Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/190

 the little man, 'here is an extraordinary thing! This donkey is crying.'

'Let him cry; he will laugh when he is a bridegroom.'

'But have you by chance taught him to talk?'

'No; but he spent three years in a company of learned dogs, and he learnt to mutter a few words.'

'Poor beast!'

'Come, come,' said the little man, 'don't let us waste time in seeing a donkey cry. Mount him, and let us go on: the night is cold and the road is long.'

Pinocchio obeyed without another word. In the morning about daybreak they arrived safely in the 'Land of Boobies.'

It was a country unlike any other country in the world. The population was composed entirely of boys. The oldest were fourteen, and the youngest scarcely eight years old. In the streets there was such merriment, noise, and shouting, that it was enough to turn anybody's head. There were troops of boys everywhere. Some were playing with nuts, some with battledores, some with balls. Some rode velocipedes, others wooden horses. A party were playing at hide and seek, a few were chasing each other. Boys dressed in straw were eating lighted tow; some were reciting, some singing, some leaping. Some were amusing themselves with walking on