Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/206

 boys who do not want to study. Patience! . . . patience! . . .'

'Patience indeed!' shouted his master, coming at that moment into the stable. 'Do you think, my little donkey, that I bought you only to give you food and drink? I bought you to make you work, and that you might earn money for me. Up, then, at once! you must come with me into the circus, and there I will teach you to jump through hoops, to go through frames of paper head foremost, to dance waltzes and polkas, and to stand upright on your hind legs.'

Poor Pinocchio, either by love or by force, had to learn all these fine things. But it took him three months before he had learnt them, and he got many a whipping that nearly took off his skin.

At last a day came when his master was able to announce that he would give a really extraordinary representation. The many-coloured placards stuck on the street corners were thus worded: