top him! stop him!" shouted Geppetto; but the people in the street,
seeing a wooden puppet running like a race-horse, stood still in
astonishment to look at it, and laughed and laughed.

At last, as good luck would have it, a soldier arrived who, hearing the
uproar, imagined that a colt had escaped from his master. Planting
himself courageously with his legs apart in the middle of the road, he
waited with the determined purpose of stopping him and thus preventing
the chance of worse disasters.

When Pinocchio, still at some distance, saw the soldier barricading the
whole street, he endeavored to take him by surprise and to pass between
his legs. But he failed entirely.

The soldier without disturbing himself in the least caught him cleverly
by the nose and gave him to Geppetto. Wishing to punish him, Geppetto
intended to pull his ears at once. But imagine his feelings when he
could not succeed in finding them. And do you know the reason? In his
hurry to model him he had forgotten to make any ears.

He then took him by the collar and as he was leading him away he said to
him, shaking his head threateningly:

"We will go home at once, and as soon as we arrive we will settle our
accounts, never doubt it."

At this information Pinocchio threw himself on the ground and would not
take another step. In the meanwhile a crowd of idlers and inquisitive
people began to assemble and to make a ring around them.

Some of them said one thing, some another.

"Poor puppet!" said several, "he is right not to wish to return home!
Who knows how Geppetto, that bad old man, will beat him!"

And the others added maliciously:

"Geppetto seems a good man! but with boys he is a regular tyrant! If
that poor puppet is left in his hands he is quite capable of tearing him
in pieces!"

It ended in so much being said and done that the soldier at last set
Pinocchio at liberty and led Geppetto to prison. The poor man, not being
ready with words to defend himself, cried like a calf and as he was
being led away to prison sobbed out:

"Wretched boy! And to think how I labored to make him a well-conducted
puppet! But it serves me right! I should have thought of it sooner!"

[Illustration]

CHAPTER IV

THE TALKING-CRICKET SCOLDS PINOCCHIO

While poor Geppetto was being taken to prison for no fault of his, that
imp Pinocchio, finding himself free from the clutches of the soldier,
ran off as fast as his legs could carry him. That he