Lamp-Wick, when they saw each other both stricken by the same misfortune, instead of feeling sorrowful and ashamed, began to poke fun at each other, and after much nonsense, they ended by bursting out into hearty laughter.

      They laughed and laughed, and laughed again — laughed till they ached — laughed till they cried.

      But all of a sudden