“Patience indeed!” shouted his master, coming at that moment into the stable.  “Do you think, my little donkey, that I bought you only to give you food and drink?  I bought you to make you work, and that you might earn money for me.  Up, then, at once! you must come with me into the circus, and there I will teach you to jump through hoops, to go through frames of paper head foremost, to dance waltzes and polkas, and to stand upright on your hind legs.”

Poor Pinocchio, either by love or by force, had to learn all these fine things.  But it took him three months before he had learned them, and he got many a whipping that nearly took off his skin.

At last a day came when his master was able to announce that he would give a really extraordinary representation.  The many colored placards stuck on the street corners were thus worded: 

Great full dress representation

Tonight
will take place the usual feats and surprising
performances executed by all the artists
and by all the horses of the company
and moreover
the famous
little donkey Pinocchio
called
the Star of the dance
will make his first appearance

The theater will be brilliantly illuminated

[Illustration:  In Less Than an Hour All His Friends Were Invited]

On that evening, as you may imagine, an hour before the play was to begin the theater was crammed.

There was not a place to be had either in the pit or the stalls, or in the boxes even, by paying its weight in gold.

The benches round the circus were crowded with children and with boys of all ages, who were in a fever of impatience to see the famous little donkey Pinocchio dance.

When the first part of the performance was over, the director of the company, dressed in a black coat, white breeches, and big leather boots that came above his knees, presented himself to the public, and, after making a profound bow, he began with much solemnity the following ridiculous speech: 

“Respectable public, ladies and gentlemen!  The humble undersigned being a passer-by in this illustrious city, I have wished to procure for myself the honor, not to say the pleasure, of presenting to this intelligent and distinguished audience a celebrated little donkey, who has already had the honor of dancing in the presence of His Majesty the Emperor of all the principal courts of Europe.

“And, thanking you, I beg of you to help us with your inspiring presence and to be indulgent to us.”