PINOCCHIO GOES WITH THE FOX AND THE CAT AND PUTS HIS MONEY IN THE FIELD

“Oh! Here is our dear Pinocchio!” cried the
Fox and kissed him. “How is it that you are
here?”

“How is it?” said the Cat.

“It is a long story,” answered the puppet. “I’ll
tell you. When you went away from the house of
the Red Crawfish, I met with robbers on the
road..."

“Robbers! Oh, poor Pinocchio! And what did
they want?”

“They wanted to take my gold pieces.”

“Oh!” said the Fox.

“Oh!” said the Cat.

“But I ran away from them,” said the puppet.
“They ran after me and caught me and hung me
on that tree...”

“Oh!” said the Fox.

“Oh!" said the Cat.

Then Pinocchio saw the Cat’s paw. It was very
short. He asked him:

“Why is your paw so short?”

The Cat tried to answer but couldn’t. But the
Fox said at once:

“I’ll answer for my friend. An hour ago we
met an old wolf on the road. He was very hungry
and asked us to give him something to eat. But we
had nothing. And what did my friend do? He bit
off the end of his paw and threw it to that poor
wolf.”

And the Fox began to cry. He was sorry for the
Cat. Pinocchio cried too. Then he said to the Cat:

“You are a good Cat, I like you!”

“And now, why are you here?” asked the Fox.

“My Papa will be here in a minute.”

“And your gold pieces?”

“I have them in my pocket.”

“You can. have one hundred or two hundred
gold pieces. I told you to put your gold pieces in
the field and I told you how to do it. Why didn’t
you listen to me? Why don’t you go now and put
them in the field?”

“Today I can’t. I shall go another day.”

“Another day will be too late!” said the Fox.

“Why?”

“Because a man bought that field yesterday.
After tomorrow nobody will put money there.”

“Is the field far from here?”

“No, it isn’t. We can show you where it is. Will
you come with us? You can put your money in the

field at once. Then you’ll have two hundred gold
pieces. Will you come with us?”

Pinocchio thought of the good Fairy and of his
old father, but not very much. He said to the Fox
and the Cat:

“All right, 'I’ll come with you.”

And they went.

“Here’s the field,” said the Fox to the puppet.
“Make a little hole in the ground with your hands
and put your gold pieces into it.”

Pinocchio did so.

“Now,” said the Fox, “bring some water.”

Pinocchio brought some water in his old shoe.
He threw it on the earth over the hole.

“Now we can go away,” said the Fox. “You
can come back after twenty minutes, and you will
find a tree with very many gold pieces on it.”

The puppet thanked the Fox and the Cat a
hundred times.

“I'll make you a present,” he said.

“We don’t want any presents,” answered the
Fox and the Cat. “We taught you how to get money
without hard work. Good-bye!”

And the Fox and the Cat went away.