Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/94

 four gold pieces in my mouth, and one of the assassins tried to put his hand in my mouth, and I bit his hand off and spat it out, but instead of a hand I spat out a cat's paw. And the assassins ran after me, and I ran, and ran, until at last they caught me, and tied me by the neck to a tree in this wood, and said to me: "To-morrow we shall return here, and then you will be dead with your mouth open, and we shall be able to carry off the pieces of gold that you have hidden under your tongue."'

'And the four pieces—where have you put them?' asked the Fairy.

'I have lost them!' said Pinocchio; but he was telling a lie, for he had them in his pocket.

He had scarcely told the lie when his nose, which was already long, grew at once two fingers longer.

'And where did you lose them?

'In the wood near here.'

At this second lie his nose went on growing.

'If you have lost them in the wood near here,' said the Fairy, 'we will look for them, and we shall find them: because everything that is lost in that wood is always found.'

'Ah! now I remember all about it,' replied the puppet, getting quite confused; 'I didn't lose the four gold pieces, I swallowed