CHAPTER III
Whenhe 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 saythat 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 dearmarionette. 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 Tursiofamily, 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 doyouexpect 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 neverlearnsanything will neverbeanything.”
“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 toldyoualready. 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 meetthe 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.