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WHEN he 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.
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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 say that 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 dear
marionette. 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 Tursio family, 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 do _you_ expect 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 never _learns_ anything will never
_be_ anything.”
“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 told _you_ already. 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 meet the 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.
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