In the Shark's body Pinocchio finds whom?
Read this chapter, my children, and you will knowPinocchio, as soon as he had said good-by to his goodfriend, the Tunny, tottered away in the darkness andbegan to walk as well as he could toward the faint lightwhich glowed in the distance.
As he walked his feet splashed in a pool of greasy andslippery water, which had such a heavy smell of fish friedin oil that Pinocchio thought it was Lent.
The farther on he went, the brighter and clearer grewthe tiny light. On and on he walked till finally he found--I give you a thousand guesses, my dear children! Hefound a little table set for dinner and lighted by a candlestuck in a glass bottle; and near the table sat a little oldman, white as the snow, eating live fish. They wriggledso that, now and again, one of them slipped out of the oldman's mouth and escaped into the darkness under the table.
At this sight, the poor Marionette was filled with suchgreat and sudden happiness that he almost dropped in afaint. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to cry, he wantedto say a thousand and one things, but all he could do wasto stand still, stuttering and stammering brokenly. Atlast, with a great effort, he was able to let out a scream ofjoy and, opening wide his arms he threw them around theold man's neck.
"Oh, Father, dear Father! Have I found you at last?
Now I shall never, never leave you again!""Are my eyes really telling me the truth?" answeredthe old man, rubbing his eyes. "Are you really my owndear Pinocchio?""Yes, yes, yes! It is I! Look at me! And you haveforgiven me, haven't you? Oh, my dear Father, howgood you are! And to think that I--Oh, but if youonly knew how many misfortunes have fallen on my headand how many troubles I have had! Just think that onthe day you sold your old coat to buy me my A-B-Cbook so that I could go to school, I ran away to theMarionette Theater and the proprietor caught me andwanted to burn me to cook his roast lamb! He was theone who gave me the five gold pieces for you, but I metthe Fox and the Cat, who took me to the Inn of the RedLobster. There they ate like wolves and I left the Innalone and I met the Assassins in the wood. I ran and theyran after me, always after me, till they hanged me to thebranch of a giant oak tree. Then the Fairy of the AzureHair sent the coach to rescue me and the doctors, afterlooking at me, said, `If he is not dead, then he is surelyalive,' and then I told a lie and my nose began to grow.
It grew and it grew, till I couldn't get it through thedoor of the room. And then I went with the Fox and theCat to the Field of Wonders to bury the gold pieces. TheParrot laughed at me and, instead of two thousand goldpieces, I found none. When the Judge heard I had beenrobbed, he sent me to jail to make the thieves happy; andwhen I came away I saw a fine bunch of grapes hanging ona vine. The trap caught me and the Farmer put a collar onme and made me a watchdog. He found out I was innocentwhen I caught the Weasels and he let me go. The Serpentwith the tail that smoked started to laugh and a vein in hischest broke and so I went back to the Fairy's house. Shewas dead, and the Pigeon, seeing me crying, said to me, `Ihave seen your father building a boat to look for you inAmerica,' and I said to him, `Oh, if I only had wings!' andhe said to me, `Do you want to go to your father?' and Isaid, `Perhaps, but how?' and he said, `Get on my back. I'lltake you there.' We flew all night long, and next morningthe fishermen were looking toward the sea, crying, `Thereis a poor little man drowning,' and I knew it was you,because my heart told me so and I waved to you from the shore--""I knew you also," put in Geppetto, "and I wanted togo to you; but how could I? The sea was rough and thewhitecaps overturned the boat. Then a Terrible Sharkcame up out of the sea and, as soon as he saw me in thewater, swam quickly toward me, put out his tongue, andswallowed me as easily as if I had been a chocolate peppermint.""And how long have you been shut away in here?""From that day to this, two long weary............