And good old Geppetto took out a knife, peeled the three pears, and put the skins in a row on the table.

Pinocchio ate one pear in a twinkling and started to throw the core away, but Geppetto held his arm.

“Oh, no, don’t throw it away!  Everything in this world may be of some use!”

“But the core I will not eat!” cried Pinocchio in an angry tone.

“Who knows?” repeated Geppetto calmly.

And later the three cores were placed on the table next to the skins.

Pinocchio had eaten the three pears, or rather devoured them.  Then he yawned deeply, and wailed: 

“I’m still hungry.”

“But I have no more to give you.”

“Really, nothing—­nothing?”

“I have only these three cores and these skins.”

“Very well, then,” said Pinocchio, “if there is nothing else I’ll eat them.”

At first he made a wry face, but, one after another, the skins and the cores disappeared.

“Ah!  Now I feel fine!” he said after eating the last one.

“You see,” observed Geppetto, “that I was right when I told you that one must not be too fussy and too dainty about food.  My dear, we never know what life may have in store for us!”

CHAPTER 8

Geppetto makes Pinocchio a new pair of feet, and sells his coat to buy him an A-B-C book.

The Marionette, as soon as his hunger was appeased, started to grumble and cry that he wanted a new pair of feet.

But Mastro Geppetto, in order to punish him for his mischief, let him alone the whole morning.  After dinner he said to him: 

“Why should I make your feet over again?  To see you run away from home once more?”

“I promise you,” answered the Marionette, sobbing, “that from now on I’ll be good—­”

“Boys always promise that when they want something,” said Geppetto.

“I promise to go to school every day, to study, and to succeed—­”

“Boys always sing that song when they want their own will.”

“But I am not like other boys!  I am better than all of them and I always tell the truth.  I promise you, Father, that I’ll learn a trade, and I’ll be the comfort and staff of your old age.”

Geppetto, though trying to look very stern, felt his eyes fill with tears and his heart soften when he saw Pinocchio so unhappy.  He said no more, but taking his tools and two pieces of wood, he set to work diligently.

In less than an hour the feet were finished, two slender, nimble little feet, strong and quick, modeled as if by an artist’s hands.

“Close your eyes and sleep!” Geppetto then said to the Marionette.

Pinocchio closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, while Geppetto stuck on the two feet with a bit of glue melted in an eggshell, doing his work so well that the joint could hardly be seen.

As soon as the Marionette felt his new feet, he gave one leap from the table and started to skip and jump around, as if he had lost his head from very joy.