Pinocchio in Africa Part 8

THE marionette was on the point of filling his mouth a second time, when he heard a frightful roar directly under his feet. The shock almost tumbled him down headfirst. Had he fallen, how unfortunate it would have been! He would have gone straight into the deep mouth of an African lion which was ready to devour him at one gulp.

"Oh, mercy!" cried the marionette. And the lion gave another dreadful roar which seemed to say: "Mercy indeed! I have you now, you little thief."

"Dear lion," pleaded Pinocchio, "have pity on a poor orphan lad who is nearly starving!"

The lion roared still louder. "Who has given you permission to take what belongs to another without having earned it by useful and honest work? In this world he who does not work must starve."

"You are right, my dear lion, you are right. I am ready to pay to the last cent for all the honey I eat, but please don't seem so angry or I shall die of fear."

Then the lion stopped roaring, and sitting down upon the ground, he looked at the marionette as if to say: "Well, what are you going to do about it? Are you coming down or not?"

"Listen, my dear lion," answered Pinocchio; "so long as you stay there, I shall not come down. If you want me to go away and leave the honey, remove yourself a hundred miles or so, and then I will obey you."

The lion did not move.

For almost an hour Pinocchio sat glued to the tree, not daring to eat the honey or to come down to the waiting lion. The hot rays of the sun beat upon him. He felt that he must die, for hunger, fear, and heat seemed ready to destroy him.

"Surely there must be away out of this," he thought. "That lion must have in him some spark of kindness. He has made up his mind to keep me company, and perhaps it is my duty to thank him."

Then the marionette raised his hand to ask permission to speak. It would have been better had he kept still.

At this gesture the lion uttered a roar so loud that it shook the whole forest. He began to lash the ground with his tail, sending up a cloud of dust that nearly choked the marionette, and repeating all the while in lion language, "If you move hand or foot, you will die!"

Pinocchio sat still. Another hour pa.s.sed in silence. Pinocchio still suffered from the heat and from hunger. Both honey and shade were within easy reach, and he could enjoy neither.

"What an obstinate beast!" he muttered. "How stupid he is to wait there! There is enough room in the forest for us both."

But the lion did not move, and Pinocchio's suffering was great. He was sure now that he was going to die, and he looked sadly at those wooden legs which had carried him through so many adventures. There was the shade, but he could not reach it. There was the honey that must not be touched.

"Eat! eat!" said the honey. "Come! come!" said the shade.

Fortunately a new character now arrived on the scene. A magnificent giraffe came along through the bushes, eating the tender shoots as it approached the spot.Pinocchio saw the giraffe and recognized it at once from a picture of one he had seen in school. The lion saw it also. What should he do? Continue to watch the marionette, or attack and carry off the giraffe? He decided to take the giraffe. As the animal raised its head to bite off the leaves from a tall acacia, the lion leaped at its throat and killed it. Seizing the body in his powerful jaws, the lion disappeared through the forest, and Pinocchio was left behind to have his fill of honey. He ate as he had never eaten before.

When he could eat no longer he came down from the tree, but how strange he felt! His eyes were dim, and his head began to swim, while his legs went here and there in every direction. He could not even talk clearly.

"African honey plays jokes upon those who eat too much of it!" he seemed to hear some one say. He turned to see who it was that had spoken to him, but no one was there. The next moment he fell heavily to the ground as if he had been knocked down with a club.

"That is what happens to greedy boys!" continued the voice of the little bird who had shown him the honey, but Pinocchio lay fast asleep.

25. Pinocchio Is Brought Before The King

PINOCCHIO had slept for hours when he was aroused by strange sounds.

Were these the voices of human beings.

"Yah! Yah! Hoi! Hoi! Uff! Uff!"

What could it possibly be? The marionette opened an eye, but quickly shut it again when he saw a number of coal-black faces turned toward him.

"What do these ugly people want of me?" he asked himself, as he lay there perfectly still.

When Pinocchio next opened his eyes he saw to his great surprise that the men had formed a circle about him. At their chief's command they began to dance. It was all so funny that Pinocchio could hardly keep from laughing. Then the chief made a sign, at which the savages advanced toward the marionette, took him up by his arms and legs, and started away with him.

"This is not so bad," thought the marionette.

After a time his bearers laid him gently upon the ground and commenced to examine him. Pinocchio decided to make believe he was dead.

For that reason he kept his eyes shut tightly and lay still.

Suddenly there was a great noise. He was startled. Opening one eye, he saw approaching a chief followed by a crowd of attendants. Judging from the manner in which the new arrivals were received, they were persons of high rank. At their approach the savages knelt down, raised their hands high in the air, and bent their foreheads to the ground.

A man stepped out from the ranks and came toward Pinocchio. He examined the marionette from head to foot, while all the others looked on in silence.

When the examination was over the marionette hoped to be left in peace, but another approached him and went through the same performance. Then came a third, a fourth, a fifth, and so on.

Pinocchio was somewhat tired of this. As the last one came up he muttered, "Now I shall see what they are going to do with me."

The man who had first examined Pinocchio now approached him again, and calling the bearers, said, in a tongue which, curiously enough, the marionette understood, "Turn the little animal over!"

Upon hearing himself called an animal, Pinocchio was seized with a mad desire to give his tormentor a kick, but he thought better of it.

The bearers advanced, took the marionette by the shoulders, and rolled him over.

"Easy! easy! this bed is not too soft," Pinocchio said to himself.

A second examination followed, and then another command, "Roll him over again!"

"What do you take me for, a top?" muttered the marionette in a burst of rage. But he p.r.i.c.ked up his ears when the man who had been rolling him over turned to another and said, "Your majesty!"

Indeed!" thought Pinocchio, "we are not dealing with ordinary persons! We are beginning to know great people. Let me hear what he has to say about me to his black majesty," and the marionette listened with the deepest attention.

"Your majesty, my knowledge of the n.o.ble art of cooking a.s.sures me that this creature" - and he gave Pinocchio a kick - "is an animal of an extinct race. It has been turned into wood, carried by the water to the beach, and then brought here by the wind."

"Not so bad for a cook," thought Pinocchio. He felt half inclined to strike out and hit the nose of the wise savage, who had again knelt down to examine him.

"Your majesty," continued the cook, "this little animal is dead, because if it were not dead - "

"It would be alive," Pinocchio muttered. "What a beast! How stupid!"

"Because if it were not dead, it would not be so hard. To conclude, had it not been made of wood, I could have cooked it for your majesty's dinner."

Pinocchio said to himself: "Listen to this black rascal! Eaten alive! What kind of country have I fallen into? What vulgar people!

It's lucky for me that I am made of wood!"

His majesty then commanded that as the animal was not good to eat it should be buried.

Immediately three or four of the men began to dig a hole, while the unfortunate marionette, half dead with fright, tried to form some plan of escape. The time pa.s.sed. The hole was dug, and the poor fellow could not think of any plan. Run away! But how? And if they found out that he was alive would he not be cooked and eaten? The marionette did not know what to do.

In the meantime two men had raised him from the ground and stood ready to throw him into the hole. Then in spite of himself, the marionette began to shout at the top of his lungs: "Stop! Stop! I will not be buried alive! Help! Help! My good Fatina! - Fatina! - my Fatina!