Adventures of Major Gahagan | Page 7

to eat of everything, for we never know what
life may hold in store for us!"
"You may be right," answered Pinocchio, "but I will not eat the pears if
they are not peeled. I don't like them."
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.
"To show you how grateful I am to you, Father, I'll go to school now.
But to go to school I need a suit of clothes."
Geppetto did not have a penny in his pocket, so he made his son a little
suit of flowered paper, a pair of shoes from the bark of a tree, and a tiny
cap from a bit of dough.

Pinocchio ran to look at himself in a bowl of water, and he felt so
happy that he said proudly:
"Now I look like a gentleman."
"Truly," answered Geppetto. "But remember that fine clothes do not
make the man unless they be neat and clean."
"Very true," answered Pinocchio, "but, in order to go to school, I still
need something very important."
"What is it?"
"An A-B-C book."
"To be sure! But how shall we get it?"
"That's easy. We'll go to a bookstore and buy it."
"And the money?"
"I have none."
"Neither have I," said the old man sadly.
Pinocchio, although a happy boy always, became sad and downcast at
these words. When poverty shows itself, even mischievous boys
understand what it means.
"What does it matter, after all?" cried Geppetto all at once, as he
jumped up from his chair. Putting on his old coat, full of darns and
patches, he ran out of the house without another word.
After a while he returned. In his hands he had the A-B-C book for his
son,