Carlo Collodi: The Adventures of Pinocchio

CHAPTER 29 (continued)

Poor Pinocchio! The rest of the night he had to spend with one foot through the door and the other one in the air.

As dawn was breaking, the door finally opened. That brave little animal, the Snail, had taken exactly nine hours to go from the fourth floor to the street. How she must have raced!

"What are you doing with your foot through the door?" she asked the Marionette, laughing.

"It was a misfortune. Won't you try, pretty little Snail, to free me from this terrible torture?"

"My boy, we need a carpenter here and I have never been one."

"Ask the Fairy to help me!"

"The Fairy is asleep and does not want to be disturbed."

"But what do you want me to do, nailed to the door like this?"

"Enjoy yourself counting the ants which are passing by."

"Bring me something to eat, at least, for I am faint with hunger."

"Immediately!"

In fact, after three hours and a half, Pinocchio saw her return with a silver tray on her head. On the tray there was bread, roast chicken, fruit.

"Here is the breakfast the Fairy sends to you," said the Snail.

At the sight of all these good things, the Marionette felt much better.

What was his disgust, however, when on tasting the food, he found the bread to be made of chalk, the chicken of cardboard, and the brilliant fruit of colored alabaster!

He wanted to cry, he wanted to give himself up to despair, he wanted to throw away the tray and all that was on it. Instead, either from pain or weakness, he fell to the floor in a dead faint.