WHILE the two were talking, Pinocchio kept thinking and thinking of
his dear father. He looked so sad that the dolphin finally said to
him:
“If you grieve so much for the loss of your father, you must be a
good son. We dolphins are very fond of good children, and I more than
others. To prove this to you, I shall only say that the dolphin of
which Pliny speaks was my great-grandfather.”
“Pliny?” said Pinocchio. And he wrinkled his nose, because the name
was not very well known to him.
[Illustration]
“Yes, Pliny the Elder, the famous author of a natural history. He
was a Roman, who was born about one thousand nine hundred years
ago. He was killed in a terrific eruption of Vesuvius, the one that
destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii.”
Vesuvius, Herculaneum, and Pompeii were as familiar to the marionette
as was Pliny. To speak plainly, he knew nothing whatever about them.
But, making believe he understood everything, he said, “Yes, yes!
These things I know. But of what does Pliny speak?”
“He tells us that in the suburbs of Naples a dolphin became very fond
of a boy. Every morning he would wait near shore for the boy. When
the child came, the dolphin would make the youngster climb on his
back. Then the dolphin would swim to Pozzuoli, where was the boy’s
school. Here the boy would go ashore, attend to his school duties,
and when they were over, return to Naples on the dolphin’s back. A
few years later the boy died suddenly. The dolphin, after waiting in
vain for him for many days, grieved himself to death.”
“Is this little story really true?” asked Pinocchio.
“Pliny tells it. Some believe, some do not. But this matters little.
To me, then, as to my parents and their parents, good children
have always been pets. Now listen carefully. Among dolphins, it is
the custom for the young ones to travel with the older ones. I am
a tutor, and I am about to start on a long journey with a young
dolphin. If you wish to come with us to look for your father, you are
more than welcome.”
“My dear Mr. Dolphin, I shall be delighted. May I ask where we are to
go?”
“We are to go on a journey around our world.”
“Around the world!” exclaimed the marionette. “It must be amusing to
see two dolphins walking arm in arm around the streets.”
“Yes,” continued the dolphin, “this young pupil of mine, who belongs
to the Marsoon family, wishes to educate himself. And how can he
better educate himself than by travel?”
“To educate himself!” exclaimed Pinocchio, opening wide his eyes.
That word had always been hard for him to swallow. “Educate! Oh! Oh!
That word I never _did_ like.”
“What are you saying?” asked the dolphin.
“Oh, nothing, nothing! I was just thinking that my teeth are aching.”
“Then it might hurt you to go into the water, and ...” began the
dolphin, kindly.
Pinocchio was perplexed. The idea of looking for his father he
liked very much. Still, when he thought of that word _educate_,
he shivered. He had always hated school as he hated fire. And you
remember, he once lost his feet through playing with fire.
“What a nuisance it will be,” he kept mumbling, thinking of the
sleepy time it would mean for him.
“Tell me, my dear sir,” he then said, just to gain time, “shall we
travel by train?”
“Of course not! How could we? I told you that we are to travel in
_our_ world. That means that we are not to move out of the water.”
“So much the worse,” again thought Master Pinocchio. “Still, I don’t
see what kind of education there can be in seeing only sea and sky!
Good Mr. Dolphin, do you think that, if I go with you, I shall ever
find my father?”
“Perhaps. We may come upon him on some desert island. Who knows? In
any case, it is your sacred duty to look for him. Will you come?”
“Yes!” answered Pinocchio, firmly. “I will go.”
“Are you afraid?”
“Afraid,” laughed Pinocchio, with scorn. “Why, I don’t know what fear
is. Just listen. Once, while traveling, I came face to face with a
lion. Instead of taking to my heels as many would have done, I took a
large stone and threw it into his mouth. It lodged in his throat. The
poor beast looked at me so sadly, that instead of dispatching him, I
took the stone out of his throat, and he went quietly away.”
“Oh, if that is the case,” replied the dolphin, who could swallow the
story almost as well as the lion had swallowed the stone, “if that is
the case, I beg your pardon.”
“Very well. When shall we start?”
“To-night, just after sunset.”
“How can we travel in the dark?” asked Pinocchio. He and darkness had
never been great friends.
“Do not be afraid. We are to travel by the light of the sun.”
“Of the sun? Why, we are to travel by night.”
“Nevertheless,” answered the dolphin, smiling, as dolphins are wont
to smile, “nevertheless, we shall travel by the light not only of one
sun, but of many suns.”
Pinocchio looked at him with his mouth wide open. The dolphin calmly
went on: “I promise to show you the sun in the sea.”
Pinocchio wrinkled his nose, as was his habit when puzzled. “I wonder
if the dolphin is making fun of me,” he thought.
“Now I shall leave you, as I have many things to do before starting.
Remember, this evening,” said the dolphin as he went off.
“Do not be afraid. I will be here,” was Pinocchio’s reply.
“Very well. Good-by, Pinocchio.”
“Until to-night, Mr. Fish.”
The dolphin, who had gone a short distance, returned and said
proudly, “Just to enlighten you a little, I am not a fish.”
Again Pinocchio’s eyes opened wide.
“What then? A horse?”
“Pinocchio, I am surprised at you. No, neither horse nor fish.”
“I never knew of there being anything but fish in the sea.”
“Who told you so? There are many animals, my dear boy, who live in
the sea, but who are _not_ fish.”
“What then? Birds? Elephants? Dogs?”
“Yes, sir, just so. Still, you people who live on the earth and read
books, you ought to know all these things.”
“Well ... yes ... I _do_ read books. In fact, I have read every book
that has ever been written.”
“All of them? Nothing less? Why, I didn’t think a man could do that
if he had a hundred lives to live,” murmured the good old dolphin.
“Well, Pinocchio,” he went on, “remember to-night, and do not forget
that I am not a fish.” With this remark he disappeared in the blue
waters.
Pinocchio looked after him for a long time.
“The sun in the sea? Dolphins not fish? I don’t know why, but I’m
very much afraid I’m being made fun of.”