usand!" repeated the Cat.

"But how can they possibly become so many?" asked Pinocchio wonderingly.

"I'll explain," said the Fox. "You must know that, just outside the City
of Simple Simons, there is a blessed field called the Field of Wonders.
In this field you dig a hole and in the hole you bury a gold piece.
After covering up the hole with earth you water it well, sprinkle a bit
of salt on it, and go to bed. During the night, the gold piece sprouts,
grows, blossoms, and next morning you find a beautiful tree, that is
loaded with gold pieces."

"So that if I were to bury my five gold pieces," cried Pinocchio with
growing wonder, "next morning I should find--how many?"

"It is very simple to figure out," answered the Fox. "Why, you can
figure it on your fingers! Granted that each piece gives you five
hundred, multiply five hundred by five. Next morning you will find
twenty-five hundred new, sparkling gold pieces."

"Fine! Fine!" cried Pinocchio, dancing about with joy. "And as soon as
I have them, I shall keep two thousand for myself and the other five
hundred I'll give to you two."

"A gift for us?" cried the Fox, pretending to be insulted. "Why, of
course not!"

"Of course not!" repeated the Cat.

"We do not work for gain," answered the Fox. "We work only to enrich
others."

"To enrich others!" repeated the Cat.

"What good people," thought Pinocchio to himself. And forgetting his
father, the new coat, the A-B-C book, and all his good resolutions, he
said to the Fox and to the Cat:

"Let us go. I am with you."

CHAPTER 13

The Inn of the Red Lobster

Cat and Fox and Marionette walked and walked and walked. At last, toward
evening, dead tired, they came to the Inn of the Red Lobster.

"Let us stop here a while," said the Fox, "to eat a bite and rest for
a few hours. At midnight we'll start out again, for at dawn tomorrow we
must be at the Field of Wonders."

They went into the Inn and all three sat down at the same table.
However, not one of them was very hungry.

The poor Cat felt very weak, and he was able to eat only thirty-five
mullets with tomato sauce and four portions of tripe with cheese.
Moreover, as he was so in need of strength, he had to have four more
helpings of butter and cheese.

The Fox, after a great deal of coaxing, tried his best to eat a little.
The doctor had put him on a diet, and he had to be satisfied with a
small hare dressed with a dozen young and tender spring