Geppetto was a woodcarver with one coat and no children. One winter he carved a puppet from a log that giggled. "I'll call you Pinocchio," he said. The puppet kicked him, and then it hugged him.
Geppetto sold his only coat to buy Pinocchio a schoolbook. He came home in his shirt, in the snow. "I'll go straight to school," said Pinocchio. "Honest!"
But on the road there was a drum, and a tent, and a puppet show. Pinocchio sold the schoolbook for a ticket. The showman liked a puppet with no strings. He gave him five gold coins for his father.
A Fox with a limp and a Cat with dark glasses heard the coins clink. "Plant them in the Field of Wonders," said the Fox. "By morning you'll have a tree of gold." "Honest!" said the Cat.
Pinocchio dug a hole and planted all five. He watered them with his hat. In the morning there was no tree. There was only a hole, and paw prints going away.
A Fairy with blue hair found him sitting by the hole. "Where are your father's coins?" she asked. "I lost them in the woods," said Pinocchio. "Honest!" And his nose grew as long as a spoon.
"A robber took them. Honest!" Now it was as long as a broom. "A bird took them. Honest!" Now Pinocchio could not turn around in the room. The Fairy sat down and waited.
So he told her all of it: the book, the ticket, the Fox, the hole. With every true word, his nose got shorter. "Your father has gone to sea in a little boat," said the Fairy, "looking for you."
Pinocchio ran to the shore and jumped in. Wood floats, so he swam all night. Then the sea opened like a door. A fish as big as a hill swallowed him whole.
Inside it was as dark as a cupboard. Far away, one candle was burning. At a little table, eating sardines, sat Geppetto. "Did you go to school?" he asked.
"No," said Pinocchio. "I sold the book. I lost the coins. I lied to a Fairy three times." Geppetto held up the candle and looked at his nose. It did not move. "I came to take you home," said Pinocchio. "Honest."
The great fish slept with its mouth open. They tiptoed out over its tongue, and Geppetto rode home on Pinocchio's back, because wood floats. That night the Fairy came by. In the morning a real boy woke up in the puppet's bed, and his nose was just the right size.
