Adventures of Major Gahagan | Page 5

he had eaten nothing as yet.
A boy's appetite grows very fast, and in a few moments the queer,
empty feeling had become hunger, and the hunger grew bigger and
bigger, until soon he was as ravenous as a bear.
Poor Pinocchio ran to the fireplace where the pot was boiling and
stretched out his hand to take the cover off, but to his amazement the
pot was only painted! Think how he felt! His long nose became at least
two inches longer.
He ran about the room, dug in all the boxes and drawers, and even
looked under the bed in search of a piece of bread, hard though it might
be, or a cookie, or perhaps a bit of fish. A bone left by a dog would
have tasted good to him! But he found nothing.
And meanwhile his hunger grew and grew. The only relief poor
Pinocchio had was to yawn; and he certainly did yawn, such a big yawn
that his mouth stretched out to the tips of his ears. Soon he became
dizzy and faint. He wept and wailed to himself: "The Talking Cricket
was right. It was wrong of me to disobey Father and to run away from
home. If he were here now, I wouldn't be so hungry! Oh, how horrible
it is to be hungry!"

Suddenly, he saw, among the sweepings in a corner, something round
and white that looked very much like a hen's egg. In a jiffy he pounced
upon it. It was an egg.
The Marionette's joy knew no bounds. It is impossible to describe it,
you must picture it to yourself. Certain that he was dreaming, he turned
the egg over and over in his hands, fondled it, kissed it, and talked to it:
"And now, how shall I cook you? Shall I make an omelet? No, it is
better to fry you in a pan! Or shall I drink you? No, the best way is to
fry you in the pan. You will taste better."
No sooner said than done. He placed a little pan over a foot warmer full
of hot coals. In the pan, instead of oil or butter, he poured a little water.
As soon as the water started to boil--tac!--he broke the eggshell. But in
place of the white and the yolk of the egg, a little yellow Chick, fluffy
and gay and smiling, escaped from it. Bowing politely to Pinocchio, he
said to him:
"Many, many thanks, indeed, Mr. Pinocchio, for having saved me the
trouble of breaking my shell! Good-by and good luck to you and
remember me to the family!"
With these words he spread out his wings and, darting to the open
window, he flew away into space till he was out of sight.
The poor Marionette stood as if turned to stone, with wide eyes, open
mouth, and the empty halves of the egg-shell in his hands. When he
came to himself, he began to cry and shriek at the top of his lungs,
stamping his feet on the ground and wailing all the while:
"The Talking Cricket was right! If I had not run away from home and if
Father were here now, I should not be dying of hunger. Oh, how
horrible it is to be hungry!"
And as his stomach kept grumbling more than ever and he had nothing
to quiet it with, he thought of going out for a walk to the near-by
village, in the hope of finding some charitable person who might give

him a bit of bread.

CHAPTER 6
Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on a foot warmer, and awakens the
next day with his feet all burned off.
Pinocchio hated the dark street, but he was so hungry that, in spite of it,
he ran out of the house. The night was pitch black. It thundered, and
bright flashes of lightning now and again shot across the sky, turning it
into a sea of fire. An angry wind blew cold and raised dense clouds of
dust, while the trees shook and moaned in a weird way.
Pinocchio was greatly afraid of thunder and lightning, but the hunger
he felt was far greater than his fear. In a dozen leaps and bounds, he
came to the village, tired out, puffing like a whale, and with tongue
hanging.
The whole village was dark and deserted. The stores were closed, the
doors, the windows. In the streets, not even a dog could be seen. It
seemed the Village of the Dead.
Pinocchio, in desperation, ran up to a doorway, threw himself upon the
bell, and pulled it wildly, saying to himself: "Someone will surely
answer that!"
He was right. An old man in a nightcap opened the window and looked
out. He called