pinocchio sells his a-b-c book topay his way into the marionette theatersee pinocchio hurrying off to school with his new a-b-cbook under his arm! as he walked along, his brain was busyplanning hundreds of wonderful things, building hundredsof castles in the air. talking to himself, he said:

"in school today, i'll learn to read, tomorrow to write,and the day after tomorrow i'll do arithmetic. then, cleveras i am, i can earn a lot of money. with the very firstpennies i make, i'll buy father a new cloth coat. cloth,did i say? no, it shall be of gold and silver with diamondbuttons. that poor man certainly deserves it; for, after all,isn't he in his shirt sleeves because he was good enough to buy a book for me? on this cold day, too! fathers areindeed good to their children!"as he talked to himself, he thought he heard sounds ofpipes and drums coming from a distance: pi-pi-pi,pi-pi-pi. . .zum, zum, zum, zum.

he stopped to listen. those sounds came from a littlestreet that led to a small village along the shore.

"what can that noise be? what a nuisance that i haveto go to school! otherwise. . ."there he stopped, very much puzzled. he felt he hadto make up his mind for either one thing or another.

should he go to school, or should he follow the pipes?

"today i'll follow the pipes, and tomorrow i'll go toschool. there's always plenty of time to go to school,"decided the little rascal at last, shrugging his shoulders.

no sooner said than done. he started down the street,going like the wind. on he ran, and louder grew thesounds of pipe and drum: pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi. . .zum, zum, zum, zum.

suddenly, he found himself in a large square, full ofpeople standing in front of a little wooden building paintedin brilliant colors.

"what is that house?" pinocchio asked a little boy near him.

"read the sign and you'll know.""i'd like to read, but somehow i can't today.""oh, really? then i'll read it to you. know, then,that written in letters of fire i see the words:

great marionette theater.

"when did the show start?""it is starting now.""and how much does one pay to get in?""four pennies."pinocchio, who was wild with curiosity to know whatwas going on inside, lost all his pride and said to the boyshamelessly:

"will you give me four pennies until tomorrow?""i'd give them to you gladly," answered the other,poking fun at him, "but just now i can't give them to you.""for the price of four pennies, i'll sell you my coat.""if it rains, what shall i do with a coat of floweredpaper? i could not take it off again.""do you want to buy my shoes?""they are only good enough to light a fire with.""what about my hat?""fine bargain, indeed! a cap of dough! the mice mightcome and eat it from my head!"pinocchio was almost in tears. he was just about tomake one last offer, but he lacked the courage to do so.

he hesitated, he wondered, he could not make up his mind.

at last he said:

"will you give me four pennies for the book?""i am a boy and i buy nothing from boys," said thelittle fellow with far more common sense than the marionette.

"i'll give you four pennies for your a-b-c book," saida ragpicker who stood by.

then and there, the book changed hands. and to thinkthat poor old geppetto sat at home in his shirt sleeves,shivering with cold, having sold his coat to buy that littlebook for his son!

雪一停，皮诺乔就夹着他那本呱呱叫的新识字课本去上学，他一路走，他的小脑袋瓜里浮现出成千个幻想，成千座空中楼阁，越来越美。

他自言自语说：

“我在学校里，今天就要学会读书，明天就要学会写字，后天就要学会计算，以后凭着我的本领，我要挣许许多多钱。我第一次拿到钱就马上给爸爸买一件漂亮的布上衣，可我干吗买布的呢？我要买件金丝银线织的，钮扣是宝石做的，这位可怜人实在该穿这样的衣服，为什么，一句话，他为了给我买书，为了让我能够读书，竟把上衣也给卖了，光穿件衬衫……可天又这么冷！只有做爸爸的才肯作出这种牺牲！……”

他正在这样激动地说着这番话，忽然听见远处有音乐声，又是吹笛子，又是敲鼓：的的的，的的的……咚，咚，咚，咚。

他停下来竖起耳朵听，这声音是打岔道那边尽头传过来的，这条岔道很长很长，一直通到海边一个小村子。

“这音乐声是怎么回事？可惜我得去上学，要不……”

他站在那里拿不定主意，可无论如何得作出决定：或者去上学，或者去听吹笛子。

“今天就去听吹笛子，明天再去上学吧，去上学，反正日子长着呐，”这个小淘气最后耸耸肩膀说，

说干就干，他走到那条岔道上，撒腿就跑，他越往前跑，吹笛子和敲鼓的声音就越清楚：的的的，的的的，的的的……咚，咚，咚，咚。

转眼他就来到了一个广场中央，那里人山人海，都围着一个大棚。这大棚是用木头和五颜六色的布搭起来的。

“这大棚是什么玩竟儿？”皮诺乔转身问村里一个孩子。

“你就念一下海报吧，上面都写明白了，你一念就知道。”

“我很想念，可今天我正好还不会念。”

“好一头蠢牛！那我来念给你听，你看见海报上那几个火红的大字没有，这几个字写的是：木偶大戏院……”

“戏开场很久了吗？”

“这会儿才开场，”

“门票多少钱，”

“四个子几，”

皮诺乔想看得要命，什么也不管了，不害臊地跟刚才对话的孩子说：

“借给我四个子儿行吗，明天还你？”

“我很想借给你，”那孩子开玩笑地回答说，“可今天我正好不能借。”

“四个子儿，我把我这件外套卖给你，”木偶于是对他说。

“花纸做的外套，我要来干吗？雨落到上面，我脱也脱不下来了。”

“想买我的鞋子吗？”

“拿来生火最好。”

“这顶帽子你给多少钱，”

“买来倒真有用！一顶面包心做的帽子！耗子可要到我头上来吃帽子了！”

皮诺乔不知怎么是好，他还有最后一样东西想说出来，可又不敢说。他犹豫不决，拿不定主意，十分苦恼，最后他还是说了：

“你肯给我四个子儿，买了我这本新识字课本吗？”

“我是个孩子，不向孩子买东西，”对方那个小家伙回答他说，这个家伙比他有头脑多了。

“这本识字课本四个子儿我买，”一个卖旧衣服的叫起来。他们讲话时，他正好在旁边，

书当场卖掉了。想想那位可怜的杰佩托吧，他如今在家，光穿着衬衫，冷得索索发抖，就为的给儿子买这么本识字课本！