Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/106

 the canal and, filling the same old shoe full of water, he proceeded to water the earth afresh that covered his gold pieces.

Whilst he was thus occupied another laugh, and still more impertinent than the first, rang out in the silence of that solitary place.

'Once for all,' shouted Pinocchio in a rage, 'may I know, you ill-educated Parrot, what you are laughing at?'

'I am laughing at those simpletons who believe in all the foolish things that are told them, and who allow themselves to be entrapped by those who are more cunning than they are.'

'Are you perhaps speaking of me?'

'Yes, I am speaking of you, poor Pinocchio—of you who are simple enough to believe that money can be sown and gathered in fields in the same way as beans and gourds. I also believed it once, and to-day I am suffering for it. To-day—but it is too late—I have at last learnt that to put a few pennies honestly together it is necessary to know how to earn them, either by the work of our own hands or by the cleverness of our own brains.'

'I don't understand you,' said the puppet, who was already trembling with fear.

'Have patience! I will explain myself better,' rejoined the Parrot. 'You must know, then, that whilst you were in the town