“I will save my papa!”

Pinocchio, being made of wood, floated easily and he swam like a fish.  At one moment they saw him disappear under the water, carried down by the fury of the waves, and next he reappeared struggling with a leg or an arm.  At last they lost sight of him and he was seen no more.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER XXIV

PINOCCHIO FINDS THE FAIRY AGAIN

Pinocchio, hoping to be in time to help his father, swam the whole night.

And what a horrible night it was!  The rain came down in torrents, it hailed, the thunder was frightful, and the flashes of lightning made it as light as day.

Towards morning he saw a long strip of land not far off.  It was an island in the midst of the sea.

He tried his utmost to reach the shore, but it was all in vain.  The waves, racing and tumbling over each other, knocked him about as if he had been a stick or a wisp of straw.  At last, fortunately for him, a billow rolled up with such fury and impetuosity that he was lifted up and thrown far on to the sands.

He fell with such force that, as he struck the ground, his ribs and all his joints cracked, but he comforted himself, saying: 

“This time also I have made a wonderful escape!”

Little by little the sky cleared, the sun shone out in all his splendor, and the sea became as quiet and as smooth as oil.

The puppet put his clothes in the sun to dry and began to look in every direction in hopes of seeing on the vast expanse of water a little boat with a little man in it.  But, although he looked and looked, he could see nothing but the sky, and the sea, and the sail of some ship, but so far away that it seemed no bigger than a fly.

“If I only knew what this island was called!” he said to himself.  “If I only knew whether it was inhabited by civilized people—­I mean, by people who have not the bad habit of hanging boys to the branches of the trees.  But whom can I ask?  Whom, if there is nobody?”

This idea of finding himself alone, alone, all alone, in the midst of this great uninhabited country, made him so melancholy that he was just beginning to cry.  But at that moment, at a short distance from the shore, he saw a big fish swimming by; it was going quietly on its own business with its head out of the water.

Not knowing its name, the puppet called to it in a loud voice to make himself heard: 

“Eh, Sir Fish, will you permit me a word with you?”

“Two if you like,” answered the fish, who was a Dolphin, and so polite that few similar are to be found in any sea in the world.

“Will you be kind enough to tell me if there are villages in this island where it would be possible to obtain something to eat, without running the danger of being eaten?”

“Certainly there are,” replied the Dolphin.  “Indeed, you will find one at a short distance from here.”