Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/205

 master, getting more and more angry, and whipping him again.

At this second whipping Pinocchio prudently held his tongue and said nothing more.

The stable was then shut and Pinocchio was left alone. He had not eaten for many hours, and he began to yawn from hunger. And when he yawned he opened a mouth that seemed as wide as an oven.

At last, finding nothing else in the manger, he resigned himself, and chewed a little hay; and after he had chewed it well, he shut his eyes and swallowed it.

'This hay is not bad,' he said to himself; 'but how much better it would have been if I had gone on with my studies! . . . Instead of hay I might now be eating a hunch of new bread and a fine slice of sausage! But I must have patience! . . .'

The next morning when he woke he looked in the manger for a little more hay; but he found none, for he had eaten it all during the night.

Then he took a mouthful of chopped straw; but whilst he was chewing it he had to acknowledge that the taste of chopped straw did not in the least resemble a savoury dish of macaroni or rice.

'But I must have patience!' he repeated as he went on chewing. 'May my example serve at least as a warning to all