The netful of fish was carried into the cave, which was dark and smoky.  In the middle of the cave a large frying-pan full of oil was frying and sending out a smell of mushrooms that was suffocating.

“Now we will see what fish we have taken!” said the green fisherman, and, putting into the net an enormous hand, so out of all proportion that it looked like a baker’s shovel, he pulled out a handful of fish.

“These fish are good!” he said, looking at them and smelling them complacently.  And after he had smelled them he threw them into a pan without water.

He repeated the same operation many times, and as he drew out the fish his mouth watered and he said, chuckling to himself: 

“What good whiting!”

“What exquisite sardines!”

“These soles are delicious!”

“And these crabs excellent!”

“What dear little anchovies!”

The last to remain in the net was Pinocchio.

No sooner had the fisherman taken him out than he opened his big green eyes with astonishment and cried, half frightened: 

“What species of fish is this?  Fish of this kind I never remember to have eaten.”

And he looked at him again attentively and, having examined him well all over, he ended by saying: 

“I know:  he must be a craw-fish.”

Pinocchio, mortified at being mistaken for a craw-fish, said in an angry voice: 

“A craw-fish indeed!  Do you take me for a craw-fish? what treatment!  Let me tell you that I am a puppet.”

“A puppet?” replied the fisherman.  “To tell the truth, a puppet is quite a new fish for me.  All the better!  I shall eat you with greater pleasure.”

“Eat me! but will you understand that I am not a fish?  Do you hear that I talk and reason as you do?”

“That is quite true,” said the fisherman; “and as I see that you are a fish possessed of the talent of talking and reasoning as I do, I will treat you with all the attention that is your due.”

“And this attention?”

“In token of my friendship and particular regard, I will leave you the choice of how you would like to be cooked.  Would you like to be fried in the frying-pan, or would you prefer to be stewed with tomato sauce?”

“To tell the truth,” answered Pinocchio, “if I am to choose, I should prefer to be set at liberty and to return home.”

“You are joking!  Do you imagine that I would lose the opportunity of tasting such a rare fish?  It is not every day, I assure you, that a puppet fish is caught in these waters.  Leave it to me.  I will fry you in the frying-pan with the other fish, and you will be quite satisfied.  It is always consolation to be fried in company.”

At this speech the unhappy Pinocchio began to cry and scream and to implore for mercy, and he said, sobbing:  “How much better it would have been if I had gone to school!  I would listen to my companions and now I am paying for it.”