“I see what we must do,” said one of them.  “He must be hung! let us hang him!”

“Let us hang him!” repeated the other.

Without loss of time they tied his arms behind him, passed a running noose round his throat, and hung him to the branch of a tree called the Big Oak.

They then sat down on the grass and waited for his last struggle.  But at the end of three hours the puppet’s eyes were still open, his mouth closed, and he was kicking more than ever.

Losing patience, they turned to Pinocchio and said in a bantering tone: 

“Good-bye till tomorrow.  Let us hope that when we return you will be polite enough to allow yourself to be found quite dead, and with your mouth wide open.”

And they walked off.

In the meantime a tempestuous northerly wind began to blow and roar angrily, and it beat the poor puppet from side to side, making him swing violently, like the clatter of a bell ringing for a wedding.  And the swinging gave him atrocious spasms, and the running noose, becoming still tighter round his throat, took away his breath.

Little by little his eyes began to grow dim, but although he felt that death was near he still continued to hope that some charitable person would come to his assistance before it was too late.  But when, after waiting and waiting, he found that no one came, absolutely no one, then he remembered his poor father, and, thinking he was dying, he stammered out: 

“Oh, papa! papa! if only you were here!”

[Illustration:  Four Rabbits as Black as Ink Entered Carrying a Little Bier]

His breath failed him and he could say no more.  He shut his eyes, opened his mouth, stretched his legs, gave a long shudder, and hung stiff and insensible.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XVI

THE BEAUTIFUL CHILD RESCUES THE PUPPET

While poor Pinocchio, suspended to a branch of the Big Oak, was apparently more dead than alive, the beautiful Child with blue hair came again to the window.  When she saw the unhappy puppet hanging by his throat, and dancing up and down in the gusts of the north wind, she was moved by compassion.  Striking her hands together, she gave three little claps.

At this signal there came a sound of the sweep of wings flying rapidly and a large Falcon flew on to the window-sill.

“What are your orders, gracious Fairy?” he asked, inclining his beak in sign of reverence.

“Do you see that puppet dangling from a branch of the Big Oak?”

“I see him.”

“Very well.  Fly there at once:  with your strong beak break the knot that keeps him suspended in the air, and lay him gently on the grass at the foot of the tree.”

The Falcon flew away and after two minutes he returned, saying: 

“I have done as you commanded.”

“And how did you find him?”