Poor Pinocchio, who was not quite awake, did not notice that his feet had been burned off. He gave a start and jumped down from his chair so as to run and open the door. Instead, after staggering two or three times, he fell flat on the floor; and in falling he made the same noise that a sack of wood would make in falling from the fifth story of a house.

"Open the door," cried Geppetto, from the street.

"I cannot, Father," responded the marionette, weeping and turning over and over on the floor. "Why?"

"Because some one has eaten my feet."

"And who has eaten them?"

"The cat," said Pinocchio, seeing the cat playing with a bit of wood.

"Open the door, I say," repeated Geppetto; "if not, when I come into the house I shall whip you."

"I cannot stand up, believe me. Oh! poor, poor me! I shall be obliged to walk on my knees all my life."

Geppetto, believing that all the weeping was simply a trick to deceive him, thought he would make an end of it. So he climbed up the side of the house and entered through the Window.

At first he was very angry, but when he saw Pinocchio really stretched out on the floor without any feet, he felt sorry, and he took him gently by the neck and began to caress him. Swallowing a big sob, he said, "You dear little Pinocchio! How is it that you have burned off your feet?"

"I do not know, Papa; but, believe me, the night has been a horrible one, and I shall remember it always. It thundered and lightened and I was so very hungry! And the Talking Cricket said to me: It serves you right; you have been wicked and you deserve it all.' I said to him, 'Take care, Cricket'; and he said to me, 'You are a marionette and have a wooden head.' I then took a hammer and threw it at him and it killed him. Then I placed a saucepan on some burning shavings to cook an egg, but when I broke the egg a little chicken flew out of the shell and said, 'Good-by, little one.' Meanwhile I grew more hungry and ran to a house and rang the doorbell for help. An old man with his nightcap on came to the window and told me to go away. Was that a nice way to treat a boy? I came home at once and dropped into that chair and placed my feet on the stove. Now you have come back and found me with my feet all gone, and I am still very hungry. Ih! ih! ih! ih!"

And poor Pinocchio began to cry so loudly that he could be heard for miles.

Geppetto, who, through all the sad story, thought of only one thing, and that was that the marionette was dying of hunger, suddenly pulled out of his pocket three pears and handing them to the marionette said: "These three pears were to have been my breakfast, but I give them to you willingly. Eat them, and may they do you good."

"If you want me to eat them, be so kind as to peel them."

"Peel them?" replied Geppetto, greatly surprised. "I would never have believed that you could be so hard to please. Bad boy! In this world little boys must eat what is given them."

"That is all right," said Pinocchio, "but I never eat fruit unless it is peeled. I cannot eat the skins."

And that good man Geppetto took out of his pocket a small knife and with much patience peeled the three pears and placed all the skins on the corner of the table.

After Pinocchio had eaten the first pear in two mouthfuls, he was in the act of throwing away the core, when Geppetto took him by the arms and said to him: "Do not throw the core away. Everything in this world has its use."

"But I never eat the core," cried the marionette, wriggling like a snake.

"All right!" said Geppetto, without getting angry.

The result was that the three cores, instead of being thrown away, were placed on the corner of the table with the skins.

Having eaten, or, to describe it more truly, having devoured, the three pears, Pinocchio gave a long yawn and said, "I am still hungry."

"But, my boy, I have nothing more to give you."

"Nothing more, truly?"

"Nothing, except those skins and cores."

"Oh, well," said Pinocchio, "if there is nothing more, I will eat the skins."

And he commenced to eat them. At first he puckered his mouth, but one after another the skins disappeared. After the skins he ate the cores also. When he had eaten everything he clapped his hands contentedly on his little stomach and said, "Now I feel better."

"You see now," said Geppetto, "that I was right when I told you that you must accustom yourself to what is given you and not be too dainty. My dear boy, no one ever knows what may happen in this world, so always be prepared for the worst."