“Listen, boy,” said the large man who took the part of the elephant; “I am very thirsty, and I will give you a fine new penny if you will fill this bucket at the fountain and bring it to me.”

“What!” replied Pinocchio, greatly offended; “I am no servant!  However this time, merely to please you, I will go.”  And crawling through the hole by which he had entered, he went out to the fountain and returned in a very short time with the bucket full of water.

“Good boy, good marionette!” said the men as they passed the bucket from one to another.

Pinocchio was happy.  Never had he felt so happy as at that moment.  “What good people!” he said to himself.  “I would gladly stay with them.”  In the meantime the bucket was emptied, and there were still some who had not had a drink.  “I will go and refill it,” said the marionette promptly.  And without waiting to be asked, he took the bucket and flew to the fountain.

When he returned they flattered him so cleverly with praise and thanks that a strong friendship sprang up between Pinocchio and the wild beasts.

Being a woodenhead he forgot about his father and did not go away as he had intended to do.  In fact, he was curious to know something of the history of these people, who were forced to play at being wild animals.

After a moment’s silence he turned to the one who had asked him to go for the water and said, “You are from Africa?”

   “Yes, I am an African, and all my companions are African.”

   “How interesting! but pardon me, is Africa a beautiful country?”

“I should say so!  A country, my dear boy, full of plenty, where everything is given away free!  A country in which at any moment the strangest things may happen.  A servant may become a master; a plain citizen may become a king.  There are trees, taller than church steeples, with branches touching the ground, so that one may gather sweet fruit without the least trouble.  My boy, Africa is a country full of enchanted forests, where the game allows itself to be killed, quartered, and hung; where riches — "

No one knows how far this description would have gone, if at that moment the voice of the director had not been heard.  The music had stopped, and the director was talking to the people, who did not seem very willing to part with their money.

6.  Pinocchio Determines To Go To Africa

Pinocchio had already resolved to go to Africa to eat of the fruit and to gather riches.  He was eager to learn more, and impatient of interruption.

   “And the director is an African also?”

   “Certainly he is an African.”

   “And is he very rich?”

“Is he rich?  Take my word for it that if he would, he could buy up this whole country.”

Pinocchio was struck dumb.  Still he wanted to make the men believe that what he had heard was not altogether new to him.  “Oh, I know that Africa is a very beautiful country, and I have often planned to go there, and — if I were sure that it would not be too much trouble I would willingly go with you.”