“Oh! but another time I shall not require so much persuasion.  I shall remember those black rabbits with the bier on their shoulders and then I shall immediately take the tumbler in my hand, and down it will go!”

“Now, come here to me and tell me how it came about that you fell into the hands of those assassins.”

“You see, the showman, Fire-Eater, gave me some gold pieces and said to me:  ‘Go, and take them to your father!’ and instead I met on the road a Fox and a Cat, who said to me:  ’Would you like those pieces of gold to become a thousand or two?  Come with us and we will take you to the Field of Miracles,’ and I said:  ‘Let us go.’  And they said:  ’Let us stop at the inn of The Red Craw-Fish,’ and after midnight they left.  And when I awoke I found that they were no longer there, because they had gone away.  Then I began to travel by night, for you cannot imagine how dark it was; and on that account I met on the road two assassins in charcoal sacks who said to me:  ‘Out with your money,’ and I said to them:  ’I have got none,’ because I had hidden the four gold pieces in my mouth, and one of the assassins tried to put his hand in my mouth, and I bit his hand off and spat it out, but instead of a hand it was a cat’s paw.  And the assassins ran after me, and I ran, and ran, until at last they caught me and tied me by the neck to a tree in this wood, and said to me:  ’Tomorrow we shall return here and then you will be dead with your mouth open and we shall be able to carry off the pieces of gold that you have hidden under your tongue.”

“And the four pieces—­where have you put them?” asked the Fairy.

“I have lost them!” said Pinocchio, but he was telling a lie, for he had them in his pocket.

He had scarcely told the lie when his nose, which was already long, grew at once two inches longer.

“And where did you lose them?”

“In the wood near here.”

At this second lie his nose went on growing.

“If you have lost them in the wood near here,” said the Fairy, “we will look for them and we shall find them:  because everything that is lost in that wood is always found.”

“Ah! now I remember all about it,” replied the puppet, getting quite confused; “I didn’t lose the four gold pieces, I swallowed them whilst I was drinking your medicine.”

At this lie his nose grew to such an extraordinary length that poor Pinocchio could not move in any direction.  If he turned to one side he struck his nose against the bed or the window-panes, if he turned to the other he struck it against the walls or the door, if he raised his head a little he ran the risk of sticking it into one of the Fairy’s eyes.

And the Fairy looked at him and laughed.

“What are you laughing at?” asked the puppet, very confused and anxious at finding his nose growing so prodigiously.

“I am laughing at the lie you have told.”