I dedicate this book to Lyudmila Ilyinichna Tolstaya

Foreword

When I was little - a very, very long time ago - I read one book: it was called "Pinocchio, or the Adventures of a Wooden Doll" (wooden doll in Italian - pinocchio).

I often told my comrades, girls and boys, the entertaining adventures of Pinocchio. But since the book was lost, I told each time in a different way, inventing such adventures that were not in the book at all.

Now, after many, many years, I remembered my old friend Pinocchio and decided to tell you, girls and boys, an extraordinary story about this wooden man.

I find that of all the images of Pinocchio created by various artists, Pinocchio L. Vladimirsky is the most successful, most attractive and most consistent with the image of the little hero A. Tolstoy.

The carpenter Giuseppe came across a log that squeaked with a human voice

A long time ago, in a town on the Mediterranean coast, there lived an old carpenter, Giuseppe, nicknamed Gray Nose.

One day he came across a log, an ordinary log for a hearth in winter.

“Not a bad thing,” Giuseppe said to himself, “you can make something like a table leg out of it ...

Giuseppe put on spectacles wrapped in twine—for the spectacles were also old—turned the log in his hand and began to hew it with a hatchet.

But as soon as he began to hew, someone's unusually thin voice squeaked:

- Oh, oh, be quiet, please!

Giuseppe moved his glasses to the tip of his nose, began to look around the workshop - no one ...

He looked under the workbench - no one ...

He looked in the basket with shavings - no one ...

He stuck his head out the door - no one on the street ...

“Did I imagine? thought Giuseppe. “Who could squeak it?”

He again took the hatchet and again - only hit the log ...

- Oh, it hurts, I say! howled a thin voice.

This time, Giuseppe was seriously frightened, his glasses even sweated ... He examined all the corners in the room, even climbed into the hearth and, turning his head, looked into the chimney for a long time.

- There is no one ...

“Maybe I drank something inappropriate and my ears are ringing?” Giuseppe thought to himself...

No, today he didn’t drink anything unsuitable ... Having calmed down a little, Giuseppe took a planer, hit the back of it with a hammer so that the blade would come out in moderation - not too much and not too little, put the log on the workbench - and only led the chips ...

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, listen, what are you pinching? – desperately squealed a thin voice…

Giuseppe dropped the planer, backed away, backed away and sat right on the floor: he guessed that the thin voice was coming from inside the log.

Giuseppe gives a talking log to his friend Carlo

At this time, Giuseppe was visited by his old friend, an organ grinder named Carlo.

Once upon a time, Carlo, in a wide-brimmed hat, walked around the cities with a beautiful hurdy-gurdy and earned his bread by singing and music.

Now Carlo was already old and ill, and his hurdy-gurdy had long since broken.

“Hello, Giuseppe,” he said, entering the workshop. - Why are you sitting on the floor?

- And I, you see, lost a small screw ... Come on, him! - answered Giuseppe and squinted at the log. “Well, how are you, old man?”

“Bad,” said Carlo. - I keep thinking - how can I earn a living ... If only you could help me, would you advise me, or something ...

- What is easier, - said Giuseppe cheerfully and thought to himself: "I'll get rid of this damned log now." - What is easier: you see - an excellent log lies on the workbench, - take this log, Carlo, and take it home ...

“Heh heh heh,” Carlo replied dejectedly, “what next?” I'll bring home a log, but I don't even have a hearth in the closet.

“I’m talking to you, Carlo ... Take a knife, cut a doll out of this log, teach her to say all sorts of funny words, sing and dance, and carry it around the yards. Earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine.

At this time, on the workbench where the log lay, a cheerful voice squeaked:

“Bravo, well thought out, Gray Nose!”

Giuseppe shook with fear again, and Carlo just looked around in surprise - where did the voice come from?

“Well, thank you, Giuseppe, for your advice. Come on, perhaps your log.

Then Giuseppe grabbed a piece of wood and quickly handed it to his friend. But either he awkwardly pushed it, or it jumped up and hit Carlo on the head.

- Oh, here are your gifts! – offended shouted Carlo.

"I'm sorry, buddy, I didn't hit you."

“So I hit myself in the head?”

“No, buddy—the log itself must have hit you.”

- You're lying, you hit ...

- No, not me…

“I knew you were a drunkard, Gray Nose,” said Carlo, “and you are also a liar.

- Oh, you - swear! Giuseppe called out. - Come on, come closer!

“Come closer yourself, I’ll grab you by the nose!”

Both old men pouted and began to jump on each other. Carlo grabbed Giuseppe by the bluish nose. Giuseppe grabbed Carlo by the gray hair that grew around his ears.

After that, they began to hit each other cool under the mikitki. A shrill voice on the workbench at that time squeaked and teased:

- Get it right, get it right!

Finally, the old people were tired and out of breath. Giuseppe said:

"Let's make peace, shall we?"

Carlo replied:

- Well, let's make peace ...

The old people kissed. Carlo took the log under his arm and went home.

Carlo makes a wooden doll and calls her Pinocchio

Carlo lived in a closet under the stairs, where he had nothing but a beautiful hearth in the wall opposite the door.

Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy

The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio

© Tolstoy A.N., heirs, 2016

© Kanevsky A.M., illustrations, heirs, 2016

© Ivan Shagin / RIA Novosti, 2016

© AST Publishing House LLC, 2016

I dedicate this book

Lyudmila Ilyinichna Tolstoy

Foreword

When I was little - a very, very long time ago - I read one book: it was called "Pinocchio, or the Adventures of a Wooden Doll" (wooden doll in Italian - Pinocchio).

I often told my comrades, girls and boys, the entertaining adventures of Pinocchio. But since the book was lost, I told each time in a different way, inventing such adventures that were not in the book at all.

Now, after many, many years, I remembered my old friend Pinocchio and decided to tell you, girls and boys, an extraordinary story about this wooden man.

Alexey Tolstoy

The carpenter Giuseppe came across a log that squeaked with a human voice

A long time ago, in a town on the Mediterranean coast, there lived an old carpenter, Giuseppe, nicknamed Gray Nose.

One day he came across a log, an ordinary log for a hearth in winter.

“Not a bad thing,” Giuseppe said to himself, “you can make something like a table leg out of it ...

Giuseppe put on spectacles wrapped in twine—for the spectacles were also old—turned the log in his hand and began to hew it with a hatchet.

But as soon as he began to hew, someone's unusually thin voice squeaked:

- Oh, oh, be quiet, please!

Giuseppe moved his glasses to the tip of his nose, began to look around the workshop - no one ...

He looked under the workbench - no one ...

He looked in the basket with shavings - no one ...

He stuck his head out the door, no one on the street...

“Did I imagine? thought Giuseppe. “Who could squeak it?”

He again took the hatchet and again - only hit the log ...

- Oh, it hurts, I say! howled a thin voice.

This time, Giuseppe was seriously frightened, his glasses even sweated ... He examined all the corners in the room, even climbed into the hearth and, turning his head, looked into the chimney for a long time.

- There is no one ...

“Maybe I drank something inappropriate and my ears are ringing?” Giuseppe thought to himself...

No, today he didn’t drink anything unsuitable ... Having calmed down a little, Giuseppe took a planer, hit the back of it with a hammer so that the blade would come out in moderation - not too much and not too little, put the log on the workbench - and only led the chips ...

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, listen, what are you pinching? – desperately squealed a thin voice…

Giuseppe dropped the planer, backed away, backed away and sat right on the floor: he guessed that the thin voice was coming from inside the log.

Giuseppe gives a talking log to his friend Carlo

At this time, Giuseppe was visited by his old friend, an organ grinder named Carlo.

Once upon a time, Carlo, in a wide-brimmed hat, walked around the cities with a beautiful hurdy-gurdy and earned his bread by singing and music.

Now Carlo was already old and ill, and his hurdy-gurdy had long since broken.

“Hello, Giuseppe,” he said, entering the workshop. - Why are you sitting on the floor?

- And I, you see, lost a small screw ... Come on, him! - answered Giuseppe and squinted at the log. “Well, how are you, old man?”

“Bad,” said Carlo. - I keep thinking - how can I earn a living ... If only you could help me, would you advise me, or something ...

- What is easier, - said Giuseppe cheerfully and thought to himself: "I'll get rid of this damned log now." - What is easier: you see - there is an excellent log lying on the workbench, take this log, Carlo, and take it home ...

“Heh heh heh,” Carlo replied dejectedly, “what next?” I'll bring home a log, but I don't even have a hearth in the closet.

“I’m talking to you, Carlo ... Take a knife, cut a doll out of this log, teach her to say all sorts of funny words, sing and dance, and carry it around the yards. Earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine.

At this time, on the workbench where the log lay, a cheerful voice squeaked:

“Bravo, well thought out, Gray Nose!”

Giuseppe shook with fear again, and Carlo only looked around in surprise - where did the voice come from?

“Well, thank you, Giuseppe, for your advice. Come on, perhaps your log.

Then Giuseppe grabbed a piece of wood and quickly handed it to his friend. But either he awkwardly pushed it, or it jumped up and hit Carlo on the head.

- Oh, here are your gifts! – offended shouted Carlo.

"I'm sorry, buddy, I didn't hit you."

“So I hit myself in the head?”

“No, buddy—the log itself must have hit you.”

- You're lying, you hit ...

- No, not me…

“I knew you were a drunkard, Gray Nose,” said Carlo, “and you are also a liar.

- Oh, you - swear! Giuseppe called out. - Come on, come closer!

“Come closer yourself, I’ll grab you by the nose!”

Both old men pouted and began to jump on each other. Carlo grabbed Giuseppe by the bluish nose. Giuseppe grabbed Carlo by the gray hair that grew around his ears.

After that, they began to hit each other cool under the mikitki. A shrill voice on the workbench at that time squeaked and teased:

- Get it right, get it right!

Finally, the old people were tired and out of breath. Giuseppe said:

"Let's make peace, shall we?"

Carlo replied:

- Well, let's make peace ...

The old people kissed. Carlo took the log under his arm and went home.

Carlo makes a wooden doll and calls her Pinocchio

Carlo lived in a closet under the stairs, where he had nothing but a beautiful hearth in the wall opposite the door.

But the beautiful hearth, and the fire in the hearth, and the cauldron boiling on the fire, were not real - they were painted on a piece of old canvas.

Carlo entered the closet, sat down on the only chair by the legless table, and turning the log this way and that, began to cut a doll out of it with a knife.

“What should I call her? thought Carlo. - I'll call her Pinocchio. This name will bring me happiness. I knew one family - they were all called Pinocchio: father - Pinocchio, mother - Pinocchio, children - also Pinocchio ... They all lived cheerfully and carelessly ... "

First of all, he cut out the hair on the log, then the forehead, then the eyes ...

Suddenly his eyes opened and stared at him...

Carlo did not show that he was frightened, only affectionately asked:

- Wooden eyes, why are you looking at me so strangely?

But the doll was silent, probably because it didn't have a mouth yet. Carlo chiseled his cheeks, then chiseled his nose—an ordinary one…

The fairy tale "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" by Tolstoy was written in 1936 based on the work of the Italian writer Carlo Collodi "The Adventures of Pinocchio. The history of the wooden doll. Alexei Nikolaevich managed to rewrite the fairy tale in a new way, making it more kind and exciting.

main characters

Pinocchio- a wooden doll, trusting, kind, mischievous.

Papa Carlo- an organ grinder who carved Pinocchio from a log.

Karabas Barabas- the owner of the puppet theater, a cruel man with a long beard.

Other characters

Giuseppe- an old carpenter, nicknamed Gray Nose, a friend of Carlo.

Malvina- a beautiful doll with blue hair.

Pierrot- a doll, a poet in love with Malvina.

Artemon- a poodle, a faithful friend of Malvina.

Turtle Tortilla- the good old turtle, who gave Pinocchio a golden key.

Duremar- a seller of medicinal leeches, a friend of Karabas.

Fox Alice and Cat Basilio- scammers from the high road.

Talking Cricket- a wise old cricket who lived in Carlo's closet.

A long time ago in a small town on the Mediterranean coast, "the old carpenter Giuseppe, nicknamed Gray Nose." One day, a strong log fell into his hands, which suddenly squeaked in a thin voice.

Gray Nose was seriously frightened. At this time, his old friend came to him - "an organ grinder named Carlo". Wanting to get rid of the strange log, Giuseppe invited his friend to cut a doll out of it, teach her to "say all sorts of funny words, sing and dance", and perform with her for the amusement of the public.

The organ-grinder Carlo lived in a poor closet, in which there was nothing but an old canvas with a painted hearth. He enthusiastically began to plan a log, and soon he carved a wooden boy with a long nose, whom he named Pinocchio.

In a poor closet, Pinocchio met the Talking Cricket, who gave the boy good advice - to obey Papa Carlo in everything and go to school. However, Pinocchio wanted only one thing - "climb fences, destroy bird nests, tease boys, drag dogs and cats by the tails."

Carlo had to sell his jacket in order to buy his son the alphabet. The next morning, the wooden boy "jumped to the school" but never made it to her. Seeing a magnificent painted puppet theater, he sold the alphabet and bought an entrance ticket.

On the stage, Pinocchio saw a little man "in a long white shirt with long sleeves" who read sad poems. Then Harlequin ran out, and began to beat him with a stick. At that moment, the dolls saw Pinocchio, and happily recognized him. The show was hopelessly thwarted.

Hearing the noise, the owner of the theater appeared - "Doctor of puppet sciences Signor Karabas Barabas" with a whip in his hand. He was very scary - a thick beard dragged along the floor, eyes bulging with anger rolled, and his teeth clanged like a crocodile.

Karabas wanted to burn the wooden boy. He innocently replied that nothing would come of it - once he had already pierced a painted hearth in Papa Carlo's closet with his nose. Hearing about this, Karabas screamed, and then gave Pinocchio five gold coins and strongly recommended not to move anywhere from this closet. Saying goodbye to the dolls, the wooden man whispered to them that "there is some kind of secret here."

On the way home Pinocchio met two beggars - the cat Basilio and the fox Alice. Seeing the boy's gold coins, the crooks suggested that he go to the Land of Fools. They said that if you just bury money in the Field of Miracles, a big money tree will grow the next day.

The gullible Pinocchio, who dreamed of making a jacket for Papa Carlo, agreed to go with new friends to the Land of Fools. With the onset of darkness, the fox and the cat disappeared, and soon the boy was attacked by robbers, very similar to his companions. Pinocchio managed to hide the coins in his mouth, and the robbers could not unclench it in any way. They hung the boy upside down on a tree, and they themselves went in search of a tavern.

The next morning, the unfortunate Pinocchio was discovered by Malvina - "a girl with curly blue hair." Together with her faithful poodle Artemon, she escaped from the cruel Karabas Barabas, who mocked defenseless dolls in every possible way.

Malvina decided to take up the upbringing of Pinocchio, but the boy behaved so rudely that, as a punishment, he was locked in a dark closet. With the help of a bat, Pinocchio managed to break free, where "friends - a cat and a fox, happiness and fun" were already waiting for him.

In the company of these crooks, the boy finally reached the cherished Field of Miracles, which looked more like a dump - here "broken pots, torn shoes, holey galoshes and rags were lying around." On the advice of the cat and the fox, Pinocchio dug a hole, buried the gold coins and began to wait for the promised harvest.

Meanwhile, Alice and Basilio set the police bulldogs on the boy, who threw him into "a deep muddy pond full of frogs, leeches and water beetle larvae". Being wooden, Pinocchio could not drown, but he was very scared. Soon the "old turtle Tortila" swam up to him, which opened the eyes of the gullible boy to his greedy friends. In parting, she gave Pinocchio a golden key, which a man with a long beard had once dropped into a pond. Tortila said that with this key you need to open "some kind of door and it will bring happiness."

On the way back, Pinocchio met Pierrot, who also fled from Karabas. He brought him to Malvina, but his friends did not manage to enjoy the meeting - an angry Karabas Barabas and police dogs were already rushing in their tracks.

The puppets had no choice but to take the fight, and forest "animals, birds, insects" came to their aid. Together they defeated the opponents, and hid in the cave. However, Pinocchio was eager to learn the secret of the golden key, and he hurried to the tavern. Hiding in a large jar, he overheard the conversation between Karbas and his friend, the seller of leeches Duremar. So he learned that the key opens the door, which is located "in old Carlo's closet, behind the painted hearth."

The dolls hurried to the organ grinder Carlo, where they found a secret door behind an old canvas. They went down to the dungeon and saw "a puppet theater of wonderful beauty." Soon all the dolls that had not yet managed to escape from the evil Karabas found shelter in the new theater, which was given the name - "Lightning". They themselves wrote plays in verse, played themselves, and the children went to see them with great pleasure. And Karabas Barabas was left all alone ...

Conclusion

The fairy tale teaches that money does not always bring happiness, and true and devoted friends who will never leave in a difficult situation are the real treasure.

After reading the brief retelling of the Golden Key, we recommend that you read the tale in its full version.

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Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.5. Total ratings received: 121.

80 years of the book of A.N. Tolstoy
"The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio"

Meeting with the fox Alice and the cat Basilio
On the way home Pinocchio met the fox Alice and the cat Basilio. These crooks, having learned about the coins, suggested that the boy go to the Land of Fools. They said that if you bury coins in the Field of Miracles in the evening, then in the morning a huge money tree will grow out of them.
Pinocchio really wanted to get rich quick, and he agreed to go with them. On the way Pinocchio got lost and was left alone, but at night in the forest he was attacked by terrible robbers resembling a cat and a fox. He put the coins in his mouth so they wouldn't be taken away, and the robbers hung the boy upside down on a tree branch to drop the coins and left him.
Acquaintance with Malvina, a trip to the Land of Fools
In the morning he was found by Artemon, the poodle of a girl with blue hair - Malvina, who had escaped from the theater of Karabas Barabas. It turned out that he was abusive to his puppet actors. When Malvina, a girl with very good manners, met Pinocchio, she decided to raise him, which ended in punishment - Artemon locked him in a dark, scary closet with spiders.
Having escaped from the closet, the boy again met the cat Basilio and the fox Alice. He did not recognize the "robbers" who attacked him in the forest, and again believed them. Together they set out on their journey. When the crooks brought Pinocchio to the Land of Fools on the Field of Miracles, it turned out to be like a dump. But the cat and the fox convinced him to bury the money, and then set the police dogs on him, who pursued Pinocchio, caught him and threw him into the water.
Appearance of the golden key
The boy made of logs did not drown. He was found by the old turtle Tortila. She told the naive Pinocchio the truth about his "friends" Alice and Basilio. The turtle kept a golden key, which a long time ago was dropped into the water by an evil man with a long terrible beard. He shouted that the key could open the door to happiness and wealth. Tortila gave the key to Pinocchio.
On the way from the Land of Fools, Pinocchio met a frightened Pierrot, who also ran away from the cruel Karabas. Pinocchio and Malvina were very happy to see Pierrot. Leaving friends in Malvina's house, Pinocchio went to follow Karabas Barabas. He had to find out which door could be opened with the golden key. By chance, in a tavern Pinocchio overheard a conversation between Karabas Barabas and Duremar, a leech dealer. He learned the big secret of the golden key: the door that it opens is in Papa Carlo's closet behind the painted hearth.
Closet door, stairs journey and new theater
Karabas Barabas turned to the police dogs with a complaint about Pinocchio. He accused the boy of causing the puppet artists to escape because of him, which led to the ruin of the theater. Fleeing from persecution, Pinocchio and his friends came to Papa Carlo's closet. They tore the canvas off the wall, found a door, opened it with a golden key and found an old staircase that led into the unknown. They descended the steps, slamming the door in front of Karabas Barabs and the police dogs. There Pinocchio again met the talking cricket and apologized to him. The stairs lead to the best theater in the world, with bright lights, loud and joyful music. In this theater, the heroes became the owners, Pinocchio began to play on stage with friends, and Papa Carlo - to sell tickets and play the hurdy-gurdy. All the artists from the theater of Karabas Barabas left him for a new theater, where good performances were staged on the stage, and no one beat anyone.
Karabas Barabas was left alone on the street, in a huge puddle.

QUIZ

1. In a wide hat, he walked around the cities with a beautiful hurdy-gurdy, singing, and earning his bread with music. (The organ grinder Carlo.)

A. Tolstoy lived in Samara for a long time. Now there is a museum in his house.

We will grow up, we will become different,
And maybe among worries
We stop believing in fairy tales
But the fairy tale will come to us again.
And we will meet her with a smile:
Let it live with us again!
And this fairy tale to our children
We will tell you again in a good hour.

Foreword

When I was little - a very, very long time ago - I read one book: it was called "Pinocchio, or the Adventures of a Wooden Doll" (wooden doll in Italian - pinocchio).

I often told my comrades, girls and boys, the entertaining adventures of Pinocchio. But since the book was lost, I told each time in a different way, inventing such adventures that were not in the book at all.

Now, after many, many years, I remembered my old friend Pinocchio and decided to tell you, girls and boys, an extraordinary story about this wooden man.

Carpenter Giuseppe came across a log that squeaked with a human voice

Long ago, in a town on the Mediterranean coast, there lived an old carpenter
Giuseppe, nicknamed Blue Nose.

Once he came across a log, an ordinary log for a firebox
hearth in winter.

“Not a bad thing,” Giuseppe said to himself, “you can make
him something like legs for a table ...

Giuseppe put on spectacles wrapped in twine, for the spectacles were also
old, - he turned the log in his hand and began to hew it with a hatchet.

But as soon as he began to hew, someone's unusually thin voice
squeaked:

- Oh, oh, be quiet, please!

Giuseppe moved his spectacles to the tip of his nose, began to look around the workshop, -
no one...

He looked under the workbench - no one ...

He looked in the basket with shavings - no one ...

He stuck his head out the door, no one on the street...

“Did I imagine? thought Giuseppe. “Who could squeak it?..”

He again took the hatchet and again - only hit the log ...

- Oh, it hurts, I say! howled a thin voice.

This time, Giuseppe was seriously frightened, his glasses even sweated ... He examined all the corners in the room, even climbed into the hearth and, turning his head, looked into the chimney for a long time.

- There is no one ...

“Maybe I drank something inappropriate and my
ears? Giuseppe thought to himself...

No, today he didn’t drink anything inappropriate ... Having calmed down a bit,
Giuseppe took the planer, hit the back of it with a hammer, so that in moderation - not too much and not too little - the blade came out, put the log
on the workbench and just led the chips ...

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, listen, what are you pinching? – desperately squealed a thin voice…

Giuseppe dropped the planer, backed up, backed up and sat down right on the floor: he
I guessed that a thin voice was coming from inside the log.

Giuseppe gives a talking log to his friend Carlo

At this time, Giuseppe was visited by his old friend, an organ grinder,
named after Carlo.

Once upon a time, Carlo, in a wide-brimmed hat, walked with a beautiful hurdy-gurdy along
cities and singing and music earned his bread.

Now Carlo was already old and ill, and his hurdy-gurdy had long since broken.

“Hello, Giuseppe,” he said, entering the workshop. - Why are you sitting on the floor?

- And I, you see, lost a small screw ... Come on, him! - answered
Giuseppe glanced sideways at the log. “Well, how are you, old man?”

“Bad,” said Carlo. - I keep thinking - what would I earn on
bread ... If only you could help me, advise me, or something ...

- What is easier, - said Giuseppe cheerfully and thought to himself: "I'll get rid of this damned log now." - What is simpler: you see - an excellent log lies on the workbench, take this log, Carlo, and
take it home...

“Heh heh heh,” Carlo replied dejectedly, “what next?” I will bring home
log, and I don’t even have a hearth in the closet.

- I'm telling you a thing, Carlo ... Take a knife, cut it out of this log
doll, teach her to say all sorts of funny words, sing and dance, and
wear around the yards. Earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine.

At this time, on the workbench where the log lay, a cheerful voice squeaked:

“Bravo, well thought out, Gray Nose!”

Giuseppe shook with fear again, and Carlo only looked around in surprise - where did the voice come from?

“Well, thank you, Giuseppe, for your advice. Come on, perhaps your log.

Then Giuseppe grabbed a piece of wood and quickly handed it to his friend. But is he
awkwardly thrust it, or it jumped up and hit Carlo on the head.

“Ah, here are your gifts!” – offended shouted Carlo.

"I'm sorry, buddy, I didn't hit you."

“So I hit myself in the head?”

“No, buddy—the log itself must have hit you.”

- You're lying, you hit ...

- No, not me…

“I knew you were a drunkard, Gray Nose,” said Carlo, “and you
liar.

- Oh, you swear! Giuseppe called out. - Well, come on, damn it! ..

“Come closer yourself, I’ll grab you by the nose!”

Both old men pouted and began to jump on each other. Carlo grabbed Giuseppe by the bluish nose.

Giuseppe grabbed Carlo by the gray hair that grew around his ears.

After that, they began to hit each other cool under the mikitki. A shrill voice on the workbench at that time squeaked and teased:

- Get it right, get it right!

Finally, the old people were tired and out of breath. Giuseppe said:

"Let's make peace, shall we?"

Carlo replied:

- Well, let's make peace ...

The old people kissed. Carlo took the log under his arm and went home.

Carlo makes a wooden doll and calls her Pinocchio

Carlo lived in a closet under the stairs, where he had nothing but
beautiful hearth - in the wall opposite the door.

But the beautiful hearth, and the fire in the hearth, and the cauldron boiling on the fire, were
not real - painted on a piece of old canvas.

Carlo went into the closet, sat down on the only chair by the legless table, and,
turning the log this way and that, he began to cut a doll out of it with a knife.

“What should I call her? thought Carlo. - I'll call her Pinocchio. This name will bring me happiness. I knew one family - they were all called
Pinocchio: father - Pinocchio, mother - Pinocchio, children - also Pinocchio ... All
they lived happily and carelessly…”

First of all, he cut out the hair on the log, then the forehead, then the eyes ...

Suddenly his eyes opened and stared at him...

Carlo did not show that he was frightened, only affectionately asked:

- Wooden eyes, why are you looking at me so strangely?

But the doll was silent, probably because it did not yet have a mouth.
Carlo chiseled his cheeks, then chiseled his nose—an ordinary one…

Suddenly, the nose itself began to stretch, grow, and it turned out so long
sharp nose that Carlo even grunted:

- Not good, long ...

And he began to cut off the tip of the nose. It wasn't there!

The nose twisted, twisted, and remained so - a long, long, curious, sharp nose.

Carlo took to his mouth. But as soon as he managed to cut out his lips, - his mouth immediately
opened:

- Hee hee hee, ha ha ha!
And poked out of it, teasingly, a narrow red tongue.

Carlo, no longer paying attention to these tricks, continued to plan,
cut out, carve. I made the doll a chin, neck, shoulders, torso, arms ...

But as soon as he finished carving out the last finger, Pinocchio began to beat Carlo's bald head with his fists, pinching and tickling.

“Listen,” said Carlo sternly, “after all, I haven’t finished making you yet, and you have already begun to play around ... What will happen next ... Huh? ..

And he looked sternly at Pinocchio. And Pinocchio with round eyes, like
mouse, looked at Papa Carlo.

Carlo made him long legs with big feet out of splinters. On this
having finished the work, he put the wooden boy on the floor to teach him to walk.

Pinocchio swayed, swayed on his thin legs, took one step, took a step
the other, hop, hop, straight to the door, across the threshold and out into the street.

Carlo, worried, followed him:

- Hey, rascal, come back! ..

Where there! Pinocchio ran down the street like a hare, only his wooden soles - knock-knock, knock-knock - tapped on the stones ...

- Hold him! shouted Carlo.

Passers-by laughed, pointing fingers at the running Pinocchio. At the crossroads stood a huge policeman with a twisted mustache and a triangular
hat.

Seeing a running wooden man, he spread his legs wide, blocking the whole street with them. Pinocchio wanted to slip between his legs, but
the policeman grabbed him by the nose and held him like that until dad arrived
Carlo...

“Well, wait a minute, I’ll deal with you already,” Carlo said, shoving himself away and wanted to put Pinocchio in his jacket pocket ...

Pinocchio didn’t want to stick his legs up out of his jacket pocket on such a fun day in front of all the people - he deftly wriggled out, plopped
on the pavement and pretended to be dead...

“Ay, ah,” said the policeman, “this seems to be a bad thing!”

Passers-by began to gather. Looking at the lying Pinocchio, they shook their heads.

“Poor thing,” some said, “it must be from hunger ...

“Carlo beat him to death,” said others, “this old
the organ grinder only pretends to be a good person, he is bad, he is an evil person ...

Hearing all this, the mustachioed policeman grabbed the unfortunate Carlo by the collar and dragged him to the police station.

Carlo dusted his boots and groaned loudly:
- Oh, oh, on my own grief, I made a wooden boy!

When the street was empty, Pinocchio raised his nose, looked around and ran home skipping ...

The talking cricket gives Pinocchio wise advice

Running to the closet under the stairs, Pinocchio plopped down on the floor near
chair legs.

- What else could you come up with?

We must not forget that Pinocchio was only the first day of his birth.
His thoughts were small, small, short, short, trifling, trifling.

At this time I heard:

Cree-cree, Cree-cree, Cree-cree...
Pinocchio shook his head, looking around the closet.

- Hey, who's here?

- Here I am, - kri-kri ...

Pinocchio saw a creature that looked a bit like a cockroach, but with a head,
like a grasshopper. It sat on the wall above the hearth and crackled softly, -
krri-kri, - looked bulging, as if made of glass, iridescent eyes, wiggled his antennae.

- Hey, who are you?

“I am a Talking Cricket,” the creature replied, “I live in this room
over a hundred years.

"I'm the boss here, get out of here."

- Well, I'll leave, although I'm sad to leave the room where I lived a hundred
years, - said the Talking Cricket, - but before I go, listen to useful advice.

“I really need some old cricket’s advice…”

- Oh, Pinocchio, Pinocchio, - said the cricket, - stop pampering,
listen to Carlo, do not run away from home with nothing to do and start going to school tomorrow. Here's my advice. Otherwise, terrible dangers and terrible adventures await you. For your life, I will not give even a dead dry fly.

- What for? Pinocchio asked.

- But you will see - why, - said the Talking Cricket.

- Oh, you, a hundred-year-old insect-cockroach! shouted Buratino. - More
All in all, I love scary adventures. Tomorrow a little light I'll run away from
at home - climbing fences, destroying bird nests, teasing boys,
to drag dogs and cats by the tails ... I can’t think of something else yet! ..

- I'm sorry for you, sorry, Pinocchio, you will shed bitter tears.

- What for? Pinocchio asked again.

“Because you have a stupid wooden head.

Then Pinocchio jumped on a chair, from a chair to the table, grabbed a hammer and
launched it at Talking Cricket's head.

The smart old cricket sighed heavily, wiggled its whiskers, and crawled away behind
hearth, - forever from this room.

Pinocchio almost dies due to his own frivolity.
Papa Carlo glues him clothes from colored paper and buys the alphabet

After the incident with the Talking Cricket in the closet under the stairs, it became completely boring. The day dragged on and on. Pinocchio's stomach was also boring.

He closed his eyes and suddenly saw fried chicken on a plate.

He quickly opened his eyes - the chicken on the plate disappeared.

He closed his eyes again - he saw a plate of semolina porridge in half with raspberry jam.

He opened his eyes - there is no plate with semolina porridge in half with raspberry jam.

Then Pinocchio realized that he was terribly hungry.

He ran to the hearth and stuck his nose into a kettle boiling on the fire, but
Pinocchio's nose pierced through the bowler hat, because, as we know, and
the hearth, and the fire, and the smoke, and the cauldron were drawn by poor Carlo on a piece
old canvas.

Pinocchio pulled out his nose and looked through the hole - behind the canvas in the wall was
something like a small door, but it was so covered with cobwebs,
that nothing can be disassembled.

Pinocchio went to rummage around in all corners - is there a crust of bread
or a chicken bone gnawed by a cat.

Oh, nothing, nothing poor Carlo had in store for supper!

Suddenly he saw a chicken egg in a basket with shavings. Grabbed him
he put it on the windowsill and with his nose - bale-bale - broke the shell.

Thank you, wooden man!

A chick crawled out of a broken shell with fluff instead of a tail and with a oar
with our eyes.

- Goodbye! Mama Kura has been waiting for me in the yard for a long time.

And the chicken jumped out the window - they only saw him.

- Oh, oh, - Buratino shouted, - I want to eat! ..

The day is finally over. The room became dark.

Pinocchio sat near the painted fire and slowly hiccupped from hunger.

He saw - from under the stairs, from under the floor, a fat head appeared.
A gray animal on low paws leaned out, sniffed and crawled out.

Slowly it went to a basket of chips, climbed in, sniffing and rummaging,
shavings rustled angrily. It must have been looking for the egg that
broke Pinocchio.

Then it got out of the basket and went up to Pinocchio. She sniffed it, twisting her black nose with four long hairs on each side. Pinocchio did not smell of food, - it went past, dragging a long thin
tail.

Well, how could he not be grabbed by the tail! Pinocchio immediately grabbed it.

It turned out to be the old evil rat Shushara.

With fright, she, like a shadow, rushed under the stairs, dragging Pinocchio,
but she saw that it was only a wooden boy, she turned around and with
lashed out with furious anger to gnaw through his throat.

Now Pinocchio was frightened, let go of the cold rat tail and
jumped into a chair. The rat is behind him.

He jumped from his chair to the windowsill. The rat is behind him.

From the windowsill, he flew across the entire closet onto the table. Rat - for
him ... And then, on the table, she grabbed Pinocchio by the throat, knocked him down, holding
in her teeth, jumped to the floor and dragged him under the stairs, into the underground.

Papa Carlo! – only had time to squeak Pinocchio.

The door opened and Papa Carlo entered. Pulled off a wooden shoe
and threw them in a rat.

Shushara, releasing the wooden boy, gritted her teeth and disappeared.

- That's what pampering leads to! grumbled Papa Carlo, raising his
Paul Pinocchio. He looked to see if everything was intact. Got him on his knees, you-
I took an onion out of my pocket and peeled it. - Come on, eat!

Pinocchio sunk his hungry teeth into the onion and ate it, crunching and smacking his lips. After that, he began to rub his head against Papa Carlo's bristly cheek.

- I'll be smart, prudent, Papa Carlo ... Talking Cricket
told me to go to school.

"Good idea, kid...

- Papa Carlo, but I'm naked, wooden, - the boys in
school will make fun of me.

“Hey,” said Carlo, scratching his bristly chin. - You're right, baby!

He lit a lamp, took scissors, glue and scraps of colored paper. cut out
and glued together a brown paper jacket and bright green pants. He made shoes from an old top and a hat - a cap with a tassel - from
old sock. He put all this on Pinocchio:

- Wear it in good health!

“Papa Carlo,” said Pinocchio, “but how can I go to school without the alphabet?”

"Hey, you're right baby...

Papa Carlo scratched his head. He threw his only old jacket over his shoulders and went outside.

He soon returned, but without a jacket. In his hand he held a book with large
letters and funny pictures.

Here's the alphabet for you. Learn for health.

– Papa Carlo, where is your jacket?

I sold my jacket. Nothing, I'll get by and so ... Only you live on
health.

Pinocchio buried his nose in the good hands of Pope Carlo.

“I’ll learn, I’ll grow up, I’ll buy you a thousand new jackets…

Pinocchio wanted with all his might on this first evening in his life to live without
pampering, as Talking Cricket had taught him.

Pinocchio sells the alphabet and buys a ticket to the puppet theater

Early in the morning Pinocchio put the alphabet in his purse and skipped to
school.

On the way, he did not even look at the sweets displayed in the shops - triangles of poppy seeds on honey, sweet cakes and candies in the form of roosters,
planted on a stick.

He didn't want to look at the boys flying kites...

The street was crossed by the tabby cat Basilio, who could be grabbed
for the tail. But Pinocchio refrained from doing so.

The closer he got to the school, the louder nearby, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, cheerful music played.

“Pee-pee-pee,” the flute squeaked.

“La-la-la-la,” the violin sang.

“Ding-ding,” the brass cymbals tinkled.

– Boom! - beat the drum.

You need to turn right to school, the music was heard to the left. Pinocchio
began to stumble. The legs themselves turned to the sea, where:

- Wee-wee, weeeeee...

Jin-lala, jin-la-la...

“The school won’t go anywhere,” he shook his head loudly to himself.
Pinocchio, - I just look, listen - and run to school.

What is the spirit, he started to run to the sea. He saw a linen booth adorned with colorful flags flapping in the sea wind.

At the top of the booth, four musicians were dancing.

Downstairs, a plump smiling aunt was selling tickets.

A large crowd was standing near the entrance - boys and girls, soldiers, lemonade sellers, wet nurses with babies, firemen, postmen - everyone, everyone
read the big poster:
Pinocchio pulled the sleeve of one boy:

– Can you tell me how much the entrance ticket costs?

The boy answered through his teeth, slowly:

“Four soldos, little wooden man.

- You see, boy, I forgot my wallet at home ... You can’t tell me
to lend four soldi?

The boy whistled contemptuously:

- I found a fool! ..

“I really want to see the puppet theater!” - through tears
Pinocchio said. “Buy me for four soldi my wonderful jacket ...

“A paper jacket for four soldos?” Looking for a fool

“Well then, my pretty cap…”

- Use your cap only to catch tadpoles ... Look for a fool.

Pinocchio even got a cold nose - he so wanted to get into the theater.

- Boy, in that case, take my new alphabet for four soldi ...

- With pictures?

“With chhhhh pictures and big letters.

“Come on, perhaps,” the boy said, took the alphabet and reluctantly counted out four soldi.

Pinocchio ran up to a full smiling aunt and squeaked:

“Listen, give me a ticket in the front row for the only puppet show.

During the performance of the comedy, the dolls recognize Pinocchio

Pinocchio sat down in the front row and looked with delight at the lowered curtain.

On the curtain were painted dancing men, girls in black
masked, scary bearded people in caps with stars, the sun, similar
on a pancake with a nose and eyes, and other entertaining pictures.

The bell was struck three times and the curtain went up.

There were cardboard trees on the small stage to the right and left. Above them
a lantern in the form of a moon hung and was reflected in a piece of a mirror on which floated two swans made of cotton wool with golden noses.

From behind a cardboard tree appeared a little man in a long white
shirt with long sleeves.

His face was sprinkled with powder as white as tooth powder.

He bowed to the most respectable audience and said sadly:

- Hello, my name is Piero ... Now we will play in front of you
comedy called; “Girl with blue hair, or Thirty-three
slap." I will be beaten with a stick, slapped and slapped on the back of the head. This is a very funny comedy...

Another man jumped out from behind another cardboard tree, all checkered as a chessboard.

He bowed to the honorable audience:

Hello, I'm Harlequin!

After that, he turned to Piero and gave him two slaps in the face, such
sonorous, that powder fell from his cheeks.

“What are you whining about, fool?

“I am sad because I want to get married,” Piero answered.

- Why didn't you get married?

“Because my fiancee ran away from me…

“Ha-ha-ha,” Harlequin rolled with laughter, “we saw the fool! ..

He grabbed a stick and beat Pierrot off.

- What is your fiancee's name?

"Aren't you going to fight again?"

No, I've only just begun.

- In that case, her name is Malvina, or the girl with blue hair.

– Ha-ha-ha! - Harlequin rolled again and released Pierrot three slaps on the back of the head. - Listen, most respectable audience ... But are there girls
with blue hair?

But then, turning to the audience, he suddenly saw on the front bench
a wooden boy with a mouth to his ears, with a long nose, in a cap with
tassel...

- Look, it's Pinocchio! shouted the Harlequin, pointing at him.
finger.

- Alive Pinocchio! yelled Pierrot, waving his long sleeves.

A lot of dolls jumped out from behind cardboard trees - girls in black
masks, scary bearded men in caps, furry dogs with buttons instead of eyes, hunchbacks with noses like cucumbers…

They all ran up to the candles that stood along the ramp, and, peering, chattered:

- This is Pinocchio! This is Pinocchio! To us, to us, cheerful rascal Pinocchio!

Then he jumped from the bench to the prompter booth, and from it to the stage.

The puppets grabbed him, started hugging, kissing, pinching… Then everything
puppets sang "Polka Bird":

The audience was moved. One nurse even shed a tear. One firefighter wept uncontrollably.

Only the boys on the back benches got angry and stamped their feet:

- Enough licking, not small, continue the show!

Hearing all this noise, a man leaned out from behind the stage, so scary
with a look that one could freeze with horror at one glance at him.

His thick, uncombed beard dragged along the floor, his bulging eyes rolled, his huge mouth clanged his teeth, as if it were not a man, but a crocodile. In his hand he held a seven-tailed whip.

It was the owner of the puppet theatre, doctor of puppet science signor Karabas Barabas.

– Ha-ha-ha, goo-goo-goo! he roared at Pinocchio. - So you interrupted
performance of my beautiful comedy?

He grabbed Pinocchio, took it to the storeroom of the theater and hung it on a nail.
Returning, he threatened the dolls with a seven-tailed whip so that they continued
representation.

The puppets somehow finished the comedy, the curtain closed, the audience dispersed.

The doctor of puppet science, signor Karabas Barabas, went to the kitchen to have supper.

Putting the lower part of his beard in his pocket so as not to interfere, he sat down in front of
hearth, where a whole rabbit and two chickens were roasted on a spit.

After hesitating his fingers, he touched the roast, and it seemed to him raw.

There was little wood in the hearth. Then he clapped his hands three times.

Harlequin and Pierrot ran in.

“Bring me this loafer Pinocchio,” said Signor Karabas Barabas. - It is made of dry wood, I will throw it into the fire, my
the roast will roast alive.

Harlequin and Pierrot fell to their knees, begging to spare the unfortunate Pinocchio.

- Where's my whip? shouted Karabas Barabas.

Then they, sobbing, went into the pantry, removed Pinocchio from the nail and dragged it into the kitchen.

Signor Karabas Barabas, instead of burning Pinocchio, gives him five gold coins and lets him go home

When the dolls dragged Buratino and threw them on the floor by the grate of the hearth,
Signor Karabas Barabas, terribly snuffling his nose, stirred the coals with a poker.

Suddenly his eyes were filled with blood, his nose, then his whole face gathered transverse wrinkles. There must have been a piece of coal in his nostrils.

– Aap… aap… aap… – howled Karabas Barabas, rolling his eyes, –
aap-chi!..

And he sneezed so that the ashes rose in a column in the hearth.

When the doctor of puppet sciences began to sneeze, he could no longer stop and sneezed fifty, and sometimes a hundred times in a row.

From such an unusual sneeze, he weakened and became kinder.

Pierrot furtively whispered to Pinocchio:

“Try talking to him between sneezes…

- Aap-chi! Aap-chi! - Karabas Barabas took in the air with his open mouth and
sneezed violently, shaking his head and stamping his feet.

Everything in the kitchen was shaking, glass rattled, pans and pots on nails swayed.

Between these sneezes Pinocchio began to howl in a plaintive thin voice:

“Poor me, unfortunate, no one feels sorry for me!”

- Stop crying! shouted Karabas Barabas. - You're bothering me...
Aap-chi!

“Be healthy, signor,” Pinocchio sobbed.

- Thank you ... And what - are your parents alive? Aap-chi!

“I never, never had a mother, signor. Oh, I'm unhappy! - AND
Pinocchio screamed so piercingly that in the ears of Karabas Barabas it became
prick like a needle.

He stamped his feet.

- Stop squealing, I tell you! .. Aap-chi! What about your father is alive?

“My poor father is still alive, signor.

“I can imagine what it would be like for your father to know what I fried on you.”
a rabbit and two chickens... Aap-chi!

“My poor father will soon die of hunger and cold anyway. I him
the only support in old age. Have pity, let me go, sir.

“Ten thousand devils!” yelled Karabas Barabas. - No pity
out of the question. Rabbit and chicken must be fried. Get in
hearth.

Signor, I can't do this.

- Why? - asked Karabas Barabas only to Pinocchio
continued to talk, instead of squealing in his ears.

- Signor, I already tried once to stick my nose into the hearth and only pierced
hole.

- What nonsense! Karabas Barabas was surprised. “How could you poke a hole in the hearth with your nose?”

“Because, sir, the hearth and the cauldron over the fire were painted on
piece of old canvas.

- Aap-chi! sneezed Karabas Barabas with such a noise that Pierrot flew off
left. Harlequin - to the right, and Pinocchio spun around.

- Where did you see the hearth, and the fire, and the pot painted on a piece of canvas?

“In my daddy Carlo’s closet.

Your father is Carlo! - Karabas Barabas jumped up from his chair, waved his arms, his beard flew apart. - So, this is in old Carlo's closet.
there is a secret…

But here Karabas Barabas, apparently not wanting to let a secret out, shut his mouth with both fists. And so I sat for a while, looking
bulging eyes at the dying fire.

“Very well,” he said at last, “I will have supper of undercooked rabbit and
raw chickens. I give you life, Pinocchio. Little of…

He reached under his beard into his vest pocket, pulled out five gold coins, and
handed them to Pinocchio:

“Not only that… Take this money and take it to Carlo. Bow down and say
that I ask him not to die of hunger and cold in any case, and most
the main thing is not to leave his closet, where the hearth, drawn on
piece of old canvas. Go, sleep, and run home early in the morning.

Pinocchio put five gold coins in his pocket and answered politely.
bow:

- Thank you, sir. You couldn't trust money to more reliable
arms…

Harlequin and Pierrot took Pinocchio to the doll's bedroom, where the dolls again
began to hug, kiss, push, pinch and hug Pinocchio again,
so incomprehensibly escaped a terrible death in the hearth.

He whispered to the dolls:

“There is some mystery here.

On the way home Pinocchio meets two beggars - the cat Basilio and the fox Alice

Early in the morning Pinocchio counted the money - there were so many gold coins,
how many fingers on the hand - five.

Clutching the golden ones in his fist, he hopped home and sang:

– I’ll buy Papa Carlo a new jacket, I’ll buy a lot of poppy triangles,
lollipop roosters on sticks.

When the puppet theater booth and the waving flags disappeared from his eyes, he saw two beggars walking dejectedly along the dusty road: the fox Alice,
waddling on three legs, and the blind cat Basilio.

It was not the cat that Pinocchio met yesterday on the street, but
the other is also Basilio and also striped. Pinocchio wanted to pass by, but
fox Alice said to him touchingly:

- Hello, kind Pinocchio! Where are you in such a hurry?

- Home, to Papa Carlo.

Lisa sighed even more tenderly:

“I don’t know if you’ll find poor Carlo alive, he’s really bad
from hunger and cold...

– Did you see it? Pinocchio opened his fist and showed five gold coins.

Seeing the money, the fox involuntarily reached out with its paw, and the cat suddenly opened its blind eyes wide, and they sparkled in him like two green lanterns.

But Pinocchio did not notice any of this.

- Kind, pretty Pinocchio, what are you going to do with these
money?

– I’ll buy a jacket for Papa Carlo… I’ll buy a new alphabet…

- ABC, oh, oh! said the fox Alice, shaking her head. - will not bring
this teaching is good for you ... So I studied, studied, and - look - I go to
three paws.

- ABC! Basilio the cat grumbled and snorted angrily through his whiskers. - Across
this damned teaching, I lost my eyes ...

An elderly crow sat on a dry branch near the road. listened and listened and
croaked:

- Lie, lie!

Basilio the cat immediately jumped high, knocked the crow off the branch with his paw,
pulled out half of her tail, - as soon as she flew away. And again he pretended to be
blind.

- Why are you so her, cat Basilio? Pinocchio asked in surprise.

“The eyes are blind,” answered the cat, “it seemed like a dog on a tree ...

The three of them went along the dusty road. Lisa said:

- Clever, prudent Pinocchio, would you like to have
ten times more money?

- Of course I want! And how is it done?

- Easy peasy. Go with us.

- To the Land of Fools.

Pinocchio thought a little.

- No, I think I'll go home now.

“Please, we don’t pull you by the rope,” said the fox, “so much the worse
for you.

"So much the worse for you," grumbled the cat.

“You are your own enemy,” said the fox.

“You are your own enemy,” the cat grumbled.

“Otherwise your five gold coins would turn into a pile of money…”

Pinocchio stopped, opened his mouth...

The fox sat on its tail, licked its lips:

- I'll explain to you now. There is a magical field in the Land of Fools, it is called the Field of Miracles ... Dig a hole in this field, say three times:
“Crex, fex, pex”, put gold in the hole, cover with earth, sprinkle on top
salt, fields well and go to sleep. In the morning a small one will grow out of the hole
a tree, instead of leaves, gold coins will hang on it. Understandably?

Pinocchio even jumped:

“Let’s go, Basilio,” the fox said, turning her nose offendedly, “they don’t believe us.”
- and it is not necessary…

- No, no, - Buratino shouted, - I believe, I believe! .. Let's go to
Country of Fools!

In the tavern "Three minnows"

Pinocchio, the fox Alice and the cat Basilio went downhill and walked, walked -
through fields, vineyards, through a pine grove, went out to the sea and again
returned from the sea, through the same grove, vineyards ...

The town on the hill and the sun above it could be seen either to the right or to the left ...

Fox Alice said with a sigh:

“Ah, it’s not so easy to get into the Land of Fools, you’ll wipe off all your paws ...

In the evening they saw an old house with a flat roof on the side of the road.
a sign above the entrance: "THE TANNER OF THREE MINDS".

The host rushed out to meet the guests, tore off his bald cap and
bowed low, asking to come in.

- It would not hurt us to have a bite to eat at least a dry crust, - said the fox.

“At least they would have treated him with a crust of bread,” repeated the cat.

We went into the tavern, sat down near the hearth, where all sorts of things were fried on skewers and frying pans.

The fox constantly licked his lips, the cat Basilio put his paws on the table, his mustachioed
muzzle - on paws - stared at the food.

“Hey, master,” Pinocchio said importantly, “give us three crusts of bread ...

The host almost fell back from surprise that such honorable guests
so little is asked.

“Cheerful, witty Pinocchio is joking with you, master,” the fox giggled.

"He's joking," the cat muttered.

- Give me three crusts of bread and to them - that wonderfully roasted lamb, - said the fox, - and that gosling, and a couple of pigeons on a spit,
yes, perhaps more cookies ...

- Six pieces of the fattest carp, - ordered the cat, - and small fish
raw for a snack.

In short, they took everything that was on the hearth: there was only one crust of bread left for Pinocchio.

The fox Alice and the cat Basilio ate everything together with the bones. Their stomachs
swollen, snouts slick.

“Let’s rest for an hour,” said the fox, “and we’ll leave exactly at midnight.” Don't forget to wake us up, master...

The fox and the cat collapsed on two soft beds, snoring and whistling. Pinocchio crouched in a corner on a dog bed ...

He dreamed of a tree with round golden leaves ... Only he
extended his hand...

- Hey, signor Pinocchio, it's time, it's already midnight ...

They knocked on the door. Pinocchio jumped up and rubbed his eyes. On the bed - no cat, no fox - empty.

The owner explained to him:

- Your respectable friends deigned to get up earlier, refreshed themselves with a cold pie and left ...

"Didn't they tell me to deliver anything?"

- Very much even ordered - so that you, signor Pinocchio, without wasting a minute,
running down the road to the forest...

Pinocchio rushed to the door, but the owner stood on the threshold, squinted, his hands
rested on the sides:

Who will pay for dinner?

- Oh, - Pinocchio squeaked, - how much?

Exactly one gold...

Pinocchio immediately wanted to slip past his feet, but the owner grabbed
twirled, - a bristly mustache, even the hair above his ears stood on end.

“Pay, you scoundrel, or I’ll stab you like a beetle!”

I had to pay one gold out of five. Sniffing in frustration, Pinocchio left the accursed tavern.

The night was dark—not enough—black as soot. Everything around was asleep.
Only above Pinocchio's head the night bird Splyushka flew inaudibly.

Touching his nose with a soft wing, Splyushka repeated:

Don't believe, don't believe, don't believe!

He stopped in annoyance.

- What do you want?

- Do not trust the cat and the fox ...

- Beware of robbers on this road ...

Robbers attack Pinocchio

A greenish light appeared at the edge of the sky - the moon was rising.

A black forest was visible ahead.

Pinocchio went faster. Someone behind him also moved faster.

He started running. Someone ran after him in silent gallops.

He turned around.

Two men were chasing him, wearing bags on their heads with holes cut into them for the eyes.

One, shorter, brandished a knife, the other, taller, held a pistol, whose muzzle expanded like a funnel ...

- Ai-ai! squealed Pinocchio and, like a hare, ran towards the black forest.

- Stop, stop! the robbers shouted.

Pinocchio, although he was desperately frightened, nevertheless guessed - he put it in
mouth four gold and turned off the road to a hedge overgrown with blackberries ...
But then two robbers grabbed him ...

- Trick or Treat!

Pinocchio, as if not understanding what they want from him, only often, often
breathed through his nose. The robbers shook him by the collar, one threatened with a pistol,
the other was rummaging through his pockets.

- Where is your money? the tall one growled.

“Money, you brat!” the short one hissed.

- I'll tear it to shreds!

- Take your head off!

Here Pinocchio shook with fear so that the gold coins jingled at
him in his mouth.

- That's where his money is! howled the robbers. - in his mouth
money…

One grabbed Pinocchio by the head, the other by the legs. They started throwing it up. But he only clenched his teeth tighter.

Turning him upside down, the robbers banged his head on the ground. But that didn't matter to him either.

The robber, the shorter one, began to unclench his teeth with his wide toe. It’s already unclenched ... Pinocchio contrived - he bit with all his might
his hand ... But it turned out not to be a hand, but a cat's paw. Rogue wildly
howled. Pinocchio at that time turned out like a lizard, rushed to the fence,
dived into the prickly brambles, leaving shreds of trousers and jackets on the thorns, climbed over to the other side and rushed to the forest.

At the edge of the forest, the robbers overtook him again. He jumped up, grabbed a swinging branch and climbed up a tree. The robbers are behind him. But bags on their heads prevented them.

Climbing to the top, Pinocchio swayed and jumped to a nearby tree. Robbers - behind him ...

But both immediately broke and flopped to the ground.

While they were groaning and scratching, Pinocchio slid off the tree and
began to run, moving his legs so quickly that they were not even there
it is seen.

The trees cast long shadows from the moon. The whole forest was striped ...

Pinocchio either disappeared into the shadows, or his white cap flickered in the moonlight.
light.

So he got to the lake. The moon hung over the mirror water, like in a puppet theater.

Pinocchio rushed to the right - muddy. To the left - swampy ... And behind again
boughs crackled...

- Hold it, hold it!

The robbers were already running up, they were jumping high from the wet grass,
to see Pinocchio.

- Here he is!

All he had to do was jump into the water. At this time he saw a white
a swan sleeping near the shore with its head under its wing. Pinocchio rushed
into the lake, dived and grabbed the swan by the paws.

- Go-go, - the swan cackled, waking up, - what kind of indecent jokes!
Leave my paws alone!

The swan opened its huge wings, and at the time when the robbers were already
they grabbed Pinocchio by the legs sticking out of the water, the swan importantly flew through
Lake.

On the other side Pinocchio released his paws, plopped down, jumped up and helped
hummocks, through the reeds he started to run straight to the big moon - over
hills.

Robbers hang Pinocchio on a tree

From fatigue, Pinocchio could hardly move his legs, like a fly on the windowsill in autumn.

Suddenly, through the hazel branches, he saw a beautiful lawn and in the middle of it -
a small, moonlit house with four windows. Painted on the shutters
sun, moon and stars. Large azure flowers grew all around.

The paths are strewn with clean sand. A thin jet of water spouted from the fountain, and a striped ball danced in it.

Pinocchio climbed onto the porch on all fours. Knocked in the door. In the house
it was quiet. He knocked harder - they must have been sound asleep there.

At this time, the robbers jumped out of the forest again. They swam across the lake
water poured from them in streams. Seeing Pinocchio, the short robber hissed vilely like a cat, the tall one yelped like a fox ...

Pinocchio pounded on the door with his hands and feet:

Help, help, good people!

Then a pretty curly-haired girl with a pretty
raised nose.

Her eyes were closed.

- Girl, open the door, the robbers are chasing me!

- Oh, what nonsense! said the girl, yawning with her pretty mouth. - I want to
sleep, I can't open my eyes...

She raised her hands, stretched sleepily, and disappeared through the window.

Pinocchio fell in despair with his nose into the sand and pretended to be dead.

The robbers jumped

“Yeah, you can’t leave us now!”

It is hard to imagine what they just did not do to make Pinocchio open his mouth. If during the chase they had not dropped a knife and a pistol, at this place one could have ended the story about the unfortunate
Pinocchio.

Finally, the robbers decided to hang him upside down, tied a rope to his feet, and Pinocchio hung on an oak branch ... They sat down under an oak tree,
stretching out wet tails, and waiting for the golden ones to fall out of his mouth ...

At dawn, the wind picked up, the leaves rustled on the oak. Pinocchio swayed like a piece of wood. Robbers got bored of sitting on wet tails...

“Hang up, my friend, until the evening,” they said ominously and went to look for some roadside tavern.

Girl with blue hair brings Pinocchio back to life

Behind the branches of the oak, where Pinocchio hung, the dawn spread. Grass
in the clearing it became gray, the azure flowers were covered with drops of dew.

The girl with curly blue hair leaned out the window again, wiped her sleepy pretty eyes and opened them wide.

This girl was the most beautiful puppet in Signora's puppet theater
Karabas Barabas.

Unable to endure the rude antics of the owner, she ran away from the theater and
settled in a secluded house in a gray meadow.

Beasts, birds, and some of the insects were very fond of her, must
be because she was a well-mannered and meek girl.

The animals supplied her with everything necessary for life.

The mole brought nutritious roots.

Mice - sugar, cheese and pieces of sausage.

The noble poodle dog Artemon brought rolls.

Magpie stole chocolates in silver papers for her at the market.

The frogs brought lemonade in nutshells.

Hawk - fried game.

May beetles are different berries.

Butterflies - pollen from flowers - powdered.

Caterpillars extruded toothpaste for brushing their teeth and lubricating
creaking doors.

Swallows destroyed wasps and mosquitoes near the house ...

So, opening her eyes, the girl with blue hair immediately saw Pinocchio, hanging upside down.

She put her hands to her cheeks and cried out:

- Ah, ah, ah!

Under the window, fluttering his ears, appeared the noble poodle Artemon. He
I had just shaved off the back half of my torso, which I did every day.
Curly hair on the front half of the body was combed, tassel
tied with a black bow at the end of the tail. On the front paw - silver
clock.

- I'm ready!
Artemon turned his nose to the side and lifted his upper lip above his white teeth.

“Call someone, Artemon!” – said the girl. - We need to remove poor Pinocchio, take it to the house and invite a doctor ...

Artemon was so ready to spin that the wet sand flew from him.
hind legs ... He rushed to the anthill, woke up the whole population with barking and
sent four hundred ants to gnaw through the rope on which Pinocchio was hanging.

Four hundred serious ants crawled in single file along a narrow path,
climbed an oak tree and gnawed through the rope.

Artemon picked up the falling Pinocchio with his front paws and carried him to
house ... Putting Pinocchio on the bed, he rushed at a dog gallop into the forest
thicket and immediately brought from there the famous doctor Owl, the paramedic Zhaba and the folk healer Praying Mantis, who looked like a dry twig.

The owl put her ear to Pinocchio's chest.

“The patient is more dead than alive,” she whispered, and turned her head away.
back one hundred and eighty degrees.

The toad kneaded Pinocchio with a wet paw for a long time. Thinking, she looked with bulging eyes at once in different directions. Splashed with a big mouth:

The patient is more alive than dead...

The folk healer Praying Mantis, with his hands as dry as blades of grass, began to touch Pinocchio.

“One of two things,” he whispered, “either the patient is alive or he is dead. If he is alive, he will remain alive or he will not remain alive. If he is dead -
it may or may not be revived.

“Shsssssssss,” said the Owl, flapping its soft wings and flying away into the dark attic.

All of Toad's warts swelled with anger.

What disgusting ignorance! - she croaked and, slapping her stomach, jumped into the damp basement.

The healer Mantis, just in case, pretended to be a dried-up twig and fell out of the window.

The girl threw up her pretty hands.

- Well, how can I treat him, citizens?

“Castor oil,” Toad croaked from underground.

- Castor oil! laughed the Owl in the attic contemptuously.

“Either castor oil or not castor oil,” Mantis rasped outside the window.

Then, skinned and bruised, the unfortunate Pinocchio groaned:

- No need for castor oil, I feel very good!

The blue-haired girl leaned over him thoughtfully.

- Pinocchio, I beg you - close your eyes, hold your nose and drink.

“I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want!”

I'll give you a piece of sugar...

Immediately, a white mouse climbed up the blanket onto the bed, it was holding a piece of sugar.

“You will get it if you obey me,” said the girl.

- Give me one saaaaahar ...

- Yes, understand, - if you do not drink the medicine, you can die ...

"I'd rather die than drink castor oil..."

- Hold your nose and look at the ceiling ... One, two, three.

She poured castor oil into Pinocchio's mouth, immediately slipped him a piece of sugar and kissed him.

- That's all…

The noble Artemon, who loved everything prosperous, seized his
tail, spun under the window, like a whirlwind of a thousand paws, a thousand ears, a thousand
shining eyes.

Girl with blue hair wants to educate Pinocchio

The next morning Pinocchio woke up cheerful and healthy as if nothing had happened.

A girl with blue hair was waiting for him in the garden, sitting at a small table covered with doll dishes,

Her face was freshly washed, her upturned nose and cheeks
pollen.

While waiting for Pinocchio, she angrily brushed off the annoying butterflies:

“Yeah, you really…

She looked at the wooden boy from head to toe and grimaced. Velela
him to sit down at the table and poured into a tiny cup of cocoa.

Pinocchio sat down at the table, twisted his leg under him. He almond cakes
stuffed into the mouth whole and swallowed without chewing.

He climbed right into the vase of jam with his fingers and sucked them with pleasure.

When the girl turned away to toss a few crumbs at the elderly ground beetle, he grabbed the coffee pot and drank all the cocoa from the spout. choked,
spilled cocoa on the tablecloth.

Then the girl said to him sternly:

- Pull your leg out from under you and lower it under the table. Don't eat with your hands
That's what spoons and forks are for.

She fluttered her eyelashes in outrage.

- Who is raising you, please tell me?

- When dad Carlo brings up, and when no one.

“Now I will take care of your upbringing, be calm.

“That's how it got stuck!” thought Pinocchio.

On the grass around the house, the poodle Artemon was rushing after small birds.
When they perched in the trees, he lifted his head, jumped up and down and barked with
howling.

“It’s great to chase birds,” Pinocchio thought with envy.

From a decent sitting at the table, goosebumps crawled all over his body.

At last the painful breakfast was over. The girl told him to wipe
cocoa nose. Straightened the folds and bows on the dress, took Pinocchio for
hand and led into the house - to engage in education.

And the merry poodle Artemon rushed about the grass and barked; birds, not at all
fearing him, they whistled merrily; the breeze flew merrily over the trees.

- Take off your rags, they will give you a decent jacket and pants, -
said the girl.

Four tailors - a single master, a gloomy crayfish Sheptallo, a gray Woodpecker
with a tuft, a large beetle Rogach and a mouse Lisetta - sewed from old girls'
dresses beautiful boyish suit. Sheptallo cut, the Woodpecker poked holes and sewed with its beak. The stag twisted the threads with its hind legs, Lisette gnawed through them.

Pinocchio was ashamed to put on girlish rags, but I still had to change clothes. Sniffling, he slipped four gold coins into the pocket of his new jacket.

Now sit down with your hands in front of you. Don't be upset, she said.
girl and took a piece of chalk. - We will do arithmetic ... You have two apples in your pocket ...

Pinocchio winked slyly:

- You're lying, not a single one ...

“I say,” the girl repeated patiently, “suppose you have a
pocket two apples. Someone took one apple from you. How much do you have left
apples?

- Think carefully.

Pinocchio frowned, thought so well.

- Why?

“I won’t give Nekt an apple, even if he fights!”

“You don’t have any talent for mathematics,” said
girl. Let's take a dictation.

She raised her pretty eyes to the ceiling.

- Write: "And the rose fell on the paw of Azor." Have you written? Now read this
magic phrase.

We already know that Pinocchio never even saw a pen and an inkwell.

The girl said: “Write,” and he immediately put his
nose and was terribly frightened when an ink blot fell from his nose onto the paper.

The girl threw up her hands, she even burst into tears.

- You nasty rascal, you should be punished!

She leaned out the window.

- Artemon, take Pinocchio to a dark closet!

The noble Artemon appeared at the door, showing white teeth. grabbed
Pinocchio by the jacket and, backing away, dragged into the closet, where in the corners in the cobwebs
hung large spiders. Locked him in there, snarled to give him a good scare
and again sped off for the birds.

The girl, throwing herself on the doll's lace bed, sobbed because
that she had to be so cruel to the wooden boy. But if
took up education, the matter must be brought to an end.

Pinocchio grumbled in a dark closet:

- Here's a stupid girl ... There was a teacher, just think ... At the very
porcelain head, torso stuffed with cotton…

A thin creak was heard in the closet, as if someone were grinding small
teeth:

- Listen, listen...

He lifted his ink-stained nose and in the darkness he could make out the dangling
ceiling upside down bat.

- What do you need?

- Wait for the night, Pinocchio.

“Hush, hush,” the spiders rustled in the corners, “don’t shake our nets, don’t
scare away our flies...

Pinocchio sat down on the broken pot, resting his cheek. He was in trouble and
worse than this, but resented the injustice.

- Is this how children are brought up? .. This is torment, not education ... So
don’t sit and don’t eat like that ... The child, maybe he hasn’t mastered the primer yet, - she
immediately grabs the inkwell ... And the dog probably chases the birds, -
nothing to him...

The bat squeaked again:

- Wait for the night, Pinocchio, I will take you to the Land of Fools, they are waiting there
you friends - a cat and a fox, happiness and fun. Wait for the night

Pinocchio ends up in the Land of Fools

A girl with blue hair walked up to the closet door.

- Pinocchio, my friend, are you repenting at last?

He was very angry, besides, he had something else on his mind.

- I really need to repent! Don't wait...

- Then you will have to sit in the closet until the morning ...

The girl sighed bitterly and left.

The night has come. The owl laughed in the attic. The toad crawled out of the underground,
to slap your belly on the reflections of the moon in the puddles.

The girl lay down to sleep in a lace bed and sobbed for a long time in distress, falling asleep.

Artemon, with his nose under his tail, was sleeping at the door of her bedroom.

In the house, the pendulum clock struck midnight.

The bat flew off the ceiling.

- It's time, Pinocchio, run! squeaked in his ear. - In the corner of the closet there is
rat passage in the underground ... Waiting for you on the lawn.

She flew out the dormer window. Pinocchio rushed into the corner of the closet, getting confused
in web networks. The spiders hissed angrily after him.

He crawled through the rat passage into the underground. The move was getting narrower and narrower. Pinocchio
now he could barely squeeze under the ground ... And suddenly he flew headfirst into
underground.

There he almost fell into a rat trap, stepped on the tail of a snake, just
drinking milk from a jug in the dining room, and jumped out through the cat's hole
to the lawn.

A mouse flew noiselessly over the azure flowers.

- Follow me, Pinocchio, to the Land of Fools!

Bats do not have a tail, so the mouse does not fly straight, like birds,
and up and down - on membranous wings, up and down, like a devil; her mouth is always open, so as not to waste time, along the way to catch,
bite, swallow live mosquitoes and moths.

Pinocchio ran after her up to her neck in the grass; wet porridge whipped him on
cheeks.

Suddenly the mouse darted high to the round moon and from there shouted to someone:

- I brought it!

Pinocchio immediately flew head over heels down a steep cliff. rolled,
rolled and flopped into mugs.

Scratched, mouth full of sand, sat up with bulging eyes.

- Wow!..

In front of him stood Basilio the cat and Alice the fox.

- The brave, brave Pinocchio must have fallen from the moon, -
said the fox.

“It’s strange how he survived,” the cat said grimly.

Pinocchio was delighted with his old acquaintances, although it seemed suspicious to him that the cat's right paw was tied with a rag, and the fox's entire tail
soiled in swamp mud.

- There is a blessing in disguise, - said the fox, - but you ended up in the Land of Fools ...

And she pointed with her paw at the broken bridge over the dry stream. According to that
towards the stream, among heaps of rubbish, dilapidated houses, stunted trees with broken branches, and bell towers slanting in different directions were visible.
side...

– Famous bunny jackets for dad are sold in this city
Carlo, - the fox sang, licking his lips, - alphabets with colored pictures ...
Oh, what sweet cakes and lollipop cockerels are sold on sticks! You
you haven't lost your money yet, you little Pinocchio, haven't you?

Fox Alice helped him to his feet; thinking paw, cleaned him
jacket and led across the broken bridge. Basilio the cat hobbled grimly behind.

It was already the middle of the night, but no one slept in the City of Fools.

Skinny dogs in burrs roamed along the crooked, dirty street, yawning from hunger:

- Heh heh...

Goats with torn hair on their sides nibbled on the dusty grass by the sidewalk, shaking their stubs of tails.

- B-e-e-e-e-yes ...

Hanging her head, a cow stood; her bones stuck through her skin.

“Muu teaching…” she repeated thoughtfully.

Plucked sparrows were sitting on the hummocks of mud - they did not fly away - even though
crush them with your feet...

Chickens with torn tails staggered from exhaustion ...

But at the crossroads, ferocious police bulldogs stood at attention in
triangular hats and prickly collars.

They shouted at the hungry and mangy inhabitants:

- Come on! Keep right! Don't delay!..
The fox was dragging Pinocchio further down the street. They saw walking under the moon
on the pavement of well-fed cats in gold glasses, arm in arm with cats in caps.

The fat Fox, the governor of this city, was walking, importantly raising his nose, and with
nim is a haughty fox holding a night violet flower in its paw.

Fox Alice whispered:

- These are those who sowed money on the Field of Miracles walking around ... Today is the last
the night to sow. By morning you will have collected a lot of money and bought all kinds of
stuff... Let's go soon.

The fox and the cat led Pinocchio to a wasteland where broken pots lay,
torn shoes, holey galoshes and rags ... Interrupting each other, they chattered:

- Dig a hole.

- Put gold.

- Sprinkle with salt.

- Scoop up from a puddle, fields well.

Don't forget to say "crex, fex, pex"...

Pinocchio scratched his ink-stained nose.

“My God, we don’t even want to look where you bury the money!” - said the fox.

- God save! - said the cat.

They moved a little and hid behind a pile of rubbish.

Pinocchio dug a hole. Said three times in a whisper, "Crex, fex, pex"
put four gold coins in the hole, fell asleep, took out a pinch from his pocket
salt sprinkled on top. He took a handful of water from a puddle and poured it.

And sat down to wait for the tree to grow...

The police grab Pinocchio and do not let him say a single word in his defense

Fox Alice thought that Pinocchio would go to bed, but he was still sitting on the garbage heap, patiently stretching his nose.

Then Alice ordered the cat to stay on guard, and she ran to the nearest police station.

There, in a smoky room, at a table covered in ink, the bulldog on duty was snoring thickly.

- Mr. courageous duty officer, is it possible to detain one homeless thief? A terrible danger threatens all the rich and respectable citizens of this city.

The bulldog on duty barked so awake that a puddle appeared under the fox with fear.

- Worrishka! Gum!

The fox explained that a dangerous thief-Pinocchio was found in a wasteland.

The attendant, still growling, called. Two Doberman Pinschers burst in
detectives who never slept, believed no one, and even suspected themselves of criminal intent.

The attendant ordered them to deliver a dangerous criminal dead or alive.
to the department.

The detectives answered shortly:

And they rushed to the wasteland with a special cunning gallop, bringing their hind legs
sideways.

For the last hundred steps they crawled on their stomachs and at once rushed at Pinocchio, grabbed him under the armpits and dragged him to the department.

Pinocchio dangled his legs, begged to be told - for what? for what?

The detectives replied:

- They'll figure it out...

The fox and the cat wasted no time digging out four gold coins. A fox
so deftly began to divide the money that the cat turned out to have one coin, she
- three.

The cat silently dug its claws into her face.

The fox hugged him tightly. And they both rode for a while
ball in the wasteland. Cat and fox hair flew in tufts in the moonlight.

Having peeled off each other's sides, they divided the coins equally and on the same night
fled the city.

Meanwhile, the detectives brought Pinocchio to the department.

The duty bulldog got out from behind the table and searched his pockets himself.

Finding nothing but a piece of sugar and crumbs of almond cake, the duty officer sniffed bloodthirstyly at Pinocchio:

“You committed three crimes, scoundrel: you are homeless, without a passport and unemployed. Take him outside the city and drown him in a pond.

The detectives replied:

Pinocchio tried to tell about Papa Carlo, about his adventures. Everything
in vain! The detectives picked him up, dragged him at a gallop out of town and off the bridge.
thrown into a deep, dirty pond full of frogs, leeches, and water beetle larvae.

Pinocchio plopped into the water, and the green duckweed closed over him.

Pinocchio meets the inhabitants of the pond, finds out about the loss of four gold coins and receives a golden key from the turtle Tortila

We must not forget that Pinocchio was wooden and therefore could not drown. Nevertheless, he was so frightened that he lay on the water for a long time, all covered with green duckweed.

Around him gathered the inhabitants of the pond: all known for their stupidity
black pot-bellied tadpoles, water beetles with hind legs similar to
oars, leeches, larvae that ate everything that came across, up to
themselves, and, finally, various small ciliates.

The tadpoles tickled him with hard lips and chewed with pleasure.
tassel on the cap. The leeches crawled into the pocket of the jacket. One water beetle
several times he climbed onto his nose, sticking high out of the water, and from there threw himself into the water - like a swallow.

Small ciliates, wriggling and hastily trembling with hairs that replaced
their arms and legs, tried to pick up something edible, but they themselves fell into the mouth of the larvae of the water beetle.

Pinocchio was finally tired of this, he slapped his heels on the water:

– Let's go away! I'm not your dead cat.

The inhabitants shied away in all directions. He rolled over onto his stomach and swam.

Large-mouthed frogs sat on the round leaves of water lilies under the moonlight, staring at Pinocchio with bulging eyes.

“Some kind of cuttlefish is swimming,” one croaked.

“Nose like a stork,” croaked another.

"It's a sea frog," croaked a third.

Pinocchio, in order to rest, climbed onto a large leaf of a water lily. village
on it, tightly clasped his knees and said, chattering his teeth:

- All the boys and girls drank milk, sleep in warm beds,
I'm sitting alone on a wet leaf... Give me something to eat, frogs.

Frogs are known to be very cold-blooded. But it is wrong to think that
they don't have a heart. When Pinocchio, finely chattering his teeth, began to tell
about their unfortunate adventures, the frogs jumped one after another,
flashed with their hind legs and dived to the bottom of the pond.

They brought from there a dead beetle, a dragonfly wing, a piece of mud,
a grain of crustacean caviar and a few rotten roots.

Putting all these edible things in front of Pinocchio, the frogs again jumped onto the leaves of water lilies and sat like stone, raising their large-mouthed
heads with bulging eyes.

Pinocchio sniffed, tried the frog treat.

“I was sick,” he said, “what disgusting! ..

Then the frogs again all at once - flopped into the water ...

The green duckweed on the surface of the pond hesitated, and a large,
scary snake head. She swam to the leaf where Pinocchio was sitting.

The tassel on his cap stood on end. He almost fell into the water
because of fear.

But it wasn't a snake. It was not scary to anyone, an elderly turtle
Tortilla with blind eyes.

- Oh, you brainless, gullible boy with short thoughts! —
said Tortila. - You should sit at home and study hard! Has skidded you
to the Land of Fools!

- So I wanted to get more gold coins for Papa Carlo ... I
very good and smart boy...

“The cat and the fox stole your money,” said the turtle. - They ran
past the pond, stopped for a drink, and I heard them boast that
dug up your money, and how they fought over it ... Oh, you brainless,
gullible fool with short thoughts!..

“You don’t need to swear,” Pinocchio grumbled, “here you need to help a person ... What am I going to do now? Oh-oh-oh!.. How can I get back to Papa Carlo?
Ah ah ah!..

He rubbed his eyes with his fists and whimpered so plaintively that the frogs suddenly all
suddenly sighed:

“Uh-uh… Tortila, help the man.

The tortoise gazed at the moon for a long time, remembering something...
- Once I helped one person in the same way, and then he from my
made tortoiseshell combs for my grandparents,” she said. AND
again looked at the moon for a long time. - Well, sit here, little man, and I will crawl along the bottom - maybe I will find one useful little thing.

She sucked in the snake's head and slowly sank under the water.

The frogs whispered:

- Turtle Tortila knows a great secret.

It's been a long, long time.

The moon was already leaning behind the hills ...

The green duckweed hesitated again, a tortoise appeared, holding in its mouth
small golden key.

She put it on a leaf at Pinocchio's feet.

“A brainless, gullible fool with short thoughts,” said
Tortila - do not grieve that the fox and the cat stole gold coins from you. I am giving
you this key. It was dropped to the bottom of the pond by a man with a beard so long that he put it in his pocket so that it would not interfere with his walking. Oh,
how he asked me to find this key at the bottom! ..

Tortila sighed, was silent, and again sighed so that they went out of the water
bubbles...

“But I didn’t help him, I was very angry at the time with people for my grandmother and my grandfather, who were made into tortoiseshell combs. The bearded man talked a lot about this key, but I forgot everything. remember
only that you need to open some door for them and this will bring happiness ...

Pinocchio's heart began to beat, his eyes lit up. He immediately forgot all his
misfortune. He pulled leeches out of his jacket pocket, put the key there, politely thanked the turtle Tortila and the frogs, rushed into the water and swam to
shore.

When he appeared like a black shadow on the edge of the shore, the frogs hooted
after him:

- Pinocchio, don't lose the key!

Pinocchio flees from the Land of Fools and meets a friend in misfortune

Turtle Tortila did not show the way from the Land of Fools.

Pinocchio ran wherever his eyes looked. Stars glittered behind the black trees. Rocks hung over the road. A cloud of fog lay in the gorge.

Suddenly, a gray lump jumped ahead of Pinocchio. Now heard
dog barking.

Pinocchio clung to the rock. Past him, fiercely snuffling their noses, rushed
two police bulldogs from the City of Fools.

A gray lump darted sideways from the road - onto a slope. Bulldogs are behind him.

When the stomping and barking had gone far, Pinocchio began to run so fast that the stars quickly swam behind the black branches.

Suddenly a gray lump again jumped the road. Pinocchio managed to see that it was a hare, and on top of it, holding him by the ears, a pale little man was sitting.

Pebbles fell from the slope - the bulldogs jumped after the hare
the road, and again everything was quiet.

Pinocchio ran so fast that the stars now rushed like crazy
black branches.

For the third time, the gray hare jumped over the road. Little man hitting
head for a branch, fell off his back and plopped right under Pinocchio's feet.

- Rrr-gaff! Hold it! - the policemen galloped after the hare
bulldogs: their eyes were so filled with anger that they did not notice Pinocchio,
not a pale man.

- Farewell, Malvina, farewell forever! - the little man squeaked in a whining voice.

Pinocchio leaned over him and was surprised to see that it was Pierrot.
in a white shirt with long sleeves.

He was lying head down in the wheel furrow and evidently considered himself
dead and squeaked a mysterious phrase: “Farewell, Malvina, farewell forever!”, parting with life.

Pinocchio began to shake him, pulled him by the leg, - Pierrot did not move.
Then Pinocchio found a leech that had fallen into his pocket and put it to
the nose of a lifeless man.

The leech without thinking twice bit him by the nose. Pierrot quickly sat down, shook
head, tore off the leech and groaned:

- Oh, I'm still alive, it turns out!

Pinocchio grabbed his cheeks, white as tooth powder, kissed him,
asked:

- How did you get here? Why did you ride the gray hare?

“Pinocchio, Pinocchio,” Pierrot replied, looking around fearfully, “hide
me quickly ... After all, the dogs were not chasing a gray hare, they were chasing
behind me... Signor Karabas Barabas haunts me day and night. He hired
in the City of Fools police dogs and swore to capture me alive or
dead.

In the distance, the dogs barked again. Pinocchio grabbed Piero by the sleeve and dragged him
him in a thicket of mimosa, covered with flowers in the form of round yellow fragrant pimples.

There, lying on the rotting leaves. Pierrot began to tell him in a whisper:

- You see, Pinocchio, one night the wind was noisy, it was raining as if from
buckets...

Pierrot tells how he, riding a hare, got into the Land of Fools

- You understand, Pinocchio, one night the wind was noisy, it was raining as if from
buckets. Signor Karabas Barabas sat near the hearth and smoked a pipe. All the dolls are already asleep. I didn't sleep alone. I was thinking about a girl with blue hair...

- Found someone to think about, you fool! interrupted Pinocchio. - I ran away from this girl last night - from a closet with spiders ...

- How? Have you seen the girl with blue hair? Have you seen my Malvina?

- Think - unseen! Crybaby and pestered ...

Pierrot jumped up, waving his arms.

- Lead me to her ... If you help me find Malvina, I will
I will reveal the secret of the golden key ...

- How! Buratino shouted joyfully. Do you know the secret of the golden key?

– I know where the key is, how to get it, I know what they need to open
one door ... I overheard the secret, and therefore Signor Karabas Barabas is looking for me with police dogs.

Pinocchio was terribly tempted to immediately boast that the mysterious
the key is in his pocket. In order not to let it slip, he pulled off the cap from his head and stuffed it into his mouth.

Piero begged to be taken to Malvina. Pinocchio, using his fingers, explained to this fool that it was dark and dangerous now, but when it dawned -
they run to the girl.

Having made Pierrot again hide under the mimosa bushes, Pinocchio said
in a woolly voice, as his mouth was covered with a cap:

- Check...

- So, - one night the wind roared ...

“You already talked about this…

“So,” continued Pierrot, “you understand, I’m not sleeping and suddenly I hear:
Someone knocked loudly on the window.

Signor Karabas Barabas grumbled:

“Who did it bring in this dog-like weather?”
- It's me - Duremar, - they answered outside the window, - a seller of medicinal leeches.
Let me dry myself by the fire.

I, you know, really wanted to see what sellers are
medicinal leeches. I slowly pushed back the corner of the curtain and stuck my head in
room. And I see:

Signor Karabas Barabas got up from his chair, stepped, as always, on
beard, swore and opened the door.

A long, wet, wet man entered with a small, small face, as wrinkled as a morel mushroom. He was wearing an old green coat,
tongs, hooks and hairpins dangled from the belt. In his hands he held a tin can and a net.

“If your stomach hurts,” he said, bowing as if his back
was broken in the middle - if you have a severe headache or knocks in
ears, I can put half a dozen excellent leeches behind your ears.

Signor Karabas Barabas grumbled:

“To hell with the devil, no leeches!” How long can you dry by the fire?
fit.

Duremar stood with his back to the hearth.

Immediately, steam began to rise from his green coat and smell of mud.

“The leech trade is going badly,” he said again. “For a piece of cold pork and a glass of wine, I’m ready to put a dozen of the most beautiful leeches to your thigh if you have chunks in your bones ...

“To hell with the devil, no leeches!” shouted Karabas Barabas. —
Eat pork and drink wine.

Duremar began to eat pork, his face contracted and stretched,
like rubber. After eating and drinking, he asked for a pinch of tobacco.

“Signor, I am full and warm,” he said. “To repay your hospitality, I will tell you a secret.

Signor Karabas Barabas snorted on his pipe and answered:

There is only one secret in the world that I want to know. For all OS-
I spit and sneezed.

“Signor,” Duremar said again, “I know a great secret, it was told by
me turtle Tortila.

At these words Karabas Barabas bulged his eyes, jumped up, got entangled in
beard, flew straight at the frightened Duremar, pressed him to his stomach and roared like a bull:

- Dearest Duremar, most precious Duremar, speak, speak quickly,
what did the turtle Tortila tell you!

Then Duremar told him the following story:

“I caught leeches in a dirty pond near the City of Fools. For four
soldo a day I hired one poor man - he undressed, went into the pond up to his neck and stood there until his naked body was sucked
leeches.

Then he went ashore, I collected leeches from him and again sent
him into the pond.

When we had fished enough in this way, suddenly
a snake's head appeared.

“Listen, Duremar,” said the head, “you frightened the entire population
our beautiful pond, you stir up the water, you don't let me rest in peace after breakfast... When will this disgrace end?..

I saw that it was an ordinary tortoise, and, not at all afraid, answered:

“Until I catch all the leeches in your dirty puddle…”

- I am ready to pay off you, Duremar, so that you leave our
pond and never came again.

Then I began to mock the turtle:

- Oh, you old floating suitcase, stupid aunt Tortila, how can you
get rid of me? Is it with your bone lid where you hide your paws and
head... I'd trade your lid for scallops...

The turtle turned green with anger and said to me:

- At the bottom of the pond lies a magic key ... I know one person - he
ready to do anything in the world to get this key…”

Before Duremar had time to utter these words, Karabas Barabas screamed
what is urine:

This person is me! I! I! Dearest Duremar, so why don't you
took the key from the Turtle?

- Here's another! - answered Duremar and collected wrinkles all over his face, so that it
it looked like boiled morel. - Here's another! - exchange the most excellent
leeches on some key ... In short, we quarreled with a turtle,
and she, raising her paw out of the water, said:

“I swear, neither you nor anyone else will receive the magic key. I swear - only the person who makes the entire population of the pond will receive it
ask me for it...

With its paw raised, the tortoise plunged into the water.”

- Without wasting a second, run to the Land of Fools! shouted Karabas Barabas, hurriedly stuffing the end of his beard into his pocket, grabbing his hat and lantern. —
I will sit on the bank of the pond. I will smile sweetly. I will beg the frogs
tadpoles, water bugs, so that they ask for a turtle ... I promise them
one and a half million of the fattest flies ... I will cry like a lonely cow,
moan like a sick chicken, cry like a crocodile. I will kneel
in front of the smallest frog... I must have the key! I go to
city, I will enter a house, I will penetrate into a room under the stairs ... I will find
a small door - everyone walks past it, and no one notices it. vsunu
key in the keyhole...

“At this time, you know, Pinocchio,” Piero said, sitting under a mimosa on rotten leaves, “I became so interested that I leaned out all
from behind the curtain.

Signor Karabas Barabas saw me.

"You're eavesdropping, you scoundrel!" And he rushed to grab me and
thrown into the fire, but again he got entangled in his beard and with a terrible roar, overturning chairs, stretched out on the floor.

I do not remember how I found myself outside the window, how I climbed over the fence. In the darkness the wind roared and the rain whipped.

Above my head a black cloud lit up with lightning, and ten paces behind me I saw Karabas Barabas and the leech seller running... I thought:
"Dead", stumbled, fell on something soft and warm, grabbed someone's
ears…

It was a gray hare. He squealed with fear, jumped high, but I
I held him tightly by the ears, and we galloped in the dark through fields, vineyards, orchards.

When the hare got tired and sat down, resentfully chewing his split lip, I kissed him on the forehead.

- Well, please, well, let's ride a little more, gray ...

The hare sighed, and again we raced unknown somewhere to the right, then to the left ...

When the clouds were blown away and the moon rose, I saw a town under the mountain with bell towers leaning in different directions.

On the way to the city, Karabas Barabas and a seller of leeches ran.

Hare said:

- Ehe-he, here it is, hare happiness! They go to the City of Fools to
hire police dogs. Done, we're gone!

The hare lost heart. He buried his nose in his paws and hung his ears.

I begged, I cried, I even bowed at his feet. The hare did not move.

But when two snub-nosed bulldogs with black
bandages on his right paws, the hare trembled all over his skin - I barely had time to jump on him, and he gave a desperate rattle through the forest ...

You yourself saw the rest, Pinocchio.

Pierrot finished the story, and Pinocchio asked him carefully:

- And in what house, in what room under the stairs is there a door that opens with a key?

- Karabas Barabas did not have time to tell about this ... Oh, aren't we all
anyway, - a key at the bottom of the lake ... We will never see happiness ...

– Did you see this? - Buratino shouted into his ear. And taking it out of my pocket
key, turned it before Pierrot's nose. - Here he is!

Pinocchio and Pierrot come to Malvina, but they immediately have to run away with Malvina and the poodle Artemon

When the sun rose over the rocky mountain peak, Pinocchio and
Pierrot crawled out from under the bush and ran across the field, through which yesterday
at night, a bat took Pinocchio away from the house of a girl with blue hair in
Country of Fools.

It was funny to look at Pierrot - he was in such a hurry to see
Malvin.

“Listen,” he asked every fifteen seconds, “Pinocchio, will she be happy with me?”

- How do I know...

Fifteen seconds later:

- Listen, Pinocchio, what if she is not happy?

- How do I know...

At last they saw a white house with the sun painted on the shutters,
moon and stars.

Smoke rose from the chimney. Above it floated a small cloud, similar to
on the cat's head.

The poodle Artemon sat on the porch and from time to time growled at this cloud.

Pinocchio did not really want to return to the girl with blue hair. But he was hungry and even from afar sniffed the smell of boiled milk through his nose.

- If the girl decides to educate us again, we will drink milk, - and
I won't stay here anyway.

At this time, Malvina left the house. In one hand she held a china coffee pot, in the other a basket of biscuits.

Her eyes were still tear-stained; she was sure that the rats
they dragged Pinocchio out of the closet and ate it.

As soon as she sat down at the doll table on the sandy path, azure
the flowers wavered, the butterflies rose above them like white and yellow
leaves, and Pinocchio and Pierrot appeared.

Malvina opened her eyes so wide that both wooden boys could
to freely jump there.

Pierrot, at the sight of Malvina, began to mutter words - so incoherent and
stupid that we do not present them here.

Pinocchio said as if nothing had happened:

- So I brought him - educate ...

Malvina finally realized that this was not a dream.

– Ah, what happiness! she whispered, but immediately added in an adult voice: “Boys, go immediately to wash and brush your teeth.” Artemon, take the boys to the well.

“You saw,” Pinocchio grumbled, “she has a quirk in her head - to wash,
brush your teeth! Anyone from the world will live with purity ...

Yet they washed. Artemon brushed it with a brush at the end of the tail
jackets...

We sat at the table. Pinocchio stuffed food on both cheeks. Pierrot didn't even take a bite of the cake; he looked at Malvina as if she were made of almond paste. She finally got tired of it.

“Well,” she said to him, “what did you see on my face? Have breakfast, please.

- Malvina, - Piero answered, - I haven’t eaten anything for a long time, I compose
poems…

Pinocchio shook with laughter.

Malvina was surprised and opened her eyes wide again.

- In that case, read your poems.

With a pretty hand she propped her cheek and raised her pretty eyes to a cloud that looked like a cat's head.

Her eyes bulging terribly, she said:

- Tonight, the tortoise Tortila, who got out of his mind, told Carabas
Barabasu is all about the golden key ...

Malvina screamed in fright, although she did not understand anything. Pierrot, distracted like all poets, uttered a few stupid exclamations, which
we do not present here. But Pinocchio immediately jumped up and began to thrust into
pockets of cookies, sugar and candy.

- Let's run as soon as possible. If police dogs bring Karabas Barabas here, we are dead.

Malvina turned as pale as the wing of a white butterfly. Pierrot, thinking that she
dies, knocked over a coffee pot on her, and Malvina's pretty dress turned out to be filled with cocoa.

Artemon jumped up with a loud bark - and he had to wash
Malvina's dresses, - Pierrot grabbed by the scruff of the collar and began to shake until
Pierrot did not speak, stammering:

- Enough, please...

The toad looked with bulging eyes at this fuss and again said:

- Karabas Barabas with police dogs will be here in a quarter
hours.

Malvina ran to change clothes. Pierrot was desperately wringing his hands and even tried to throw himself backwards onto the sandy path. Artemon dragged knots with
household things. Doors slammed. The sparrows chattered frantically on the bush.
Swallows swept over the very earth. Owl to increase panic wildly
laughed in the attic.

Pinocchio alone did not lose his head. He loaded Artemon with two bundles with the most necessary things. They put Malvina on the knots, dressed in a pretty
road dress. He told Pierrot to hold on to the dog's tail. Himself became
ahead:

– No panic! Let's run!

When they - that is, Pinocchio, courageously walking ahead of the dog,
Malvina, bouncing on knots, and behind Pierrot, stuffed instead of
common sense with stupid verses - when they came out of the thick grass on
smooth field, - the tousled beard of Karabas Barabas poked out of the forest. He shielded his eyes from the sun with his palm and looked around.

Terrible fight at the edge of the forest

Signor Carabas kept two police dogs on a leash. Seeing on
level field of fugitives, he gaped his toothy mouth.

– Aha! he shouted and released the dogs.

The ferocious dogs first began to throw the ground with their hind legs. They don't even
they growled, they even looked in the other direction, and not at the fugitives - they were so proud of their strength.

Then the dogs slowly went to the place where Pinocchio, Artemon, Piero and Malvina stopped in horror.

Everything seemed to be dead. Karabas Barabas walked clubfoot after the police dogs. Every minute his beard slipped out of his jacket pocket and tangled under his feet.

Artemon tucked his tail and growled angrily. Malvina shook her hands.

- I'm afraid, I'm afraid!

Piero lowered his sleeves and looked at Malvina, confident that it was all over.

Pinocchio was the first to come to his senses.

“Pierrot,” he shouted, “take the girl by the hand, run to the lake, where
swans! .. Artemon, throw off the bales, take off your watch - you will fight! ..

Malvina, as soon as she heard this courageous order, jumped off Artemon and, picking up her dress, ran to the lake. Pierrot is behind her.

Artemon dropped the bundles, took off his watch and the bow from the tip of his tail. He bared his white teeth and jumped to the left, jumped to the right, straightening his muscles, and
He also began throwing the ground with his hind legs.

Pinocchio climbed up the resinous trunk to the top of the Italian pine,
standing alone on the field, and from there he shouted, howled, squealed at the top of his lungs:

- Animals, birds, insects! Ours are being beaten! Save the innocent
wooden men!

The police bulldogs seem to have just now seen Artemon and at once
rushed at him. The nimble poodle dodged and bit one dog at a time with his teeth.
a stub of a tail, another for the thigh.

The bulldogs turned clumsily and charged at the poodle again. He is high
jumped up, letting them pass under him, and again managed to peel off one side,
the other - the back.

For the third time, the bulldogs rushed at him. Then Artemon, lowering his tail
on the grass, rushed in circles across the field, then letting the police close
dogs, then rushing to the side in front of their very noses ...

Snub-nosed bulldogs are now really angry, sniffling, running
behind Artemon slowly, stubbornly, ready to die better, but to get to
the throat of a fussy poodle.

Meanwhile, Karabas Barabas approached the Italian pine, grabbed
trunk and began to shake:

- Get down, get down!

Pinocchio clung to a branch with his hands, feet, teeth. Karabas Barabas
shook the tree so that all the cones on the branches swayed.

On the Italian pine, the cones are prickly and heavy, the size of a small
melon. To fix such a bump on the head - so oh-oh!

Pinocchio barely kept on the swinging branch. He saw that Artemon was already
stuck out his tongue with a red rag and jumps more and more slowly.

- Give me the key! yelled Karabas Barabas, opening his mouth.

Pinocchio crawled along the branch, got to a hefty cone and began to bite the stem on which it hung. Karabas Barabas shook
stronger, and the heavy bump flew down, bang! - right in his toothy
mouth.

Karabas Barabas even sat down.

Pinocchio tore off the second bump, and she - bang! - Karabas Barabas directly
in the crown, as in a drum.

- They beat us! Buratino shouted again. - To the aid of innocent wooden men!

Swifts were the first to come to the rescue - they began to cut with a low-level flight
air in front of a bulldog's nose.

The dogs clicked their teeth in vain - the swift is not a fly: like gray lightning -
w-zhik past the nose!

From a cloud that looked like a cat's head fell a black kite - the one that
he used to bring game to Malvina; he dug his claws into the back of a policewoman
dogs, soared on magnificent wings, picked up the dog and released him ...

The dog, squealing, flopped up with its paws.

Artemon ran into another dog from the side, hit him with his chest, knocked him down,
bitten, bounced ...

And again Artemon rushed across the field around the lone pine tree and after him the battered and bitten police dogs.

Toads came to help Artemon. They dragged two snakes, blind from old age. The snakes still had to die - either under a rotten stump, or in
heron's stomach. The toads persuaded them to die a heroic death.

The noble Artemon now decided to engage in open battle.

He sat on his tail, bared his fangs.

The bulldogs pounced on him, and the three of them rolled into a ball.

Artemon snapped his jaws, pulled with his claws. Bulldogs oblivious
for bites and scratches, they were waiting for one thing: to get to Artemon's throat - with a stranglehold. Screeching and howling were all over the field.

A family of hedgehogs went to help Artemon: the hedgehog himself, the hedgehog, Yezhov's mother-in-law, two
Yezhov's unmarried aunts and little wives.

Fat black-velvet bumblebees in golden cloaks flew, buzzed, hissed
ferocious hornets wings. Ground beetles and biting beetles with long whiskers crawled.

All animals, birds and insects selflessly pounced on the hated
police dogs.

Hedgehog, hedgehog, Yezhov's mother-in-law, two Yezhov's unmarried aunts and little hens
curled up in a ball and with the speed of a croquet ball hit with needles
bulldogs in the face.

Bumblebees, hornets from the raid stung them with poisoned stings. Serious ants slowly climbed into the nostrils and let out poisonous formic acid there.

Ground beetles and beetles bit at the navel.

The kite pecked first one dog, then another with a crooked beak in the skull.

Butterflies and flies crowded in a dense cloud before their eyes, covering
light.

The toads held at the ready two snakes, ready to die a heroic death.

And so, when one of the bulldogs opened his mouth wide to sneeze
poisonous formic acid, the old blind man threw himself head first into his
pharynx and a screw crawled into the esophagus. The same thing happened to another bulldog:
the second blind man already rushed into his mouth. Both dogs, punctured, pitiful,
scratched, gasping, began to roll helplessly on the ground. The noble Artemon emerged victorious from the battle.

Meanwhile, Karabas Barabas finally pulled out a prickly pear from his huge mouth.
bump.

His eyes bulged from a blow to the crown of his head. Staggering, he again
grabbed the trunk of an Italian pine. The wind blew his beard.

Pinocchio noticed, sitting at the very top, that the end of Karabas's beard
Barabasa, lifted by the wind, stuck to the resinous trunk.

Pinocchio hung on a branch and, teasingly, squeaked:

- Uncle, you won’t catch up, uncle, you won’t catch up! ..

He jumped to the ground and began to run around the pines. Karabas-Barabas, stretching out his arms to grab the boy, ran after him, staggering around the tree.

He ran once, just about, it seems, and grabbed the fleeing boy with his crooked fingers, ran another, running around for the third time ... His beard was wrapped around the trunk, tightly glued to the resin.

When the beard ended and Karabas Barabas rested his nose against a tree, Pinocchio showed him a long tongue and ran to Swan Lake - to look for
Malvina and Pierrot. Shabby Artemon on three paws, holding the fourth,
hobbling after him at a lame dog trot.

Two police dogs remained on the field, for whose life, apparently,
it was impossible to give a dead dry fly, and a bewildered doctor of puppet science, Signor Karabas Barabas, his beard tightly glued to an Italian pine.

In a cave

Malvina and Pierrot were sitting on a damp warm tussock in the reeds. On top of them
covered by a cobweb, littered with dragonfly wings and sucked mosquitoes.

Little blue birds, flying from reed to reed, with a cheerful
looked in amazement at the bitterly weeping girl.

Desperate screams and squeals were heard from afar - this is Artemon and Pinocchio,
Obviously, they sold their lives dearly.

- I'm afraid, I'm afraid! - repeated Malvina and with a leaf of burdock in despair
covered her wet face.

Pierrot tried to console her with verses:

Malvina stamped her feet on him:

“I'm tired of you, tired of you, boy! Pick fresh burdock - you see
This one is all wet and full of holes.

Suddenly, the noise and screeching in the distance subsided. Malvina slowly clasped her hands:

– Artemon and Pinocchio died…

And she threw herself face down on a hummock, into the green moss.

Pierrot stumbled senselessly around her. The wind whistled softly through the reeds. Finally, steps were heard. Undoubtedly, it was Karabas Barabas who was going to roughly grab and put Malvina and
Pierrot. The reeds parted, and Pinocchio appeared: nose upright, mouth up to
ears. A skinned Artemon limped behind him, laden with two bales...

- Also - they wanted to fight with me! - said Pinocchio, not paying attention to the joy of Malvina and Piero. - What do I need a cat, what do I need a fox, what do I need
police dogs that Karabas Barabas himself to me - pah! Girl, get on the dog, boy, hold on to the tail. Went…

And he courageously walked over the bumps, pushing the reeds with his elbows, - all around
lakes on the other side...

Malvina and Piero did not even dare to ask him how the fight with police dogs ended and why Karabas Barabas was not chasing them.

When they reached the other side of the lake, the noble Artemon began to whine and limp on all his paws. I had to make a halt to bandage
him wounds. Under the huge roots of a pine tree growing on a rocky hillock,
saw a cave. Bales were dragged there, and Artemon crawled in there. noble
the dog first licked each paw, then held it out to Malvina.
Pinocchio tore Malvinin's old shirt for bandages, Pierrot held them,
Malvina bandaged her paws.

After bandaging Artemon put a thermometer, and the dog calmly fell asleep.

Pinocchio said:

- Pierrot, roll to the lake, bring water.

Piero obediently trudged along, muttering verses and stumbling along the way, he lost the lid, barely bringing water at the bottom of the kettle.

Pinocchio said:

- Malvina, fly off, pick up branches for the fire.

Malvina looked reproachfully at Pinocchio, shrugged her shoulders, and brought a few dry stalks.

Pinocchio said:

- Here is the punishment with these well-bred ...

He himself brought water, he himself collected branches and pine cones, he himself lit a fire at the entrance to the cave, so noisy that the branches on a tall pine swayed ... He himself boiled cocoa on the water.

- Live! Sit down for breakfast...

Malvina was silent all this time, pursing her lips. But now she said
very firmly, in an adult voice:

- Do not think, Pinocchio, that if you fought with dogs and won,
saved us from Karabas Barabas and behaved courageously in the future, then
This saves you the hassle of washing your hands and brushing your teeth before
food...

Pinocchio sat down like that: - Here you go! - bulging eyes at the girl with an iron character.

Malvina came out of the cave and clapped her hands:

Butterflies, caterpillars, beetles, toads...

Not a minute passed - large butterflies flew in, stained with flower
pollen. Caterpillars and sullen dung beetles crawled up. Toads slapped on their stomachs...

Butterflies, sighing with their wings, sat on the walls of the cave so that there was
beautifully and the sprinkled earth did not fall into the food.

The dung beetles rolled all the garbage on the floor of the cave into balls and threw them away.

A fat white caterpillar crawled onto Pinocchio's head and, hanging from his
nose, squeezed some of the paste on his teeth. Like it or not, had them
clean.

Another caterpillar brushed Pierrot's teeth.

A sleepy badger appeared, looking like a furry pig... He took
paw of brown caterpillars, squeezed brown paste out of them onto shoes and
tail perfectly cleaned all three pairs of shoes - at Malvina, Pinocchio and
Pierrot. Cleaned up, yawned:

- Ahaha. - and walked away.

A fussy, motley, cheerful hoopoe with a red tuft flew in, which
stood on end when he was surprised at something.

- Whom to brush?

“Me,” said Malvina. - Curl and comb, I'm disheveled ...

- Where is the mirror? Listen, darling...

Then the bug-eyed toads said:

We will bring...

Ten toads splashed their stomachs towards the lake. Instead of a mirror they dragged
a mirror carp so fat and sleepy it didn't care where they dragged it under its fins. Karp was put on the tail in front of Malvina.
To prevent him from suffocating, water was poured into his mouth from a kettle. fussy hoopoe
curled and combed Malvina. He carefully took one of the butterflies from the wall and
powdered the girl's nose with it.

"Done, darling...

I-ffrr! - flew out of the cave in a motley ball.

The toads dragged the mirror carp back into the lake. Pinocchio and Pierrot -
Like it or not, they washed their hands and even their neck. Malvina allowed to sit down
breakfast.

After breakfast, brushing the crumbs off her knees, she said:

- Pinocchio, my friend, last time we stopped at the dictation. Let's continue the lesson...

Pinocchio wanted to jump out of the cave - wherever his eyes looked. But
it was impossible to leave helpless comrades and a sick dog! He grumbled:

“They didn’t take writing materials…”

“It’s not true, they took it,” Artemon groaned. He crawled to the knot, untied it with his teeth and pulled out an ink bottle, a pencil case, a notebook, and even a small one.
globe.

– Do not hold the insert convulsively and too close to the pen, otherwise you will
get your fingers dirty in ink,” said Malvina. Picked up pretty
eyes to the ceiling of the cave at butterflies and ...

At this time, the crunch of branches, rough voices were heard - past the cave
passed the seller of medicinal leeches Duremar and dragging feet Karabas Barabas.

A huge bump turned purple on the forehead of the director of the puppet theater, his nose
swollen, beard - in tatters and smeared in resin.

Groaning and spitting, he said:

They couldn't run far. They are somewhere here in the forest.

Despite everything, Pinocchio decides to find out from Karabas Barbas the secret of the golden key

Karabas Barabas and Duremar slowly walked past the cave.

During the battle on the plain, the seller of medicinal leeches sat in fear at
bush. When it was all over, he waited until Artemon and Pinocchio
hide in the thick grass, and then only with great difficulty tore
from the trunk of an Italian pine tree the beard of Karabas Barabas.

- Well, the boy finished you! Duremar said. - You will have to
attach two dozen of the best leeches to the back of the head ...

Karabas Barabas roared:

- One hundred thousand devils! Live in pursuit of the villains! ..

Karabas Barabas and Duremar followed in the footsteps of the fugitives. They pushed apart
grass with their hands, examined every bush, ransacked every bump.

They saw the smoke of a fire at the roots of an old pine tree, but they couldn’t even imagine
it came that wooden men were hiding in this cave, and even lit
bonfire.

“I’ll cut this scoundrel Pinocchio into pieces with a penknife!” grumbled Karabas Barabas.

The fugitives hid in a cave.

What now? Run? But Artemon, all bandaged, firmly
slept. The dog had to sleep twenty-four hours for the wounds to heal.

Is it possible to leave a noble dog alone in a cave?

No, no, to be saved - so all together, to die - so all together ...

Pinocchio, Pierrot and Malvina in the depths of the cave, burying their noses, for a long time
conferred. We decided: to wait here until the morning, to disguise the entrance to the cave
branches and for a speedy recovery, make Artemon a nutritious
enema. Pinocchio said:

- I still want to find out from Karabas Barabas at all costs,
where is the door that the golden key opens. Stored behind the door
something wonderful, amazing ... And it should bring us
happiness.

“I’m afraid to stay without you, I’m afraid,” Malvina groaned.

- What do you want Pierrot for?

“Oh, he only reads poetry…

“I will protect Malvina like a lion,” Piero said in a hoarse voice, with which large predators speak, “you don’t know me yet ...

- Well done Pierrot, long ago it would be like that!

And Pinocchio set off to run in the footsteps of Karabas Barabas and Duremar.

He soon saw them. The director of the puppet theater was sitting on the shore
stream, Duremar put a compress of horse sorrel leaves on a bump.
From afar, one could hear the ferocious rumbling in the empty stomach of Karabas Barabas and the boring squeaking in the empty stomach of the seller of medicinal leeches.

“Signor, we need to refresh ourselves,” said Duremar, “the search for
villains can drag on until late at night.

“I would eat a whole piglet and a couple of ducks now,” Karabas Barabas answered gloomily.

Friends wandered to the tavern "Three Minnows" - its sign was visible on
hillock. But sooner than Karabas Barabas and Duremar, Pinocchio rushed there, bending down to the grass so that he would not be noticed.

Near the door of the tavern Pinocchio crept up to a big rooster, which,
finding a grain or a piece of chicken gut, proudly shook the red
with a scallop, shuffled his claws and anxiously called the chickens for a treat:

- Ko-ko-ko!

Pinocchio handed him crumbs of almond cake in the palm of his hand:

“Help yourself, Signor Commander-in-Chief.

The rooster looked sternly at the wooden boy, but could not help
pecked him in the palm.

- Ko-ko-ko! ..

- Signor Commander-in-Chief, I should go to the tavern, but so,
so that the owner does not notice me. I will hide behind your magnificent multi-colored tail, and you will lead me to the very hearth. Okay?

- Ko-ko! - even more proudly said the rooster.

He did not understand anything, but in order not to show that he did not understand anything, it is important
went to the open door of the tavern. Pinocchio grabbed him by the wings by the sides, covered himself with his tail and squatted his way into the kitchen, to the very
hearth, where the bald owner of the tavern was bustling about, turning skewers on the fire and
pans.

“Go away, you old bouillon meat!” - the owner shouted at the rooster and
so succumbed with his foot that the rooster - ku-dah-tah-tah! - with a desperate cry flew out into the street to the frightened chickens.

Pinocchio, unnoticed, darted past the feet of the owner and sat down for a large
earthenware jug.

The owner, bowing low, went out to meet them.

Pinocchio climbed inside the earthenware jug and hid there.

Pinocchio learns the secret of the golden key

Karabas Barabas and Duremar were supported by a roasted piglet. Master
poured wine into glasses.

Karabas Barabas, sucking on the pig's leg, said to the owner:

- Rubbish you have wine, pour me out of that jug! - and indicated
bone on the jug where Pinocchio was sitting.

- Signor, this jug is empty, - the owner answered.

- You lie, show me.

Then the owner picked up the jug and turned it over. Pinocchio with all his might
rested his elbows on the sides of the jug so as not to fall out.

“Something is turning black there,” croaked Karabas Barabas.

“Something is turning white there,” Duremar confirmed.

- Signors, boil on my tongue, shoot me in the lower back - the jug is empty!

- In that case, put it on the table - we will throw bones there.

The jug, where Pinocchio was sitting, was placed between the director of the puppet theater and the seller of medicinal leeches. Gnawed bones and crusts fell on Pinocchio's head.

Karabas Barabas, having drunk a lot of wine, stretched out his beard to the fire of the hearth so that adhering resin would drip from it.

“I’ll put Pinocchio in the palm of my hand,” he said boastfully, “with the other palm
I slam it, - a wet place will remain from it.

“The scoundrel deserves it,” Duremar confirmed, “but first, it would be good to put leeches on him so that they suck out all the blood ...

- Not! - pounded Karabas Barabas with his fist. “First I will take from him
Golden Key…

The owner intervened in the conversation - he already knew about the flight of the wooden men.

- Signor, you have nothing to tire yourself with searches. Now I will call two
smart guys - as long as you are refreshed with wine, they will quickly search
the whole forest and bring Pinocchio here.

- Okay. Send the guys, - said Karabas Barabas, substituting to the fire
huge soles. And since he was already drunk, he sang a song at the top of his lungs:

- Reveal the secret, unfortunate, reveal the secret! ..

Karabas Barabas suddenly snapped his jaws loudly and bulged out
to Duremar.

- It's you?

- No, it's not me…

Who told me to reveal the secret?

Duremar was superstitious; besides, he also drank a lot of wine. face
he turned blue and wrinkled with fear, like a morel mushroom. looking at him and
Karabas Barabas chattered his teeth.

“Reveal the secret,” the mysterious voice howled again from the depths of the jug,
“Otherwise you won’t get off this chair, unfortunate one!

Karabas Barabas tried to jump up, but he couldn't even get up.

- What-what-what ta-ta-secret? he stammered.

- The secret of the turtle Tortila.

In horror, Duremar slowly crawled under the table. Karabas Barabas's jaw fell off.

Where is the door, where is the door? - like wind in a pipe in
autumn night, a voice howled ...

- I will answer, I will answer, shut up, shut up! whispered Karabas Barabas. —
The door is in old Carlo's closet, behind the painted hearth...

As soon as he uttered these words, the owner entered from the yard.

- Here are reliable guys, for money they will bring you, signor, even the devil himself ...

And he pointed to the fox Alice and the cat Basilio standing on the threshold. The fox respectfully took off her old hat:

- Signor Karabas Barabas will give us ten gold coins for poverty, and we will give you into the hands of the scoundrel Pinocchio without leaving this place.

Karabas Barabas reached under his beard into his vest pocket and took out ten gold coins.

- Here is the money, but where is Pinocchio?

The fox counted the coins several times, sighed, giving half
cat, and pointed with her paw:

- It's in this jar, signor, under your nose ...

Karabas Barabas grabbed a jug from the table and flung it frantically on the stone floor. Buratino jumped out of the fragments and a pile of gnawed bones. Bye
everyone stood with their mouths open, he, like an arrow, rushed from the tavern to the yard -
straight to the rooster, which proudly examined it with one eye, then the other
dead worm.

“It was you who betrayed me, you old minced meat!” - sharply sticking out the nose
Pinocchio told him. - Well, now beat what the spirit has ...

And he tightly clung to his general's tail. The rooster, not understanding anything, spread its wings and started running on its ankle-legged legs. Pinocchio -
in a whirlwind - behind him - downhill, across the road, across the field, to the forest.

Karabas Barabas, Duremar and the owner of the tavern finally came to their senses from
surprise and ran out after Pinocchio. But no matter how much they look back,
he was nowhere to be seen, only in the distance across the field a rooster was thrashing with all his might. But since everyone knew that he was a fool, then this rooster
no one paid attention.

Pinocchio for the first time in his life comes to despair, but everything ends happily

The stupid rooster was exhausted, barely running, its beak gaping. Pinocchio let go
finally his wrinkled tail.

- Go, General, to your chickens ...

And one went to where Swan Lake shone brightly through the foliage.

Here is a pine tree on a rocky hillock, here is a cave. Scattered around
broken branches. The grass is crushed by wheel tracks.

Pinocchio's heart was beating wildly. He jumped down from the hillock, looked
under the gnarled roots...

The cave was empty!!!

Neither Malvina, nor Pierrot, nor Artemon.

Only two rags were lying around. He picked them up - they were torn sleeves from Piero's shirt.

Friends have been kidnapped! They died! Pinocchio fell prone - his nose
sunk deep into the ground.

He only now realized how dear his friends were to him. Let Malvina educate, let Pierrot read poetry at least a thousand times in a row, -
Pinocchio would even give a golden key to see friends again.

A loose mound of earth silently rose near his head, a velvet mole with pink palms crawled out, squeaky sneezed three times and said:

I am blind, but I can hear perfectly. A cart pulled up here
sheep. In it sat the Fox, the governor of the City of Fools, and the detectives. Governor
ordered:

“Take the bastards who beat up my best cops in the line of duty!” Take! The detectives replied:

They rushed into the cave, and there began a desperate fuss. Your friends were tied up, thrown into a cart along with bundles and left.

What good was it to lie with one's nose in the ground! Pinocchio jumped up and
ran in the tracks of the wheels. He rounded the lake, went out into a field with thick grass.
He walked, walked ... He did not have any plan in his head. We must save our comrades, that's all. I reached a cliff, from where the night before last I fell into
mugs. Below I saw a dirty pond where the turtle Tortila lived. On the way to
a cart descended to the pond; she was dragged by two skeleton-thin sheep with
frayed wool.

A fat cat was sitting on the box, with puffed-out cheeks, wearing golden glasses, - he
served under the governor as a secret whisperer in the ear. Behind him is an important
Fox, the governor ... Malvina, Pierrot and the whole bandaged
Artemon, - his tail, always so combed, dragged with a brush along
whether.

Behind the cart were two detectives - a Doberman Pinscher.

Suddenly, the detectives raised their dog muzzles and saw a white
pinocchio cap.

With strong jumps, the pinschers began to climb the steep slope. But
before they reached the top, Pinocchio, - and he was nowhere
hide, not run away, - folded his hands above his head and - like a swallow - from the very
steep place rushed down into a dirty pond covered with green duckweed.

He described a curve in the air and, of course, would have landed in a pond under protection
Aunt Tortila, if not for a strong gust of wind.

The wind picked up a light wooden Pinocchio, whirled, spun
his “double corkscrew”, threw him to the side, and as he fell, he flopped straight
into the cart, on the head of Governor Fox.

A fat cat in golden glasses fell off the goat in surprise, and so
as he was a scoundrel and a coward, he pretended to have fainted.

Governor Fox, also a desperate coward, with a squeal rushed to run away along the slope and immediately climbed into a badger hole. There he had a hard time: badgers severely crack down on such guests.
The sheep shied away, the cart overturned, Malvina, Pierrot and Artemon
along with the knots rolled into mugs.

All this happened so quickly that you, dear readers, would not have had time to
count all the fingers on your hand.

Doberman pinschers rushed down the cliff in huge leaps. Jumping up to the overturned cart, they saw a fat cat in a swoon. seen in
mugs of wallowing wooden men and a bandaged poodle.

But Governor Fox was nowhere to be seen.

He disappeared, as if the one whom the detectives should protect, like the apple of an eye, fell through the ground.

The first detective raised his muzzle and let out a dog-like cry of despair.

The second investigator did the same:

- Ai, ai, ai, ai-u-u-u! ..

They rushed and searched the entire hillside. They howled sadly again, because
that they already imagined a whip and an iron grate.

Wagging their backsides in humiliation, they ran to the City of Fools to lie to
police department like a governor; was taken up to heaven alive,
along the way they came up with their own excuse. Pinocchio slowly felt
himself, - legs, arms were intact. He crawled into the mugs and freed from the ropes
Malvina and Pierrot.

Malvina, without saying a word, grabbed Pinocchio by the neck, but she could not kiss - his long nose interfered.

Pierrot's sleeves were torn off to the elbow, white powder fell off his cheeks,
and it turned out that his cheeks were ordinary - ruddy, despite his love of poetry.

Malvina confirmed: “He fought like a lion.

She put her arms round Pierrot's neck and kissed him on both cheeks.

“Enough, enough licking,” grumbled Pinocchio, “run. Let's drag Artemon by the tail.
They all three grabbed the tail of the unfortunate dog and dragged it along
slope up.

“Let me go, I’ll go myself, it’s so humiliating for me,” moaned the bandaged
poodle.

No, no, you are too weak.

But as soon as they climbed halfway up the slope, Karabas Barabas and Duremar appeared at the top. The fox Alice pointed with her paw at the fugitives, the cat Basilio bristled his mustache and hissed disgustingly.

"Ha ha ha, that's so clever!" laughed Karabas Barabas. - Himself golden
the key is in my hands!

Pinocchio hastily figured out how to get out of a new trouble. Pierrot
he pressed Malvina to himself, intending to sell his life dearly. Not this time
there was no hope of salvation.

Duremar chuckled at the top of the slope.

- The sick poodle dog, signor Karabas Barabas, you give me, I
I will throw it into the pond for leeches so that my leeches get fat ...

Fat Karabas Barabas was too lazy to go downstairs, he beckoned the fugitives with a finger that looked like a sausage:

“Come, come to me, children…

- Don `t move! - ordered Pinocchio. - Dying is so much fun! Pierrot,
say some of your ugliest rhymes. Malvina, laugh all the way
throat...

Malvina, despite some shortcomings, was a good friend.
She wiped away her tears and laughed very hurtfully for those who stood on top.
slope.

Pierrot immediately composed poetry and howled in an unpleasant voice:

At the same time Pinocchio grimaced and teased:

- Hey you, director of the puppet theater, old beer keg, fat
a bag stuffed with stupidity, come down, come down to us - I will spit in you
tattered beard!

In response, Karabas Barabas growled terribly, Duremar raised his skinny arms to
sky.

Fox Alice smiled wryly.

- Permission to turn the necks of these impudent ones?

Another minute, and it would all be over ... Suddenly, with a whistle,
swifts:

- Here, here, here!

A magpie flew over the head of Karabas Barabas, chattering loudly:

- Hurry, hurry, hurry!

And at the top of the slope appeared the old father Carlo. He had sleeves
rolled up, in hand - a knotted stick, eyebrows knitted ...

He pushed Karabas Barabas with his shoulder, Duremar with his elbow, pulled the fox Alice along the back with a baton, threw Basilio the cat with his boot ...

After that, bending down and looking down from the hillside where the little wooden men stood, he said joyfully:

- My son, Pinocchio, rogue, you are alive and well - go quickly to
to me!

Pinocchio finally returns home with his father Carlo, Malvina, Piero and Artemon

The unexpected appearance of Carlo, his club and furrowed brows,
terror for the wicked.

Fox Alice crawled into the thick grass and there she gave a screech, sometimes only
stopping to shiver after being hit with a baton. Basilio the cat, flying ten paces away, hissed with anger like a punctured bicycle tire.

Duremar picked up the skirts of his green coat and climbed down the slope, repeating:

“I have nothing to do with it, I have nothing to do with it…

But on a steep place he fell off, rolled, and with a terrible noise and splash
plunged into the pond.

Karabas Barabas remained where he was. He only pulled his whole head up to the top of his shoulders; his beard hung down like tow.

Pinocchio, Piero and Malvina climbed up. Papa Carlo took them one by one in his arms, shaking his finger:

“Here I am, you bastards!”

And he put it in his bosom.

Then he went down a few steps from the slope and sat down over the unfortunate dog. Faithful Artemon raised his muzzle and licked Carlo's nose. Pinocchio immediately leaned out from behind his bosom:

– Papa Carlo, we won’t go home without a dog.

“E-he-he,” replied Carlo, “it will be hard, well, yes, somehow
I'll bring your dog.

He put Artemon on his shoulder and, puffing from the heavy load, climbed up, where Karabas Barabas stood with his head still drawn in, his eyes bulging.
“My dolls…” he muttered.

Papa Carlo answered him sternly:

- Oh you! With whom, in his old age, he contacted - with known to the whole world
crooks, with Duremar, with a cat, with a fox. You hate little ones! Ashamed,
doctor! And Carlo went on the road to the city. Karabas Barabas, with his head drawn in, followed him. - Give me my dolls! .. - Don't give them away! —
yelled Pinocchio, leaning out from behind his bosom.

So they went, they went. We passed the tavern "Three minnows", where, at the door, the bald owner was bowing, pointing with both hands at the sizzling frying pans.

Near the door, back and forth, back and forth, a rooster with its tail torn out was pacing up and down and indignantly talked about the hooligan act of Pinocchio.

The chickens sympathetically agreed:

“Ah-ah, what fear! Wow, our rooster!

Carlo climbed the hill, from where he could see the sea, in some places covered with matte stripes from the wind, near the coast - the old town of sandy
colors under the hot sun and the linen roof of the puppet theater.

Karabas Barabas, standing three paces behind Carlo, grumbled:

- I'll give you a hundred gold coins for the doll, sell it.

Pinocchio, Malvina and Piero stopped breathing - they were waiting for what Carlo would say.

He replied:

- Not! If you were a kind, good theater director, I would
so be it, gave away the little men. And you are worse than any crocodile.
I will not give or sell, get out.

Carlo went down the hill and, no longer paying attention to Carabas
Barabasa entered the town.

There, in an empty square, a policeman stood motionless.

From the heat and boredom, his mustache dangled, his eyelids stuck together, above the triangular
flies swirled around.

Karabas Barabas suddenly thrust his beard into his pocket, grabbed Carlo from behind by
shirt and yelled to the whole area:

- Stop the thief, he stole dolls from me! ..

But the policeman, who was hot and bored, did not even move.
Karabas Barabas jumped up to him, demanding to arrest Carlo.

- And who are you? the policeman asked lazily.

- I am a doctor of puppet sciences, director of the famous theater, holder of the highest orders, the closest friend of the Tarabar king, signor Karabas Barabas ...

“Don’t yell at me,” the policeman replied.

While Karabas Barabas was arguing with him, Papa Carlo, hurriedly knocking
with a stick on the pavement slabs, went up to the house where he lived. He unlocked the door to the semi-dark closet under the stairs, took Artemon off his shoulder, laid him on the bunk,
from his bosom he took out Pinocchio, Malvina and Pierrot and put them side by side on
table.

Malvina immediately said:

“Papa Carlo, take care of the sick dog first. Boys, bathe immediately...

Suddenly she threw up her hands in despair.

And my dresses! My brand new shoes, my pretty ribbons were left at the bottom of the ravine, in burdocks! ..

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” said Carlo, “I’ll go down in the evening and bring your
nodes.

He carefully unbandaged Artemon's paws. It turned out that the wounds were almost
already healed and the dog could not move just because it was hungry.

“A plate of oatmeal and a bone with a brain,” Artemon groaned, “and I’m ready to fight all the dogs in the city.”

“Ai-ai-ai,” Carlo lamented, “but I don’t have a crumb at home, and I don’t have a soldo in my pocket ...

Malvina sighed piteously. Pierrot rubbed his forehead with his fist, thinking.

Carlo shook his head.

- And you will spend the night, son, for vagrancy in the police department.

Everyone, except Pinocchio, became despondent. He smiled slyly, twirled so,
as if he was not sitting on a table, but on an inverted button.

- Guys, enough whining! He jumped down to the floor and pulled something out.
from the pocket. - Papa Carlo, take a hammer, separate the holey canvas from the wall.

And with his nose upturned, he pointed to the hearth, and to the pot over the hearth, and to
smoke painted on a piece of old canvas.

Carlo was surprised:

“Why, son, do you want to rip off such a beautiful picture from the wall?”
In winter time I look at it and imagine that it is a real fire and in
bowl of real lamb stew with garlic, and I feel a little
warmer.

- Papa Carlo, I give you my honest puppet word - you will have a real
a fire in the hearth, a real cast-iron pot, and hot stew. Sderi
canvas.

Pinocchio said it so confidently that Papa Carlo scratched his head,
shook his head, groaned, groaned, took the tongs and the hammer and began
rip off the canvas. Behind him, as we already know, everything was covered with cobwebs and
dead spiders hung.

Carlo swept the web carefully. Then a small door became visible.
darkened oak. Laughing faces were carved on its four corners.
faces, and in the middle - a dancing little man with a long nose.

When the dust was brushed off him, Malvina, Piero, Papa Carlo, even the hungry Artemon exclaimed with one voice:

- This is a portrait of Buratino himself!

“I thought so,” said Pinocchio, although he didn’t think anything of the sort and
surprised myself. “Here is the key to the door. Papa Carlo, open...

“This door and this golden key,” said Carlo, “are made
long time ago by some skilled craftsman. Let's see what is hidden behind the door.

He put the key in the keyhole and turned it... Quiet, very pleasant music rang out, as if an organ was playing in a music box...

Papa Carlo pushed open the door. With a creak, it began to open.

At this time, hurried steps were heard outside the window, and the voice of Karabas Ba-
rabasa roared:

“In the name of the Tarabar King, arrest the old rogue Carlo!”

Karabas Barabas breaks into the closet under the stairs

Karabas Barabas, as we know, tried in vain to persuade the sleepy policeman to arrest Carlo. Having achieved nothing, Karabas Barabas ran down the street.

His flowing beard clung to the buttons and umbrellas of passers-by.

He pushed and gnashed his teeth. Boys whistled piercingly after him, throwing rotten apples at his back.

Karabas Barabas ran to the head of the city. In this hot hour, the boss was sitting in the garden, near the fountain, in his shorts and drinking lemonade.

The chief had six chins, his nose sunk into rosy cheeks.
Behind him, under a linden tree, four gloomy policemen kept uncorking bottles of lemonade.

Karabas Barabas threw himself on his knees in front of the chief, and, smearing tears down his face with his beard, yelled:

- I am an unfortunate orphan, I was offended, robbed, beaten ...

- Who offended you, an orphan? – puffing, asked the chief.

- Worst enemy, the old organ grinder Carlo. He stole three of my most
the best puppets, he wants to burn my famous theater, he will set fire and rob
the whole city, if he is not immediately arrested.

To reinforce his words, Karabas Barabas pulled out a handful of gold coins and put them in the chief's shoe.

In short, he spun and lied such a thing that the frightened boss
ordered the four policemen under the lime tree:

“Go after the venerable orphan and do whatever is right in the name of the law.

Karabas Barabas ran with four policemen to Carlo's closet and
shouted:

- In the name of the Tarabar King - arrest the thief and scoundrel!

But the doors were closed. No one answered in the closet. Karabas Barabas
ordered:

- In the name of the Tarabar King - break the door!

The policemen pressed, the rotten halves of the doors fell off their hinges, and four brave policemen, rattling their sabers, fell into the closet with a crash.
under the stairs.

It was at the very moment when Carlo, bending down, was leaving through the secret door in the wall.

He was the last to escape. The door - Ding! .. - slammed shut. Quiet music
stopped playing. In the closet under the stairs lay only dirty bandages.
and a torn canvas with a painted hearth...

Karabas Barabas jumped up to the secret door and pounded on it with his fists.
and heels:

Tra-ta-ta-ta!

But the door was solid.

Karabas Barabas ran up and hit the door with his back.

The door didn't budge.

He stomped on the police:

“Break down the cursed door in the name of the Gibberish King!”

The policemen felt each other - one for a blotch on the nose, one for a bump
on the head.

“No, the work here is very hard,” they answered and went to the head of the city to say that they had done everything according to the law, but to the old organ grinder,
apparently, the devil himself helps, because he went through the wall.

Karabas Barabas pulled his beard, fell to the floor and began to roar, howl and roll like a madman along the empty closet under the stairs.

What did they find behind the secret door

While Karabas Barabas rode like a madman and tore his beard, Pinocchio was in front, followed by Malvina, Pierrot, Artemon and - last - dad
Carlo descended the steep stone stairs into the dungeon.

Papa Carlo was holding a candle end. Her wavering light threw back
Artemon's shaggy head or from Pierrot's outstretched hand large shadows,
but he could not illuminate the darkness into which the stairs descended.

Malvina, in order not to roar with fear, pinched her ears.

Pierrot, as always, out of the blue, muttered verses:

Pinocchio was ahead of his comrades - his white cap was barely visible deep below.

Suddenly something hissed there, fell, rolled, and heard his plaintive
voice:

- Help me!

Instantly Artemon, forgetting his wounds and hunger, overturned Malvina and Pierrot,
black whirlwind rushed down the steps.

His teeth snapped. Some creature squealed vilely.

Everything was quiet. Only at Malvina it was loud, like in an alarm clock, knocking
a heart.

A wide beam of light from below hit the stairs. The flame of a candle that
held by Papa Carlo, turned yellow.

- Look, look quickly! called Pinocchio loudly.

Malvina hurriedly began to climb backwards from step to step, Pierrot jumped up after her. Carlo was the last to leave, stooping down, and then
case of losing wooden shoes.

Below, where the steep staircase ended, sat on a stone platform
Artemon. He licked his lips. At his feet lay the strangled rat Shushara.

With both hands, Pinocchio lifted the decayed felt - a hole in the stone wall was covered with it. There was a blue light coming from there.

The first thing they saw when they crawled through the hole was the diverging rays of the sun. They fell from the vaulted ceiling through a round window.

Wide beams with dust particles dancing in them illuminated a round room made of
yellowish marble. In the middle of it stood a puppet theater of marvelous beauty.
A golden zigzag of lightning shone on its curtain.

From the sides of the curtain rose two square towers, painted
as if they were made of small bricks. High roofs of green
the tins shone brightly.

On the left tower there was a clock with bronze hands. On the dial against
Each figure is drawn with laughing faces of a boy and a girl.

On the right tower there is a round window made of colored glass.

Above this window, on a roof of green tin, sat Talking Cricket.
When everyone, with their mouths open, stopped in front of the wonderful theater, the cricket spoke slowly and clearly:

“I warned you that terrible dangers and terrible adventures await you, Pinocchio. It’s good that everything ended happily, but it could have ended unsuccessfully ... So something ...

The voice of the cricket was old and slightly offended, because the speaker
The cricket at one time nevertheless got hit on the head with a hammer and, despite
centenarian age and natural kindness, he could not forget the undeserved
resentment. That's why he didn't add anything else, - he twitched his mustache, as if
brushing off the dust from them, and slowly crawled away somewhere into a lonely crevice - away
from the bustle.

Then Papa Carlo said:
“I thought we’d at least find a bunch of gold and silver around here, but what we found was just an old toy.”

He went up to the clock built into the turret, tapped the dial with his fingernail, and since there was a key hanging on a copper stud on the side of the clock, he took it and
turned on the clock...

There was a loud ticking sound. The arrows moved. The big arrow came up
by twelve, the little one by six. The inside of the tower hummed and hissed. The clock chimed six...

Immediately, a window of multicolored glass opened on the right tower, a clockwork motley bird jumped out and, fluttering its wings, sang six times:

- To us - to us, to us - to us, to us - to us ...

The bird disappeared, the window slammed shut, hurdy-gurdy music began to play. AND
curtain rose…

No one, not even Papa Carlo, had ever seen such a beautiful scenery.

There was a garden on the stage. On little trees with gold and silver
clockwork starlings the size of fingernails sang with their leaves. On one tree hung apples, each no bigger than a grain of buckwheat. Peacocks walked under the trees and, rising on tiptoe, pecked at the apples. On the lawn two goats jumped and butted, and butterflies flew in the air, barely
visible to the eye.

So a minute passed. The starlings fell silent, the peacocks and goats moved back behind
side curtains. The trees fell into secret hatches under the floor of the stage.

The tulle clouds began to part on the back decoration. It seemed
red sun over the sandy desert. Right and left, from the side wings,
branches of lianas, similar to snakes, were thrown out - one really hung
boa snake On the other, swaying, clutching their tails, the family
monkeys.

It was Africa.

Animals walked across the desert sand under the red sun.

A maned lion rushed by in three leaps - although he was no bigger than a kitten, he was terrible.

Waddling, hobbled on its hind legs a teddy bear with an umbrella.

A disgusting crocodile crawled along, its small crappy eyes pretending to be kind. Still, Artemon did not believe and growled at him.

A rhinoceros galloped up, for safety, a rubber ball was put on its sharp horn.

A giraffe, resembling a striped, horned camel, ran
neck-stretching strength.

Then came an elephant, a friend of the children - smart, good-natured - waving his trunk, in which he held a soy candy.

The last to trotted sideways was a terribly dirty wild jackal dog. Artemon rushed at her, barking, - Papa Carlo managed to drag him by the
tail off the stage.

The animals are gone. The sun suddenly went out. In the darkness, some things fell from above, some things moved in from the sides. There was a sound like
passed the bow along the strings.

Frosted street lamps flashed. The stage was a city square.
The doors in the houses opened, little people ran out, climbed into a toy tram. The conductor rang, the driver turned the handle,
the boy quickly clung to the sausage, the policeman whistled, - the tram
rolled off into a side street between tall houses.

A cyclist on wheels drove past - no more than a saucer for jam.
A newsboy ran by, - four times folded sheets of a tear-off calendar - here
how big were his newspapers.

The ice cream man rolled an ice cream cart across the platform. To the balconies
girls ran out of the house and waved to him, and the ice-cream man spread his hands and said:

- We ate everything, come back another time.

Then the curtain fell, and the golden zigzag of lightning shone again.

Papa Carlo, Malvina, Piero could not recover from admiration. Pinocchio, thrusting his hands into his pockets, turned up his nose, said boastfully:

- What did you see? So, it was not for nothing that I got wet in the swamp at Aunt Tortila's ...
In this theater we will put on a comedy - you know what? - "Golden Key,
or The Extraordinary Adventures of Pinocchio and His Friends. Karabas Barabas
burst out of frustration.

Pierrot rubbed his wrinkled forehead with his fists.

“I will write this comedy in sumptuous verse.

“I will sell ice cream and tickets,” said Malvina. - If you
If you find talent in me, I will try to play the roles of pretty girls ...

- Wait, guys, and when to study? asked Papa Carlo.

They all answered at once:

- We will study in the morning ... And in the evening we will play in the theater ...
“Well, that’s it, little children,” said Papa Carlo, “and I, little children, will
play the hurdy-gurdy to amuse the venerable audience, and if we become
to travel around Italy from city to city, I will drive a horse and cook
lamb stew with garlic…

Artemon listened with his ear up, turned his head, looked with his shining eyes.
to friends, asked: what should he do?

Pinocchio said:

- Artemon will be in charge of the props and theatrical costumes, he
we'll give you the keys to the pantry. During the performance, he can act for
behind the scenes, the roar of a lion, the stomp of a rhino, the grinding of crocodile teeth, the howl
wind - by means of a rapid tail twirling and other necessary sounds.

- Well, what about you, what about you, Pinocchio? everyone asked. - who do you want to be
theater?

- Freaks, in a comedy I will play myself and become famous for the whole
light!

New puppet theater gives first performance

Karabas Barabas was sitting in front of the hearth in a disgusting mood. Raw
the wood barely smoldered. It was raining outside. Leaky puppet theater roof
flowed. The dolls had damp hands and feet, no one wanted to rehearse
to work, even under the threat of a whip in seven tails. Dolls for the third day
they ate nothing and whispered ominously in the pantry, hanging on nails.

Not a single theater ticket has been sold since morning. And who would go
watch boring plays and hungry, ragged actors by Karabas Barabas!

The clock on the city tower struck six. Karabas Barabas wandered gloomily
the auditorium is empty.

“Damn all the respectable spectators,” he grumbled and went out
to the street. Coming out, he looked, blinked and opened his mouth so that it was easy to get there.
a crow might have flown.

Opposite his theater, in front of a large new linen tent, stood
crowd, ignoring the damp wind from the sea.

A long-nosed little man in a cap stood on a platform above the entrance to the tent, blew a hoarse trumpet and shouted something.

The audience laughed, clapped their hands, and many went inside the tent.

Duremar approached Karabas Barabas; from him, as never before, smelled of mud.

“E-he-he,” he said, gathering his whole face into sour wrinkles, “nowhere
dealing with medicinal leeches. So I want to go to them, - Duremar pointed to a new tent, - I want to ask them to light candles or sweep the floor.

Whose damn theater is this? Where did he come from? growled Karabas Barabas.

- It was the puppets themselves who opened the Lightning puppet theater, they themselves write
plays in verse, play themselves.

Karabas Barabas gritted his teeth, tugged at his beard and strode to
new linen tent. Over the entrance to it Pinocchio shouted:

- The first performance of an entertaining, exciting comedy from life
wooden men. The true story of how we defeated everyone
their enemies with the help of wit, courage and presence of mind ...

At the entrance to the puppet theater, Malvina sat in a glass booth with a beautiful bow in her blue hair and did not keep up with distributing tickets to those who wished
watch a funny comedy from puppet life.

Papa Carlo, in a new velvet jacket, twirled a barrel organ and winked merrily at the most respectable audience.

Artemon dragged the fox Alice out of the tent by the tail, who passed without a ticket.

Basilio the cat, also stowaway, managed to get away and sat in the rain on a tree, looking down with angry eyes.

Pinocchio, puffing out his cheeks, blew a hoarse trumpet:

- The show starts.

And ran down the stairs to play the first scene of the comedy in which
it was depicted how poor dad Carlo cuts out of a wooden log
little man, not assuming that this will bring him happiness.

The turtle Tortila was the last to crawl into the theater, holding an honorary
ticket on parchment paper with golden corners.

The show has begun. Karabas Barabas gloomily returned to his empty
theatre. I took a whip in seven tails. He unlocked the closet door.

- I'll wean you bastards from being lazy! he growled fiercely. “I’ll teach you how to lure an audience to me!”

He snapped his whip. But no one answered. The closet was empty. Only
pieces of string hung from the nails.

All dolls - and Harlequin, and girls in black masks, and sorcerers in pointed hats with stars, and hunchbacks with noses like a cucumber, and rapas, and
dogs, - everything, everything, all the dolls ran away from Karabas Barabas.

With a terrible howl, he jumped out of the theater into the street. He saw how the last of his actors fled through the puddles to the new theater, where music played merrily, laughter and clapping were heard.

Karabas Barabas only managed to grab a button-down pompous dog
instead of eyes. But out of nowhere, Artemon flew at him, knocked him down,
grabbed the dog and rushed off with it to the tent, where backstage for the hungry
actors were cooked hot lamb stew with garlic.

Karabas Barabas remained sitting in a puddle in the rain...