PINOCCHIO DANCES IN THE CIRCUS

Now, my little readers, I must tell you all
about this old man. He went from town to town and looked for boys who didn’t want to go to school.
He took them to Boobie-land. There they did not
learn anything but only played and played, and
then became donkeys. When they were donkeys,
the old man sold them for good money.

Soon he sold Candlewick to a farmer and Pinocchio to the director of a circus. This man wanted to teach Pinocchio to jump and dance with his
other animals. From the first day Pinocchio had
a very, very hard life. He couldn’t eat the grass
which his master gave him for breakfast and for
dinner. So he was always very hungry. At last he
learned to eat grass. At first he couldn’t dance the
dances which his master tried to teach him. His
master beat him every day. At last he learned to
dance many dances.

Then a day came when people saw placards on
the street corners:
DO NOT FORGET TO COME
TO OUR CIRCUS
TOMORROW!
YOU WILL SEE
ALL THE ACROBATS
AND ALL THE HORSES
OF THE CIRCUS.
YOU WILL SEE
THE STAR OF THE DANCE LITTLE DONKEY PINOCCHIO!
COME! COME! COME!

Everybody wanted to see ‘the star of the dance’.
A lot of people stood near the circus every day and
bought tickets.

Everything went well at first: Pinocchio
jumped and danced... The children laughed and
laughed, they liked him very much.

But one night he fell down and broke his leg.
He couldn’t get up for a long time. When he got
up, he was lame.

“Pinocchio! Pinocchio! We want the little donkey! We want Pinocchio!” the people, cried.

But the little donkey couldn’t do anything for
them. Next morning the animal doctor came to see
him. When he saw Pinocchio’s lame foot, he said;
“I’m sorry for you! You’ll be lame all your life.”
The director said to Pinocchio:

"What can I do with a lame donkey? Nothing!
You will eat a lot of food and you can’t work for
it. I must sell you.”

He found a man who wanted to buy a donkey.
This man asked him:

“How much do you want for that lame donkey?”

“Two gold pieces”, said the director.

“I’ll give you one gold piece,” answered the
man. “He can’t work. I want him only for his
skin? I see that it is very hard. I want to make
a drum for my children.”

The man took the donkey to the sea. There he
tied a stone round the donkey’s neck. Then he tied
a rope round the donkey’s legs. He held the end
of the rope in his hand and threw the donkey into
the water. Then he sat down on the ground and
waited.