After putting him in a stable, his new master filled his manger with straw, but Pinocchio, after tasting a mouthful, spat it out.

Then the man filled the manger with hay.  But Pinocchio did not like that any better.

“Ah, you don’t like hay either?” he cried angrily.  “Wait, my pretty Donkey, I’ll teach you not to be so particular.”

Without more ado, he took a whip and gave the Donkey a hearty blow across the legs.

Pinocchio screamed with pain and as he screamed he brayed: 

“Haw!  Haw!  Haw!  I can’t digest straw!”

“Then eat the hay!” answered his master, who understood the Donkey perfectly.

“Haw!  Haw!  Haw!  Hay gives me a headache!”

“Do you pretend, by any chance, that I should feed you duck or chicken?” asked the man again, and, angrier than ever, he gave poor Pinocchio another lashing.

At that second beating, Pinocchio became very quiet and said no more.

After that, the door of the stable was closed and he was left alone.  It was many hours since he had eaten anything and he started to yawn from hunger.  As he yawned, he opened a mouth as big as an oven.

Finally, not finding anything else in the manger, he tasted the hay.  After tasting it, he chewed it well, closed his eyes, and swallowed it.

“This hay is not bad,” he said to himself.  “But how much happier I should be if I had studied!  Just now, instead of hay, I should be eating some good bread and butter.  Patience!”

Next morning, when he awoke, Pinocchio looked in the manger for more hay, but it was all gone.  He had eaten it all during the night.

He tried the straw, but, as he chewed away at it, he noticed to his great disappointment that it tasted neither like rice nor like macaroni.

“Patience!” he repeated as he chewed.  “If only my misfortune might serve as a lesson to disobedient boys who refuse to study!  Patience!  Have patience!”

“Patience indeed!” shouted his master just then, as he came into the stable.  “Do you think, perhaps, my little Donkey, that I have brought you here only to give you food and drink?  Oh, no!  You are to help me earn some fine gold pieces, do you hear?  Come along, now.  I am going to teach you to jump and bow, to dance a waltz and a polka, and even to stand on your head.”

Poor Pinocchio, whether he liked it or not, had to learn all these wonderful things; but it took him three long months and cost him many, many lashings before he was pronounced perfect.

The day came at last when Pinocchio’s master was able to announce an extraordinary performance.  The announcements, posted all around the town, and written in large letters, read thus: 

Great spectacle tonight leaps and exercises by the great artists and the famous horses of the company

     First Public Appearance