Pinocchio, Part 3: The Fox and the Cat

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The two pairs of eyes belonged to a fox and a cat. The fox walked with a limp, and the cat was blind, or at least they both pretended. "Good morning, Pinocchio!" said the fox sweetly. "How do you know my name?" he asked. "We know your father well," said the cat. "We saw him this morning, shivering in the street, with no coat."

Pinocchio showed them his gold coins, and their eyes shone. "Do you want to make these coins grow into a thousand?" asked the fox. "There is a magic place called the Field of Miracles. You bury one coin in the ground, you water it, and the next morning there is a tree full of gold." Pinocchio forgot Geppetto, school, and everything else. "Take me there!"

That evening, they stopped at an inn, the Red Lobster. The fox and the cat ate enough for ten people, and Pinocchio paid for everything with one of his coins. At midnight, the innkeeper woke him up. "Your friends left hours ago," he said. "They said they would wait for you at dawn in the Field of Miracles."

Pinocchio set off alone in the dark forest. Soon, two figures in black sacks jumped out of the bushes. "Your money or your life!" they shouted. Pinocchio hid his coins under his tongue and ran, but the robbers caught him and tied him to a tree. When they left, he hung there, sure that his story was over.

But a beautiful girl with blue hair was watching from a little white house. She sent her servants, and they carried Pinocchio to her bed. Three doctors examined him: a crow, an owl, and a cricket. "If he's dead, he's dead," said the crow. "If he's alive, he's still alive," said the owl. Only the cricket said something useful: "Pinocchio is a disobedient boy, and he will break his father's heart."

The girl, who was really a fairy, gave him some medicine. "Where are your gold coins?" she asked. "I lost them in the forest," he said. As he spoke, his nose began to grow. It grew and grew until it was so long that he could not turn around in the room. "Why is this happening?" he cried.

"Because you told a lie," said the fairy. "Lies have short legs, and they are also easy to see on a nose." Pinocchio confessed, and woodpeckers flew in and pecked his nose back to a normal size. "Go home to your father now," said the fairy. "And remember: a lie always runs out of breath before the truth."