nd called to him angrily:

"What do you want at such an hour?"

"Would you be kind enough to give me a little bread?"

"Wait there, I will be back directly," said the little old man, thinking
it was one of those rascally boys who amuse themselves at night by
ringing the house-bells to rouse respectable people who are sleeping
quietly.

After half a minute the window was again opened and the voice of the
same little old man shouted to Pinocchio:

"Come underneath and hold out your cap."

Pinocchio pulled off his cap; but, just as he held it out, an enormous
basin of water was poured down on him, soaking him from head to foot as
if he had been a pot of dried-up geraniums.

He returned home like a wet chicken, quite exhausted with fatigue and
hunger; and, having no longer strength to stand, he sat down and rested
his damp and muddy feet on a brazier full of burning embers.

And then he fell asleep, and whilst he slept his feet, which were
wooden, took fire, and little by little they burnt away and became
cinders.

Pinocchio continued to sleep and to snore as if his feet belonged to
some one else. At last about daybreak he awoke because some one was
knocking at the door.

"Who is there?" he asked, yawning and rubbing his eyes.

"It is I!" answered a voice.

And Pinocchio recognized Geppetto's voice.

CHAPTER VII

GEPPETTO GIVES HIS OWN BREAKFAST TO PINOCCHIO

Poor Pinocchio, whose eyes were still half shut from sleep, had not as
yet discovered that his feet were burnt off. The moment, therefore, that
he heard his father's voice he slipped off his stool to run and open the
door; but, after stumbling two or three times, he fell his whole length
on the floor.

And the noise he made in falling was as if a sack of wooden ladles had
been thrown from a fifth story.

"Open the door!" shouted Geppetto from the street.

"Dear papa, I cannot," answered the puppet, crying and rolling about on
the ground.

"Why can't you?"

"Because my feet have been eaten."

"And who has eaten your feet?"

"The cat," said Pinocchio, seeing the cat, who was amusing herself by
making some shavings dance with her forepaws.

"Open the door, I tell you!" repeated Geppetto. "If you don't, when I
get into the house you shall have the cat from me!"

"I cannot stand up, believe me. Oh, poor me! poor me! I shall have to
walk on my knees for the rest of my life!"

Geppetto, believing that all this lamentation was only ano