Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/201

 'What is the matter with you?'

'Alas, I cannot any longer stand upright.'

'No more can I,' exclaimed Pinocchio, tottering and beginning to cry.

And whilst they were talking they both doubled up and began to run round the room on their hands and feet. And as they ran, their hands became hoofs, their faces lengthened into muzzles, and their backs became covered with a light gray hairy coat sprinkled with black.

But do you know what was the worst moment for these two wretched boys? The worst and the most humiliating moment was when their tails grew. Vanquished by shame and sorrow they wept and lamented their fate.

Oh, if they had but been wiser! But instead of sighs and lamentations they could only bray like asses; and they brayed loudly and said in chorus: 'j-a, j-a, j-a.'

Whilst this was going on some one knocked at the door, and a voice on the outside said:

'Open the door! I am the little man, I am the coachman, who brought you to this country. Open at once, or it will be the worse for you!'