“PINOCCHIO LOOKED AT HIMSELF IN THE WATER.”

PINOCCHIO UNDER THE SEA

TRANSLATED from the ITALIAN
by CAROLYN M. DELLA CHIESA
EDITED by JOHN W. DAVIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
and DECORATIONS by
FLORENCE R. ABEL WILDE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK

As I have purchased the literary copyright for the translation into and the publication in the English language of the volume “Il Segreto di Pinocchio,” by Mongiardini-Rembadi, its reproduction in English is hereby reserved.—Carolyn M. Della-Chiesa.

Copyright, 1913,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PINOCCHIO
UNDER THE SEA

Pinocchio Under the Sea

CHAPTER I

Have you ever read the Adventures of Pinocchio? What a famous fellow he was! He could talk and walk and live as you do, children; and still he was only a marionette! How sad the little fellow felt when he saw his father disappear in his little boat over the sea!

Do you remember how Pinocchio then tried to swim across the ocean? How he did his best to save his poor old father? How he jumped into the water? How he swam and swam over those great, high waves? And how at last he became so tired, that he could only lie still and let the waves carry him?

If you remember this, you will also surely remember that on the next day Pinocchio, almost lifeless, was thrown on an island. There he found himself on a small stretch of ground. All around him was the great ocean.

Where could he get news of his dear old father? As he looked about him, he saw a large dark object in the water. It was a dolphin. It had stuck its nose out of the water and seemed to be waiting for the marionette. Of Pinocchio’s father, the dolphin knew nothing.

“But,” said he, “I am very much afraid the boat has been lost in the night.”

My dear children, if you have a good memory, you cannot forget that after saying this the dolphin turned and disappeared.

“All around him was the Great Ocean.”

This is not true. Indeed not. On the contrary, Pinocchio and the dolphin had a long talk one with the other. At the end of it, they decided to take a long journey together.

CHAPTER II

While the two were talking, Pinocchio kept thinking and thinking of his dear father. He looked so sad that the dolphin finally said to him:

“If you grieve so much for the loss of your father, you must be a good son. We dolphins are very fond of good children, and I more than others. To prove this to you, I shall only say that the dolphin of which Pliny speaks was my great-grandfather.”

“Pliny?” said Pinocchio. And he wrinkled his nose, because the name was not very well known to him.

“Yes, Pliny the Elder, the famous author of a natural history. He was a Roman, who was born about one thousand nine hundred years ago. He was killed in a terrific eruption of Vesuvius, the one that destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii.”

Vesuvius, Herculaneum, and Pompeii were as familiar to the marionette as was Pliny. To speak plainly, he knew nothing whatever about them. But, making believe he understood everything, he said, “Yes, yes! These things I know. But of what does Pliny speak?”

“He tells us that in the suburbs of Naples a dolphin became very fond of a boy. Every morning he would wait near shore for the boy. When the child came, the dolphin would make the youngster climb on his back. Then the dolphin would swim to Pozzuoli, where was the boy’s school. Here the boy would go ashore, attend to his school duties, and when they were over, return to Naples on the dolphin’s back. A few years later the boy died suddenly. The dolphin, after waiting in vain for him for many days, grieved himself to death.”

“Is this little story really true?” asked Pinocchio.

“Pliny tells it. Some believe, some do not. But this matters little. To me, then, as to my parents and their parents, good children have always been pets. Now listen carefully. Among dolphins, it is the custom for the young ones to travel with the older ones. I am a tutor, and I am about to start on a long journey with a young dolphin. If you wish to come with us to look for your father, you are more than welcome.”

“My dear Mr. Dolphin, I shall be delighted. May I ask where we are to go?”

“We are to go on a journey around our world.”

“Around the world!” exclaimed the marionette. “It must be amusing to see two dolphins walking arm in arm around the streets.”

“Yes,” continued the dolphin, “this young pupil of mine, who belongs to the Marsoon family, wishes to educate himself. And how can he better educate himself than by travel?”

“To educate himself!” exclaimed Pinocchio, opening wide his eyes. That word had always been hard for him to swallow. “Educate! Oh! Oh! That word I never did like.”

“What are you saying?” asked the dolphin.

“Oh, nothing, nothing! I was just thinking that my teeth are aching.”

“Then it might hurt you to go into the water, and ...” began the dolphin, kindly.

Pinocchio was perplexed. The idea of looking for his father he liked very much. Still, when he thought of that word educate, he shivered. He had always hated school as he hated fire. And you remember, he once lost his feet through playing with fire.

“What a nuisance it will be,” he kept mumbling, thinking of the sleepy time it would mean for him.

“Tell me, my dear sir,” he then said, just to gain time, “shall we travel by train?”

“Of course not! How could we? I told you that we are to travel in our world. That means that we are not to move out of the water.”

“So much the worse,” again thought Master Pinocchio. “Still, I don’t see what kind of education there can be in seeing only sea and sky! Good Mr. Dolphin, do you think that, if I go with you, I shall ever find my father?”

“Perhaps. We may come upon him on some desert island. Who knows? In any case, it is your sacred duty to look for him. Will you come?”

“Yes!” answered Pinocchio, firmly. “I will go.”

“Are you afraid?”

“Afraid,” laughed Pinocchio, with scorn. “Why, I don’t know what fear is. Just listen. Once, while traveling, I came face to face with a lion. Instead of taking to my heels as many would have done, I took a large stone and threw it into his mouth. It lodged in his throat. The poor beast looked at me so sadly, that instead of dispatching him, I took the stone out of his throat, and he went quietly away.”

“Oh, if that is the case,” replied the dolphin, who could swallow the story almost as well as the lion had swallowed the stone, “if that is the case, I beg your pardon.”

“Very well. When shall we start?”

“To-night, just after sunset.”

“How can we travel in the dark?” asked Pinocchio. He and darkness had never been great friends.

“Do not be afraid. We are to travel by the light of the sun.”

“Of the sun? Why, we are to travel by night.”

“Nevertheless,” answered the dolphin, smiling, as dolphins are wont to smile, “nevertheless, we shall travel by the light not only of one sun, but of many suns.”

Pinocchio looked at him with his mouth wide open. The dolphin calmly went on: “I promise to show you the sun in the sea.”

Pinocchio wrinkled his nose, as was his habit when puzzled. “I wonder if the dolphin is making fun of me,” he thought.

“Now I shall leave you, as I have many things to do before starting. Remember, this evening,” said the dolphin as he went off.

“Do not be afraid. I will be here,” was Pinocchio’s reply.

“Very well. Good-by, Pinocchio.”

“Until to-night, Mr. Fish.”

The dolphin, who had gone a short distance, returned and said proudly, “Just to enlighten you a little, I am not a fish.”

Again Pinocchio’s eyes opened wide.

“What then? A horse?”

“Pinocchio, I am surprised at you. No, neither horse nor fish.”

“I never knew of there being anything but fish in the sea.”

“Who told you so? There are many animals, my dear boy, who live in the sea, but who are not fish.”

“What then? Birds? Elephants? Dogs?”

“Yes, sir, just so. Still, you people who live on the earth and read books, you ought to know all these things.”

“Well ... yes ... I do read books. In fact, I have read every book that has ever been written.”

“All of them? Nothing less? Why, I didn’t think a man could do that if he had a hundred lives to live,” murmured the good old dolphin.

“Well, Pinocchio,” he went on, “remember to-night, and do not forget that I am not a fish.” With this remark he disappeared in the blue waters.

Pinocchio looked after him for a long time.

“The sun in the sea? Dolphins not fish? I don’t know why, but I’m very much afraid I’m being made fun of.”

CHAPTER III

When he was alone, Pinocchio began to think of looking for something to eat. After trying here and there in vain, he had to be satisfied with looking at a few empty oyster shells. The best he could do was to make believe that he had already had a good meal out of them.

This, of course, was not very easily done, because the pangs of hunger kept making themselves felt more and more. At last, to forget them, he decided to make a tour of the island. This he did, and after that he took a nap.

When he awoke, it was near sunset. He had all he could do to get to the meeting place in time.

Off he hastened, and reached the spot just in time, for there was the dolphin, head out of water, looking for Pinocchio.

A small dolphin, about a yard long, was in the wake of the larger dolphin.

Pinocchio had made up his mind that even though he might be a dunce on the earth, still he knew more than a common dolphin. So he looked at the little fellow as much as to say, “Be very careful how you speak to me, young man. Remember, I am far above you.”

The old dolphin was very busy with the preparations for their journey. He came and went and gave orders to his servant.

You may laugh, children, but it is true. The dolphin had a servant, who was also a dolphin, but of the family of the Globiceps. These are so called because of their round heads, which look like the globes used in the electric lighting of streets.

The young dolphin was playing in the water. He tried to attract Pinocchio’s attention in many ways. He spouted water through the hole which every dolphin has at the top of his head. He called to the marionette. He smiled at the youngster. It was of no use. Pinocchio, with his wooden nose in the air and his dough cap on one ear, would not even turn his head.

“I wonder if he is deaf or blind?” the dolphin finally said, loudly enough to be heard.

Pinocchio turned with a start.

“For your own benefit, I just wish to say that I am not now and never have been deaf,” he said as haughtily as he could.

“Then why do you look at me in that fashion? And why don’t you answer me?” was the reply.

“I am acting just as a gentleman should toward those who are beneath him,” said Pinocchio.

“I don’t know which of us is the better of the two. All I do know is, that my father was the richest inhabitant of the sea and that the other dolphins considered him their king.”

“King?” mumbled Pinocchio, who knew himself to be the son of a poor carpenter, earning so little that he never had a penny in his pocket.

“But king or not, what does it matter? In this world we are all equal, for we have all been created by God. Listen, my dear marionette. Come here. As we are to travel such a long distance together, we should be friends. Are you willing to be my friend?”

These pleasing words made Pinocchio see how stupid and how rude he had been.

“Think of it! A fish (oh, no, I mean a sea animal) giving me lessons in politeness!” Then turning to the dolphin, he said, “Yes, we shall be friends. What is your name?”

“Marsovino. And yours?”

“Pinocchio.”

“A beautiful name. Come, shake hands.”

“Very willingly,” replied Pinocchio.

The good little animal stuck one of his fore fins out of the water for Pinocchio to shake.

“And what is the tutor’s name?” said the boy of wood to the boy of the sea.

“The tutor is a dolphin of the Tursio family, but I call him father. Is it true that you are coming with us on our travels?”

“Yes,” said the marionette, proudly. “And I am able to teach you.”

“Teach me! That’s strange. How do you expect to teach me?”

“You will soon find out. You talk rather disrespectfully to me. I have been in all the schools of the kingdom. And you? You probably have never been on land for twenty-four hours.”

Marsovino looked at the marionette smilingly, but made no reply.

Pinocchio walked up and down with his hands in his pockets and his hat at an angle of forty-five degrees, ruffling his feathers at the brilliant remark he had made.

As soon as Tursio came near, Marsovino asked him if he were ready.

“Yes. Everything is finished,” was the reply. “Are you ready, Pinocchio?”

“Yes. I am ready. Let us start.”

“Start? How? Do you mean to say that you are coming under the sea with that suit?”

“Of course. It’s the only one I have.”

“A suit of paper! The very idea! Luckily I have prepared for this. Here, Globicephalous,” he said to his servant, “give me that little suit of ray leather,—the one I had you make this morning.”

“Splendid,” cried Pinocchio, clapping his hands. “Now I have a new suit.”

Putting it on, he looked at himself in the water. Seeing how dark and unbecoming it appeared, he turned to Tursio and said excitedly:

“I don’t want this. It is too ugly. I like my pretty flowered-paper one better.”

“Your paper one Globicephalous will carry in his satchel for you. Should you wear it in the water, it would be spoiled.”

“I want my pretty suit,” insisted Pinocchio. “If any one saw me in this thing, he would ask me if I had been through the coal-hole.”

“But yours will be ruined if you wear it in the water, I tell you.”

“I want mine. I want mine,” wailed Pinocchio.

“Very well. Globicephalous, take the paper suit out of the traveling bag and give it to the boy.”

The marionette turned, expecting to see an ordinary traveling bag. Instead, he saw Globicephalous take an enormous oyster out of the water.

“Isn’t that strange! Oyster shells for a traveling bag!”

“Strange? Why, what is strange about that?” asked Tursio.

“What is its name?” asked Pinocchio.

“That is the giant Tridacna. They are the largest oyster shells known.”

“How large the animal inside must be,” observed Pinocchio, with a yawn.

“Yes. It is very large, and also very beautiful. The center of the body is a violet color dotted with black. Around this is a green border. At the extreme edge the colors change from deepest to lightest blue. Yes, indeed. It is very beautiful.”

“What a good meal it would make,” thought Pinocchio. His only wish was for a good dinner, but in order to be polite he said, “Who would ever think that there are such things under the sea!”

“Why, you have been in every school in the kingdom and don’t know that?”

“Books on the subject you can find everywhere.”

Pinocchio bit his lips, but did not say a word. Quickly he dressed himself again in his paper suit and declared himself ready to start.

“All right! Come along!” said the dolphin, stretching a fin out to help Pinocchio along.

The marionette started to walk into the water. He had not gone far, however, before his paper suit began to leave him. Hastening back to the shore, he very meekly put on the ray-leather suit which Globicephalous handed to him.

“Remember, my boy,” said Tursio, “that in this world of ours we must think not only of the beauty but also of the usefulness of things. Also, do not forget that a boy who never learns anything will never be anything.”

“But I have learned much,” answered Pinocchio. “To prove this to you, I can now tell you of what material this suit is made.”

“I have told you already. It is of ray leather. Do you know what a ray is?”

“Surely I know. You may give it another name. Still, it must be that white animal on four legs. You know. The one the shepherds shear during some month or other.”

“Mercy!” cried Tursio. “You are talking about sheep. They give wool to man.”

Pinocchio, without moving an eyelid, went on:

“Yes, that’s true. I have made a mistake. I should have said it is that plant that bears round fruit, that when it opens....”

“Worse and worse,” interrupted the old dolphin. “What are you talking of, anyway? That is the cotton plant. Marsovino, please explain to this boy, who has read all the books in the world, what a ray is.”

So Marsovino went on: “A ray is a fish, in shape like a large fan. It has a very long tail, which it uses as a weapon.”

“To what class of fishes does it belong?” asked Pinocchio.

“It belongs to the same class as the lampreys, which look like snakes, the torpedo,—”

“Be careful never to touch that fellow,” here interrupted Tursio.

“—the sawfish and the squaloids,—that is, the common shark and the hammerhead.”

“The saw? The hammer?” observed Pinocchio. “If I find them, I must keep them for my father. He is a carpenter, but so poor that he seldom has money with which to buy tools.”

“Let us hope that you will never meet the saw, the terrible hammerhead, or even the common shark,” said Tursio.

Pinocchio made no answer, but in his heart he kept thinking, “I am very much afraid that the dolphins are teaching me, not I the dolphins.”

Tursio then handed Pinocchio a small shell of very strange shape. It looked like a helmet.

“Wear this, Pinocchio,” he said. “It will make a pretty cap for you.”

“It is very pretty. What is it?”

“It is a very rare shell.”

“But it is only one shell. Where is its mate?”

“It has none. It is a univalve. That means it has only one shell. The tellines have two shells, and are therefore called bivalve. Another kind looks like a box with a cover.”

“But does an animal live in there?”

“Of course. Every shell has its mollusk.”

“Mollusk?” repeated Pinocchio.

“Yes. The small animals that live in shells are called by that name.”

“They have a very soft body. By means of a member, called a foot, they get such a strong hold on rocks that it is very hard to tear them off.”

“Some mollusks have a strong golden-colored thread by which they also hang to rocks. Why, people have even made cloth out of these threads.”

Pinocchio cared little for all this explanation. He looked at himself in the water, and was, after all, very much pleased with himself.

“This cap seems made for me,” he said. “Too bad I have no feather for it.”

“Perhaps we shall find one on our journey,” laughed Tursio.

“Where will you get it? In the sea?”

“Yes, in the sea,” answered Tursio, in a tone which made the impudent marionette almost believe him.

CHAPTER IV

“Well, children, let us hasten. If we talk so much, the sun will rise and find us here. Come, Pinocchio! Jump on my back and let us start.”

There was no need for Tursio to repeat his command. In the twinkling of an eye, Pinocchio was riding on the dolphin’s back, holding on tightly to the dorsal fin.

“Gallop and gallop, my pretty horse,

Swiftly over the boundless sea.

Straight through the water take thy course,

Till my dear father again I see.”

“Gallop and gallop, my pretty horse,

Gallop away under the sea.

Swim to the south, and swim to the north,

Till my dear father again I see.”

So sang Pinocchio gleefully.

Tursio and his swimming companions, with a few shakes of their strong tails, were soon far away from shore. This is not to be wondered at, for dolphins are known to be very swift. Very soon Pinocchio saw nothing but sea and sky. Always holding on tightly to Tursio’s fin, he looked to the right and to the left; but nothing could he see of his dear father.

“Hold fast, Pinocchio,” suddenly cried Tursio.

“All right, Mr. Tursio,” replied Pinocchio, but he could say no more. For suddenly, with a great jump, the dolphin was under water.

What a moment for our poor wooden hero!

“Now I understand it all,” he thought. “This dolphin wants to get me into the sea that he may eat me at his leisure. Oh, poor me! I shall never again see the light of day.”

But marvel of marvels! He suddenly awoke to the fact that, instead of drowning, he was breathing easily. Not only that, but he could actually talk!

“This is strange,” said he. “I have always thought that people would drown in the water.”

“And it is true,” answered the dolphin, “that men usually drown in the sea. But I have given you the power to live under water. You see, then, you have become a real amphibian.”

“A real what? What am I now?”

“An amphibian. That is, you have the power to live both in the air and in the water.”

“But are there such animals?”

“Why, of course, child. Frogs, for example, which belong to the Batrachia family. In the water they breathe with branchiæ, or gills, and in the air with lungs. Usually, however, the name is given only to those mammals that live in the water and move only with great difficulty on the earth. To this class belong the seals and the sea lions.”

“Well, then, I shall never drown.”

“No; and you will have a wonderful journey under the sea. Just hold on to me, and I will carry you. Do not be afraid.”

“Afraid? Of course not. But I don’t like the darkness very much.”

“That is too bad. But the darkness will not last very long. You know, I promised that we should make our journey by the light of the sun. Wait awhile.”

Through the water Tursio went like an arrow, followed by Marsovino and the servant.

Pinocchio, to gain courage, shut his eyes. When he opened them again, wonder of wonders! Very near to him a large sun was moving back and forth. It looked as if it were alive.

“The sun at the bottom of the sea!” yelled Pinocchio, frightened almost to death. “Do you want me to believe that? You must be a wizard playing tricks on me.”

“I am not a wizard, Pinocchio, and the sun is not a trick. It is nothing more nor less than a fish.”

“I never heard of such a thing.”

“And you have been in all the schools of the kingdom! Marsovino, please explain to this boy what a sunfish is.”

“The sunfish is so called because of the bright light that comes from its body. When several of these fish are together, the sea looks as if it were full of little, shining suns.”

As usual, Pinocchio was silent. He was beginning to think that even dolphins knew more than he did.

Stretching out his hand, he touched a small fish that was passing by. Another surprise! As soon as he touched it, it began to swell and swell, until it was as round as a ball. And from this ball, countless points began to stick out.

“Suddenly, with a Great Jump, the Dolphin was under the Water.”

“Oh!” yelled Pinocchio again. “What is it this time?”

“It is only a globefish, my marionette. It is harmless, if you don’t touch it.”

“But why should it turn into a balloon?”

“It does that to protect itself,” answered Tursio. “It is possible for the globefish to do that, because it can take in a large quantity of air. With bristles ready, it can then meet the attacks of other fish, as each point is as sharp as a needle.”

“I never knew that before,” exclaimed Pinocchio, forgetting his previous boast.

Tursio and Marsovino looked at each other and laughed.

CHAPTER V

The night passed without further adventure.

As soon as morning dawned, the four friends rose to the surface. Our marionette was delighted to see the sun again. The pure morning air, though, reminded him that he was hungry. The day before, if you remember, he had eaten very little.

“I should like something to eat,” he said in a weak voice.

“Let us go to breakfast,” answered the dolphin. Gayly he dove into the water, and led the party deep into the sea. After a short swim, he stopped. But, unfortunately, the four friends found themselves in a place where there were very few herring and salmon. These, you know, are the dolphin’s favorite food.

The salmon is a fish that lives both in rivers and in seas. Like the swallow, he looks for warm places in which to pass the winter. So, in large numbers he migrates to the sea at that time of the year, and in the spring he returns to the rivers.

“This morning our breakfast will be light,” observed Tursio, swallowing three herring at once.

“I shall not eat anything. I don’t feel very well. Besides, salmon is the only thing I can eat,” said Marsovino.

Tursio, wishing to please his pupil, started to swim toward two very high rocks. They were so high that their tops stuck out of the water. Very probably they were the base of an island in the middle of the sea. But although he looked here, there, and everywhere, he could find no salmon.

Globicephalous satisfied his hunger with three dozen herring and half a bushel of smelts.

And Pinocchio? Pinocchio this time certainly did not suffer from lack of food.

Tursio had shown him a large rock, attached to which were hundreds of oysters. Some were of the size of a pinhead. Others were as large as a boy’s cap, and these were two years old.

“Go and have your breakfast,” said Tursio.

“Must I eat those horrible-looking things?” asked Pinocchio.

“Open them and see what is inside,” was the reply.

“Pinocchio this Time certainly did not suffer from Lack of Food.”

After Pinocchio had opened and eaten one, he no longer thought of the looks of the oyster shells. He opened and ate so many, that it was a wonder to Marsovino that so small a person could hold so much.

Suddenly Pinocchio noticed numberless tiny, tiny white specks coming out of some oysters. To him they looked like grains of sand. But when he saw the specks moving and trying hard to attach themselves to rocks, he could not help crying out, “O look at the live sand, Tursio.”

“Who told you it is live sand?” asked Tursio. “Those are the newborn oysters, looking for a place on which to spend their lives. Where those small grains hang, there the oysters will live, grow, and die.”

“If no one gets them before that,” added Globicephalous.

“And are all those little dots oysters?”

“Yes. All of them. And many of them come from a single oyster, for an oyster gives forth almost two millions of eggs at a time. These little things have so many enemies, however, that very seldom do more than ten of the millions grow old.”

“Two millions! Then I may eat all I want to,” continued Pinocchio, unmercifully tearing away the poor oysters, young and old.

“Look, Pinocchio,” here called Tursio, pointing to a small fish, colored with brilliant blues and reds. “That is the stickleback. You may have heard that this fish makes a nest, as do birds. Also that the male, not the female, takes care of the eggs.”

“Surely I have,” answered Pinocchio, seriously.

The stickleback seemed to be very much excited. He moved around the nest he had made and watched it anxiously. The cause for this was soon evident. A second stickleback made its appearance from behind the rocks. At once the two engaged in a terrific struggle. They bit each other, used their tails as weapons, and charged each other viciously. During the battle they changed color—to a beautiful blue mottled with silver.

Pinocchio was struck with wonder. “Look! Look! One is wounded.... He falls.... He dies!” he cried. “And look at the other. How quickly he returns to the nest to guard the eggs!”

“But how is it,” here asked Marsovino, “that once I saw a stickleback swallow one of his little ones?”

“If you had followed him, you would later have seen the small fish come safely out of the large one’s mouth,” answered Tursio.

“‘Look! Look! One is Wounded.’”

“But why did the large one swallow the small one?” asked Pinocchio.

“Because the little one probably wanted to run away from the nest. It was too soon, the little one was too young to take care of himself; so the father took the only means he had to save the youngster from an enemy,” patiently explained Tursio.

Just then a small fish attracted the dolphin’s attention.

“Boys,” he said, “do you see that tiny fish? It is called the pilot fish. It is the shark’s most faithful friend. Wherever goes the shark, there goes the pilot fish.”

“Now, Pinocchio,” he continued after a pause, “I shall leave you with Globicephalous. Marsovino and I are going to pay a visit to the dolphin Beluga, who is a great friend of mine. He usually lives in the polar seas, but on account of his health, he has come to warmer waters. We shall return this evening, if all be well. Meet us near those two mountains which are so close together that they form a gorge. You may take a walk with Globicephalous, but be sure to be at that spot to-night.”

“I am ashamed to be seen with a servant,” began Pinocchio.

“You are a fine fellow,” answered Tursio, with sarcasm. “Do you know what you should do? Buy a cloak of ignorance and a throne of stupidity, and proclaim yourself King of False Pride of the Old and the New World!”

With this remark Tursio turned to his pupil, and the two swam away.

CHAPTER VI

“Illustrious Mr. Pinocchio,” began Globicephalous, “if you do not wish to stay with me, I can walk by myself. We can meet to-night.”

“No, Globicephalous, do not leave me,” begged the brave son of Mr. Geppetto, the carpenter. The idea of being alone with all those fish gave him the shivers.

“But you may be ashamed,” began Globicephalous.

“Please forget that. Now listen to me. You are a servant, and you can’t have studied much. Still you may know this: Mr. Tursio does not want me to call him a fish. What is he, if not a fish?”

“Do you think Mr. Tursio would dare tell a lie to such an important personage as you are?” said Globicephalous, who was having some fun all by himself. “Neither Mr. Tursio nor Master Marsovino should be called fish. Nor I either, for that matter.”

“What are you, then? Birds? You have about their shape, and you live in the water. I know that in the sea there are only fish.”

“But you are mistaken. To many animals that live in the sea you cannot give the name fish,” continued Globicephalous. “Fish have a flat body, wedge-shaped fore and aft, as the sailors say, so that they may move rapidly both forward and backward. They are each provided with fins and a tail. These fins and the tail enable the fish to swim about in the water. Some fish have only a few fins, others have more. Then the fish has no lungs. It breathes in the water by means of gills. These are the chief characteristics of fish. But in the sea are many animals which do not possess them.”

“Please explain yourself,” said Pinocchio, who had understood little.

“Very well. Listen. There are the cetaceans, to which belong the whales, the narwhals, and the dolphins; the amphibians, to which belong the frogs and the seals; the mollusks, which is what the little animals that live in shells are called; the crustaceans, which is the correct name for the lobsters, crayfishes, and crabs; and the zoöphytes, among which are the corals, sponges, and the many varieties of polyps. All these, you must know, are not fish.”

“What hard names!” said Pinocchio, to whose wooden head these big names meant but little. “What are you, then?”

“My masters and I are all cetaceans. We cannot stay in the water all the time. We must often come to the surface, because we need air. We have no scales like fishes nor fur like seals, but we have a smooth thick skin under which is a layer of fat.”

“Thank you. But why, if you and your masters are all dolphins, are you so unlike?”

“For the simple reason that there are different kinds of dolphins, just as on the earth there are different kinds of dogs. As you have noticed, we are of different shapes and sizes. We have different names, too. I am a globiceps, my master is a tursian, and the young master is a marsouin.”

“Who would ever think the sea is full of so many wonderful things!”

“Still you have not seen anything of what there is to see! On all sides there are new things. Look at this,” continued Globicephalous, picking up a shell and showing it to Pinocchio.

“Well, what is it? A lobster with a flower riding on its back?”

“Almost that. It is a small crustacean called the hermit crab.”

“Hermit?”

“Yes. It is called that because it shuts itself up in a shell as a hermit does in his cell. This crab’s cell is the empty shell of a mollusk. And do you know why it shuts itself up?”

“No. Please tell me.”

“Because the back part of its body has no hard covering. So the crab, to protect itself, uses the shell as a house and thus goes about safely.”

“He must be a clever little fellow to think of that! But this flower on the top—is that a part of the crab’s body?”

“That is not a flower; it is an animal.”

“An animal! But don’t you see that it has leaves all around?”

“Yes, and in fact it has the name of a flower. It is called a sea anemone. But if you look closely you will see the little leaves, as you called them, moving busily.”

“It is really true!”

“They are tiny arms which the anemone uses to get its food. Throw a piece of meat near them, and you will see them gather themselves together. In a second the meat will disappear into the body of the animal.”

“It seems hardly possible,” said Pinocchio again and again, as he watched the anemone closely.

“This anemone,” continued Globicephalous, “is a great friend of the hermit crab. Whenever you find one of these crabs you will find an anemone on its back. When the crab grows and has to move to a larger shell, do you think, my illustrious Mr. Pinocchio, that he abandons his tenant? Never! The anemone has no legs, so the crab takes her very carefully in his claws and carries her to his new home.”

“It sounds like a fairy story!” Pinocchio exclaimed, wonderstruck.