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Magnitogorsk Puppet and Actor Theater “Pinocchio”

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Tolstoy A.N. Tale of the wooden boy.

A fairy tale about a wooden boy carved from a log by Carlo’s father, his adventures in the theater of Karabas Barabas, meeting with scoundrels Alice the Fox and Basilio the Cat, Malvina and Artemon the poodle, Tortila the tortoise and Duremar.

Table of Table:

• ♦ Joseeppe, a log, which was squealing by a human voice
• ♦ Giuseppe gives a talking log by Carlo
• ♦ Carlo Makes a wooden doll and calls it Pinocchio

9187 ♦ Pinocchio almost dies due to his own frivolity. Papa Carlo glues colored paper clothes for him and buys the alphabet

• ♦ Pinocchio sells the alphabet and buys a ticket to the puppet theater
• ♦ During the performance of the comedy, the dolls recognize Pinocchio
• ♦   Signor Karabas Barabas, instead of burning Pinocchio, gives him five gold coins and lets him go home
• ♦   On the way home, Pinocchio meets two beggars – the cat Basilio and the fox Alice
• 0
• 0 ♦ In the tavern “Three Minnows”
• ♦   Buratino is attacked by robbers
• ♦   Robbers hang Pinocchio on a tree
• ♦   A girl with blue hair returns Pinocchio to life
• ♦ The girl with blue hair wants to educate Pinocchio
• ♦ Pinocchio ends up in the Land of Fools
• ♦ The police grab Pinocchio and do not let him say a single word in his defense
• ♦ Pinocchio gets acquainted with the inhabitants of the four gold coins and receives a golden key from the turtle Tortila
• ♦ Pinocchio flees from the Land of Fools and meets a fellow sufferer
• ♦ Pierrot tells how he, riding a hare, got into the Land of Fools
• ♦ ♦ Pinocchio and Pierrot come to Malvina, but they immediately have to run away together with Malvina and the poodle Artemon
• ♦ ♦ A terrible fight at the edge of the forest
• ♦ ♦ In a cave
• ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
• Pinocchio decides to find out Karabasa from Karabasa golden key
• ♦ Pinocchio learns the secret of the golden key
• ♦ Pinocchio is in despair for the first time in his life, but everything ends happily
• ♦ Pinocchio finally returns home with his father Carlo, Malvina, Piero and Artemon
• ♦ Karabas Barabas breaks into the closet under the stairs
• ♦ What they found behind the secret door
• ♦ New puppet theater gives the first performance On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea lived the old carpenter Giuseppe, nicknamed the Gray Nose. One day he came across a log, an ordinary log for a hearth in winter.

  – Not a bad thing, – Giuseppe said to himself, – you can make something like a leg for a table out of it … Giuseppe put on glasses wrapped with twine – since the glasses were also old – turned the log in his hand and began to hew it with a hatchet. But as soon as he began to hew, someone’s unusually thin voice squeaked:

  — Oh-oh, be quiet, please!

  Giuseppe pushed his spectacles to the tip of his nose, began to look around the workshop – no one … He looked under the workbench – no one … He looked in the basket with chips – no one … He stuck his head out the door – no one on the street …

  “Is it really my imagination? thought Giuseppe. “Who could squeak that?..”

  He took the hatchet again and again, — just hit the log…

  — Oh, it hurts, I say! howled a thin voice.

  This time, Giuseppe was frightened in earnest, his glasses even sweated… He examined all the corners in the room, climbed even into the hearth and, turning his head, stared into the chimney for a long time.

  – There is no one …

  “Maybe I drank something inappropriate and my ears are ringing?” – Giuseppe thought to himself … No, today he didn’t drink anything inappropriate … Calming down a bit, Giuseppe took the planer, hit the back of it with a hammer so that the blade came out in moderation – not too much and not too little, put the log on the workbench and only led the chips …

  — Oh, oh, oh, oh, listen, what are you pinching? a tiny voice squeaked desperately…

  Giuseppe dropped the planer, backed away, backed away and sat down right on the floor: he guessed that the thin voice was coming from inside the log.

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  Giuseppe gives a talking log to his friend Carlo

  At this time, Giuseppe was visited by his old friend, an organ grinder named Carlo. Once upon a time, Carlo, in a wide-brimmed hat, walked around the cities with a beautiful hurdy-gurdy and earned his bread by singing and music. Now Carlo was already old and ill, and his hurdy-gurdy had long since broken.

  “Hello, Giuseppe,” he said as he entered the studio.

  — Why are you sitting on the floor?

  — And, you see, I lost a small screw… Come on! Giuseppe answered and looked sideways at the log. “Well, how are you, old man?”

  “Bad,” replied Carlo. – I keep thinking – how can I earn a living … If only you could help me, advise me, or something …

  – What is easier, – Giuseppe said cheerfully and thought to himself: “I’ll get rid of this damned log now.” – What is easier: you see – an excellent log lies on the workbench, take this log, Carlo, and take it home …

  “Heh heh,” Carlo replied dejectedly, “what next?” I’ll bring home a log, but I don’t even have a hearth in the closet.

  — I’m talking to you, Carlo… Take a knife, cut a doll out of this log, teach her to say all sorts of funny words, sing and dance, and carry it around the yards. Earn a piece of bread and a glass of wine.

  At that time, on the workbench where the log lay, a cheerful voice squeaked:

  — Bravo, well thought out, Gray Nose!

  Giuseppe shook with fear again, and Carlo just looked around in surprise – where did the voice come from?

  — Well, thank you, Giuseppe, for your advice. Come on, perhaps your log.

  Then Giuseppe grabbed a piece of wood and hastily handed it to his friend. But either he awkwardly pushed it, or it jumped up and hit Carlo on the head.

  — Ah, here are your gifts! Carlo shouted indignantly.

  — Sorry, buddy, I didn’t hit you.

  — So I hit myself on the head?

  — No, my friend — the log itself must have hit you.

  – You’re lying, you hit …

  — No, not me…

  — I knew that you were a drunkard, Gray Nose, — said Carlo, — and you are also a liar.

  — Oh, you swear! Giuseppe called out. — Come on, come closer!..

  — Come closer yourself, I’ll grab your nose!..

  Both old men pouted and started jumping at each other. Carlo grabbed Giuseppe by the bluish nose. Giuseppe grabbed Carlo by the gray hair that grew around his ears.

  After that they started hitting each other really well under the mitts. A shrill voice on the workbench at that time squeaked and teased:

  — Get it, get it right!

  Finally the old people were tired and out of breath. Giuseppe said:

  — Let’s make up, shall we?

  Carlo answered:

  — Well, let’s make up…

  The old people kissed. Carlo took the log under his arm and went home.

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  Carlo makes a wooden doll and calls it Pinocchio

  Carlo lived in a closet under the stairs, where he had nothing but a beautiful hearth in the wall opposite the door.

  But the beautiful hearth, and the fire in the hearth, and the cauldron boiling over the fire were not real — they were painted on a piece of old canvas.

  Carlo entered the closet, sat down on the only chair by the legless table, and turning the log this way and that, began to cut a doll out of it with a knife.

  “What should I call her? thought Carlo. I’ll call her Pinocchio. This name will bring me happiness. I knew one family – they were all called Pinocchio: father – Pinocchio, mother – Pinocchio, children – also Pinocchio … They all lived cheerfully and carelessly … “

  First of all, he carved the hair on the log, then the forehead, then the eyes…

  Suddenly the eyes opened and stared at him… why are you looking at me so strangely?

  But the doll was silent, probably because it did not yet have a mouth. Carlo chiseled his cheeks, then chiseled his nose – an ordinary one…0003

  – Not good, long …

  And he began to cut off the tip at the nose. It wasn’t there!

  The nose twirled, twisted, and remained so – a long, long, curious, sharp nose.

  Carlo took up his mouth. But as soon as he cut out his lips, his mouth immediately opened:

  — Hee-hee-hee, ha-ha-ha!

  And a narrow red tongue poked out of it, teasingly.

  Carlo, no longer paying attention to these tricks, continued to plan, cut, pick. I made the doll a chin, neck, shoulders, torso, arms …

  But as soon as he finished carving the last finger, Pinocchio began to beat Carlo’s bald head with his fists, pinching and tickling.

  “Listen,” said Carlo sternly, “because I haven’t finished making you yet, and you’ve already begun to play around… What will happen next… Eh?..

  And he looked sternly at Pinocchio. And Pinocchio, with round eyes, like a mouse, looked at Papa Carlo.

  Carlo made long legs with big feet out of splinters. On this, having finished the work, he put the wooden boy on the floor to teach him how to walk.

  Pinocchio swayed, swayed on his thin legs, took one step, took another step, hop, hop, straight to the door, across the threshold and out into the street.

  Carlo, worried, followed him:

  — Hey, rascal, come back!..

  Where are you going! Pinocchio ran down the street like a hare, only his wooden soles – knock-knock, knock-knock – tapped on the stones. ..

  – Hold him! shouted Carlo.

  Passers-by laughed, pointing fingers at the running Pinocchio. At the crossroads stood a huge policeman with a twisted mustache and a three-cornered hat.

  Seeing the running wooden man, he spread his legs wide, blocking the whole street with them. Pinocchio wanted to slip between his legs, but the policeman grabbed him by the nose and held him there until Papa Carlo arrived… jackets …

  – Pinocchio did not want to stick his legs up out of his jacket pocket on such a fun day with all the people – he deftly twisted, plopped down on the pavement and pretended to be dead …

  “Hey, hey,” the policeman said, “this looks like a bad business!

  Passers-by began to gather. Looking at the lying Pinocchio, they shook their heads.

  – Poor thing, – some said, – must be from hunger …

  – Carlo beat him to death, – others said, – this old organ grinder only pretends to be a good person, he is bad, he is an evil person . ..

  Hearing all this , a mustachioed policeman grabbed the unfortunate Carlo by the collar and dragged him to the police station.

  Carlo dusted his shoes and groaned loudly:

  — Oh, oh, in my grief I made a wooden boy!

  When the street was empty, Pinocchio lifted his nose, looked around and hopped home…

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  The talking cricket gives Pinocchio wise advice

  Running to the closet under the stairs, Pinocchio plopped down on the floor near the leg of the chair.

  — Why else would you come up with something like that?

  Do not forget that Pinocchio was only the first day of his birth. His thoughts were small, small, short, short, trifling, trifling.

  At this time, they heard:

  — Kri-kri, kri-kri, kri-kri…

  Pinocchio turned his head, looking around the closet.

  — Hey, who’s here?

  – Here I am – kri-kri…

  Pinocchio saw a creature that looked a bit like a cockroach, but with a head like a grasshopper. It sat on the wall above the hearth and crackled softly, — kri-kri, — looked with bulging iridescent eyes, as if made of glass, moved its antennae.

  — Hey, who are you?

  “I am the Talking Cricket,” the creature replied, “I have been living in this room for over a hundred years.

  — I’m the boss here, get out of here.

  — Well, I will go, although I am sad to leave the room where I have lived for a hundred years, — said the Talking Cricket, — but before I go, listen to useful advice.

  – I really need the advice of the old cricket …

  – Ah, Pinocchio, Pinocchio, – said the cricket, – quit pampering, obey Carlo, don’t run away from home without work and start going to school tomorrow. Here’s my advice. Otherwise, terrible dangers and terrible adventures await you. For your life, I will not give even a dead dry fly.

  — Why? Pinocchio asked.

  — But you will see — why, — said the Talking Cricket.

  — Oh, you hundred-year-old insect-cockroach! shouted Pinocchio. — More than anything, I love scary adventures. Tomorrow, at dawn, I’ll run away from home — climb fences, destroy bird nests, tease boys, drag dogs and cats by the tails… I’ll think of something else!

  – Why? Pinocchio asked again.

  — Because you have a stupid wooden head.

  Then Pinocchio jumped on a chair, from the chair to the table, grabbed a hammer and launched it into the head of the Talking Cricket.

  The smart old cricket sighed heavily, wiggled its whiskers, and crawled away behind the hearth—out of this room forever.

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  Pinocchio almost dies due to his own frivolity. Papa Carlo glues colored paper clothes for him and buys the alphabet

  After the incident with the Talking Cricket in the closet under the stairs, it became completely boring. The day dragged on and on. Pinocchio’s stomach was also boring. He closed his eyes and suddenly saw fried chicken on a plate. He quickly opened his eyes – the chicken on the plate disappeared.

  He closed his eyes again — he saw a plate of semolina porridge with raspberry jam in half. He opened his eyes – there is no plate with semolina porridge in half with raspberry jam.

  Then Pinocchio realized that he was terribly hungry. He ran to the hearth and stuck his nose into a pot boiling over the fire, but Pinocchio’s long nose pierced the pot through, because, as we know, the hearth, the fire, the smoke, and the pot were painted by poor Carlo on a piece of old canvas.

  Pinocchio pulled out his nose and looked through the hole — behind the canvas in the wall there was something that looked like a small door, but it was so covered with cobwebs that it was impossible to make out anything.

  Pinocchio went to rummage in all corners to see if he could find a crust of bread or a chicken bone gnawed by a cat.

  Oh, nothing, nothing poor Carlo had in store for dinner!

  Suddenly he saw a chicken egg in a basket with shavings. He grabbed it, put it on the windowsill and with his nose – bale-bale – broke the shell.

  A voice squeaked from inside the egg:

  — Thank you, little wooden man!

  A chick with fluff instead of a tail and with merry eyes crawled out of a broken shell.

  – Goodbye! Mama Kura has been waiting for me in the yard for a long time.

  And the chicken jumped out the window – they only saw him.

  — Oh, oh, — Pinocchio shouted, — I want to eat!..

  The day has finally stopped dragging on. The room became dark.

  Pinocchio was sitting near the painted fire and slowly hiccupped from hunger.

  He saw – from under the stairs, from under the floor, a fat head appeared. A gray animal on low paws leaned out, sniffed and crawled out.

  Slowly it went to the basket with chips, climbed in, sniffing and rummaging – angrily rustled chips. It must have been looking for the egg that Pinocchio broke.

  Then it got out of the basket and approached Pinocchio. She sniffed it, twisting her black nose with four long hairs on each side. Pinocchio did not smell of edible food – it went past, dragging a long thin tail.

  Well, how could he not be grabbed by the tail! Pinocchio immediately grabbed it.

  It turned out to be the old evil rat Shushara.

  Frightened, she, like a shadow, rushed under the stairs, dragging Pinocchio, but saw that it was only a wooden boy, turned around and, with furious anger, pounced on him to gnaw his throat.

  Now Pinocchio got scared, let go of the cold rat’s tail and jumped onto a chair. The rat is behind him.

  He jumped from his chair to the windowsill. The rat is behind him.

  From the windowsill he flew across the whole closet to the table. The rat follows him… And then, on the table, she grabbed Pinocchio by the throat, knocked him down, holding him in her teeth, jumped to the floor and dragged him under the stairs, into the underground.

  – Papa Carlo! – Pinocchio only managed to squeak.

  – I’m here! answered a loud voice.

  The door opened and Papa Carlo entered. He pulled off a wooden shoe from his foot and threw it at the rat.

  Shushara, releasing the wooden boy, gritted her teeth and disappeared.

  — This is what mischief leads to! grumbled Papa Carlo, picking up Pinocchio from the floor. He looked to see if everything was intact. He put him on his knees, took an onion out of his pocket, peeled it. — Here, eat!..

  — Pinocchio sunk his hungry teeth into the onion and ate it, crunching and smacking his lips. After that, he began to rub his head against Papa Carlo’s bristly cheek.

  – I’ll be smart – prudent, Papa Carlo … Talking Cricket told me to go to school.

  – Nice idea, kid…

  – Papa Carlo, but I’m naked, wooden, the boys at school will laugh at me.

  “Hey,” Carlo said, and scratched his bristly chin. – You’re right, baby!

  He lit a lamp, took scissors, glue and scraps of colored paper. I cut and glued a brown paper jacket and bright green pants. He made shoes from an old top and a hat – a cap with a tassel – from an old sock. All this put on Pinocchio:

  – Wear it to your health!

  – Papa Carlo, – said Pinocchio, – but how can I go to school without the ABC?

  — Hey, you’re right, kid…

  Papa Carlo scratched his head. He threw his only old jacket over his shoulders and went outside.

  He returned soon, but without a jacket. In his hand he held a book with large letters and entertaining pictures.

  – Here’s the alphabet for you. Learn for health.

  — Papa Carlo, where is your jacket?

  — I sold the jacket. Nothing, I’ll get by and so … Only you live on your health.

  Pinocchio buried his nose in the good hands of Pope Carlo.

  — I’ll study, grow up, buy you a thousand new jackets…

  Pinocchio wanted with all his might to live this first evening in his life without pampering, as the Talking Cricket taught him.

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  Pinocchio sells the alphabet and buys a ticket to the puppet theater

  Early in the morning Pinocchio put the alphabet in his purse and skipped to school.

  On the way, he did not even look at the sweets displayed in the shops – triangles of poppy seeds on honey, sweet cakes and lollipops in the form of roosters impaled on a stick.

  He didn’t want to look at the boys flying kites…

  The striped cat Basilio was crossing the street, which could be grabbed by the tail. But Pinocchio refrained from doing so.

  The closer he came to the school, the louder nearby, on the Mediterranean coast, cheerful music played.

  “Pee-pee-pee,” the flute squeaked.

  “La-la-la-la,” the violin sang.

  “Ding-ding,” the brass cymbals tinkled.

  – Boom! – beat the drum.

  You need to turn right to the school, the music was heard to the left.

  Pinocchio began to stumble. The legs themselves turned to the sea, where:

  – Pee-pee, peeeee …

  – Jin-lala, jin-la-la …

  – Boom!

  “The school won’t go anywhere,” Pinocchio began to say loudly to himself, “I’ll just take a look, listen, and run to school. ”

  What is the spirit, he started to run to the sea. He saw a linen booth adorned with colorful flags flapping in the sea wind.

  At the top of the booth, four musicians were dancing.

  Downstairs, a plump smiling aunt was selling tickets.

  There was a large crowd near the entrance – boys and girls, soldiers, lemonade sellers, nurses with babies, firemen, postmen – everyone, everyone was reading a big poster:

  PUPPET THEATER

  ONLY ONE PERFORMANCE

  HURRY!

  HURRY UP!

  HURRY UP!

  Pinocchio pulled the sleeve of one boy:

  — Could you please tell me how much the entrance ticket costs?

  The boy answered slowly through his teeth:

  — Four soldi, a wooden man.

  — You see, boy, I forgot my wallet at home… Can you lend me four soldos? Pinocchio said through tears. – Buy my wonderful jacket from me for four soldi …

  — A paper jacket for four soldi? Looking for a fool

  – Well, then my pretty cap . ..

  – Your cap is only for catching tadpoles … Look for a fool.

  Pinocchio’s nose even got cold – he wanted so much to get into the theatre.

  — Boy, in that case, take my new alphabet for four soldi…

  — With pictures?

  – With fancy pictures and big letters.

  — Come on, perhaps, — said the boy, took the alphabet and reluctantly counted out four soldi.

  Pinocchio ran up to a plump, smiling aunt and squeaked:

  — Listen, give me a ticket in the first row for the only performance of the puppet theater.

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  During the performance of the comedy, the puppets recognize Pinocchio

  Pinocchio sat in the front row and looked with delight at the lowered curtain.

  Dancing little men, girls in black masks, scary bearded people in caps with stars, the sun like a pancake with a nose and eyes, and other entertaining pictures were painted on the curtain.

  The bell was struck three times and the curtain went up.

  There were cardboard trees on the small stage to the right and left. Above them hung a lantern in the form of a moon and was reflected in a piece of mirror on which floated two swans made of cotton wool with golden noses.

  A small man in a long white shirt with long sleeves appeared from behind a cardboard tree. His face was sprinkled with powder as white as tooth powder. He bowed to the most respectable audience and said sadly:

  – Hello, my name is Piero … Now we will play a comedy in front of you called: “The girl with blue hair, or Thirty-three cuffs.” I will be beaten with a stick, slapped and slapped on the back of the head. It’s a very funny comedy…

  Another man jumped out from behind another cardboard tree, all checkered like a chessboard. He bowed to the most respectable audience:

  — Hello, I am Harlequin!

  After that, he turned to Piero and gave him two slaps in the face, so sonorous that powder fell from his cheeks.

  — What are you whining about, fool?

  “I’m sad because I want to get married,” Piero answered.

  — Why didn’t you get married?

  — Because my fiancee ran away from me…

  “Ha-ha-ha,” Harlequin rolled with laughter, “they saw a fool! ..

  He grabbed a stick and beat Piero down.

  — What is the name of your fiancee?

  — Aren’t you going to fight anymore?

  — Well, no, I have just started.

  – In that case, her name is Malvina, or the girl with blue hair.

  – Ha-ha-ha! – Harlequin rolled again and let go of Pierrot three slaps on the back of the head. “Listen, most respectable audience… Are there really girls with blue hair?

  But then, turning to the audience, he suddenly saw on the front bench a wooden boy with a mouth to his ears, a long nose, wearing a cap with a tassel…

  — Look, it’s Pinocchio! shouted the Harlequin, pointing his finger at him.

  – Alive Pinocchio! yelled Pierrot, waving his long sleeves.

  A lot of dolls jumped out from behind cardboard trees – girls in black masks, scary bearded men in caps, furry dogs with buttons instead of eyes, hunchbacks with noses like cucumbers . ..

  All of them ran up to the candles standing along the ramp, and peering, chattered:

  — It’s Pinocchio! This is Pinocchio! To us, to us, cheerful rascal Pinocchio!

  Then he jumped from the bench to the prompter booth, and from it to the stage.

  The puppets grabbed him, started hugging, kissing, pinching… Then all the puppets sang “The Polka Bird”:

  The Polka Bird was dancing
  On the lawn at an early hour.
  Nose to the left, tail to the right –
  This is the Karabas polka.
  Two beetles – on the drum,
  A toad blows on a double bass.
  Nose to the left, tail to the right –
  This is the Barabas polka.
  The bird danced the polka,
  Because it was cheerful.
  Nose to the left, tail to the right, –
  That’s how the field was.

  The audience was moved. One nurse even shed a tear. One firefighter wept uncontrollably.

  Only the boys on the back benches got angry and stamped their feet:

  — Enough licking, not little ones, continue the show!

  Hearing all this noise, a man leaned out from behind the stage, so terrible in appearance that one could freeze with horror at the mere sight of him.

  His thick, unkempt beard dragged along the floor, his bulging eyes rolled, his huge mouth clanged his teeth, as if it were not a man, but a crocodile. In his hand he held a seven-tailed whip.

  It was the owner of the puppet theatre, doctor of puppet science signor Karabas Barabas.

  – Ha-ha-ha, goo-goo-goo! he roared at Pinocchio. “So it was you who interfered with the performance of my beautiful comedy?

  He grabbed Pinocchio, took it to the storeroom of the theater and hung it on a nail. Returning, he threatened the puppets with a seven-tailed whip so that they continued the performance.

  The puppets somehow finished the comedy, the curtain closed, the audience dispersed.

  Signor Karabas Barabas, doctor of puppet sciences, went to the kitchen to have supper.

  Putting the lower part of his beard in his pocket so as not to interfere, he sat down in front of the hearth, where a whole rabbit and two chickens were roasting on a spit.

  Thinking about his fingers, he touched the roast, and it seemed to him raw.

  There was little firewood in the hearth. Then he clapped his hands three times.

  Harlequin and Pierrot ran in.

  – Bring me this idler Pinocchio, – said Signor Karabas Barabas. “It’s made of dry wood, I’ll throw it on the fire, my roast will roast alive.”

  Harlequin and Pierrot fell to their knees, begging to spare the unfortunate Pinocchio.

  — Where is my whip? shouted Karabas Barabas.

  Then, weeping, they went to the pantry, removed Pinocchio from the nail and dragged it into the kitchen.

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  Signor Karabas Barabas, instead of burning Pinocchio, gives him five gold coins and lets him go home

  When the dolls dragged Pinocchio and threw them on the floor near the grate of the hearth, Signor Karabas Barabas, terribly snuffling through his nose, stirred the coals with a poker.

  Suddenly his eyes were filled with blood, his nose, then his whole face gathered transverse wrinkles. There must have been a piece of coal in his nostrils.

  — Aap… aap… aap… — howled Karabas Barabas, rolling his eyes, — aap-chhi!

  When the Doctor of Puppet Science started sneezing, he could not stop and sneezed fifty, and sometimes a hundred times in a row.

  Such unusual sneezing weakened him and made him kinder.

  Pierrot furtively whispered to Pinocchio:

  — Try talking to him between sneezes…

  — Aap-chi! Aap-chi! Karabas Barabas gasped for air with his open mouth and sneezed with a crack, shaking his head and stamping his feet.

  Everything was shaking in the kitchen, glass rattled, pans and pots on nails swayed.

  Between these sneezes Pinocchio began to howl in a plaintive thin voice:

  – Poor me, unfortunate, no one feels sorry for me!

  – Stop crying! shouted Karabas Barabas. “You’re bothering me… Aap-chi!”

  “Bless you, signor,” Pinocchio sobbed.

  — Thank you… Are your parents still alive? Aap-chi!

  – I never, never had a mother, signor. Oh, I’m unhappy! – And Pinocchio screamed so piercingly that Karabas Barabas’s ears began to prick like a needle.

  He stamped his soles.

  — Stop screaming, I tell you!.. Aap-chi! What if your father is still alive?

  My poor father is still alive, sir.

  — I can imagine how it would be for your father to know that I roasted a rabbit and two chickens on you… Aap-chi!

  — My poor father will soon die of hunger and cold anyway. I am his only support in old age. Have pity, let me go, sir.

  – Ten thousand devils! shouted Karabas Barabas. – There can be no question of any pity. Rabbit and chicken must be fried. Get into the hearth.

  – Signor, I can’t do that.

  — Why? asked Karabas Barabas, only for Pinocchio to continue talking and not squealing in his ears.

  — Signor, I already tried once to stick my nose into the hearth and only pierced a hole.

  — What nonsense! Karabas Barabas was surprised. “How could you poke a hole in the hearth with your nose?”

  – Because, signor, the hearth and the pot over the fire were painted on a piece of old canvas.

  – Aap-chi! Karabas Barabas sneezed with such a noise that Pierrot flew off to the left, Harlequin to the right, and Pinocchio spun around like a top.

  — Where did you see the hearth and the fire and the pot painted on a piece of canvas?

  — In my father’s closet, Carlo.

  – Your father is Carlo! – Karabas Barabas jumped up from his chair, waved his arms, his beard flew apart. “So, it means that there is a secret room in old Carlo’s closet…

  But here Karabas Barabas, apparently not wanting to let the secret out, shut his mouth with both fists. And so he sat for some time, looking with bulging eyes at the dying fire.

  “Okay,” he said at last, “I’ll have undercooked rabbit and raw chicken for dinner.” I give you life, Pinocchio. Not only that…

  He reached under his beard into his vest pocket, pulled out five gold coins and handed them to Pinocchio:

  — Not only that… Take this money and take it to Carlo. Bow and say that I ask him not to die of hunger and cold in any case, and most importantly, not to leave his closet, where there is a hearth painted on a piece of old canvas. Go, sleep, and run home early in the morning.

  Pinocchio put five gold coins in his pocket and answered with a polite bow:

  — Thank you, sir. You couldn’t trust the money into more reliable hands…

  Harlequin and Pierrot took Pinocchio to the doll’s bedroom, where the dolls again began to hug, kiss, push, pinch and again hug Pinocchio, who so incomprehensibly escaped a terrible death in the hearth.

  He whispered to the dolls:

  — There is some mystery here.

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  On the way home Pinocchio meets two beggars – the cat Basilio and the fox Alice

  Early in the morning Pinocchio counted the money – there were as many gold coins as the fingers on the hand – five.

  Clutching the gold pieces in his fist, he hopped home and sang:

  — I’ll buy Papa Carlo a new jacket, I’ll buy a lot of poppy triangles, candy roosters on sticks.

  When the puppet-show booth and the waving flags disappeared from his eyes, he saw two beggars dejectedly wandering along the dusty road: the fox Alice, hobbled on three legs, and the blind cat Basilio.

  It was not the same cat that Pinocchio met on the street yesterday, but another one, also Basilio and also striped. Pinocchio wanted to pass by, but the fox Alice said to him touchingly:

  – Hello, kind Pinocchio! Where are you in such a hurry?

  – Home, to Papa Carlo.

  The fox sighed even more touchingly:

  — I don’t know if you will find poor Carlo alive, he is completely ill from hunger and cold…

  — Did you see that? Pinocchio opened his fist and showed five gold coins.

  Seeing the money, the fox involuntarily reached for it with its paw, and the cat suddenly opened its blind eyes wide, and they sparkled like two green lanterns.

  But Pinocchio did not notice any of this.

  — Kind, pretty Pinocchio, what are you going to do with this money?

  – I will buy a jacket for Papa Carlo … I will buy a new alphabet …

  – The alphabet, oh, oh! said Alice the fox, shaking her head. – This teaching will not bring you to good . .. So I studied, studied, and – look – I walk on three paws.

  – ABC! Basilio the cat grumbled and snorted angrily through his whiskers.

  — Through this accursed teaching, I lost my eyes…

  An elderly crow was sitting on a dry branch near the road. She listened, listened and croaked:

  — They lie, they lie!..

  Basilio the cat immediately jumped high, knocked the crow off the branch with its paw, tore out half of its tail, as soon as it flew away. Again, he pretended to be blind.

  — What are you talking about, cat Basilio? Pinocchio asked in surprise.

  “The eyes are blind,” answered the cat, “I thought it was a dog in a tree…

  The three of them went along the dusty road. The fox said:

  – Clever, prudent Pinocchio, would you like to have ten times more money?

  — Of course I want to! And how is it done?

  – Simple. Go with us.

  — Where to?

  – To the Land of Fools.

  Pinocchio thought a little.

  — No, I should probably go home now.

  — Please, we don’t pull you by the rope, — said the fox, — so much the worse for you.

  “So much the worse for you,” grumbled the cat.

  “You are your own enemy,” said the fox.

  “You’re your own enemy,” grumbled the cat.

  — Otherwise your five gold pieces would turn into a lot of money…

  Pinocchio stopped, his mouth gaped…

  — You’re lying!

  The fox sat on its tail, licked its lips:

  — I’ll explain to you now. There is a magical field in the Land of Fools, it is called the Field of Miracles … Dig a hole in this field, say three times: “Crex, fex, pex”, put gold in the hole, fill it with earth, sprinkle salt on top, fill it well and go to sleep. In the morning, a small tree will grow out of the hole, instead of leaves, gold coins will hang on it. Clear?

  Pinocchio even jumped:

  — You’re lying!

  “Let’s go, Basilio,” the fox said, turning her nose offendedly, “they don’t believe us—and we shouldn’t…

  —No, no,” Buratino shouted, “I believe, I believe!. . Let’s go to the Land of Fools as soon as possible!”

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  In the tavern “Three Minnows”

  Pinocchio, the fox Alice and the cat Basilio went downhill and walked, walked – through fields, vineyards, through a pine grove, went to the sea and again turned away from the sea, through that the grove, the vineyards …

  The town on the hill and the sun above it could be seen from the right, then from the left…

  Fox Alice said, sighing:

  — Oh, it’s not so easy to get into the Land of Fools, you’ll wipe off all your paws…

  In the evening they saw from the side the road is an old house with a flat roof and with a sign over the entrance: “THREE MIND TANK”.

  The owner jumped out to meet the guests, tore off his cap from his bald head and bowed low, asking them to come in.

  “It would not hurt us to have a bite to eat, at least with a dry crust,” said the fox.

  “At least they would treat me with a crust of bread,” repeated the cat.

  We went into the tavern, sat down near the hearth, where all sorts of things were fried on skewers and frying pans.

  The fox constantly licked his lips, the cat Basilio put his paws on the table, his mustachioed muzzle on his paws, stared at the food.

  “Hey, host,” Pinocchio said importantly, “give us three crusts of bread…”

  “Cheerful, witty Pinocchio is joking with you, master,” the fox giggled.

  “He’s joking,” the cat growled.

  – Give me three crusts of bread and to them – that wonderfully fried lamb, – said the fox, – and also that caterpillar, and a couple of pigeons on a spit, and, perhaps, more livers …

  – Six pieces of the fattest carp, – ordered the cat, – and small raw fish for a snack.

  In short, they took everything that was on the hearth: there was only one crust of bread left for Pinocchio.

  Alice the fox and Basilio the cat ate everything together with the bones. Their bellies were swollen, their muzzles were glossy.

  “Let’s rest for an hour,” the fox said, “and we’ll leave at exactly midnight. Don’t forget to wake us up, master…

  The fox and the cat collapsed on two soft beds, snoring and whistling. Pinocchio crouched in a corner on a dog bed…

  He dreamed of a tree with round golden leaves…

  Only he held out his hand…

  — Hey, signor Pinocchio, it’s time, it’s already midnight…

  There was a knock at the door. Pinocchio jumped up and rubbed his eyes. On the bed – no cat, no fox – empty.

  The owner explained to him:

  — Your venerable friends deigned to get up earlier, refreshed themselves with a cold cake and left…

  — Did they tell me to tell you anything?

  – They even ordered you, signor Pinocchio, without wasting a minute, to run along the road to the forest … will pay?

  — Oh, — Pinocchio squeaked, — how much?

  – Exactly one golden…

  Pinocchio immediately wanted to sneak past his feet, but the owner grabbed the skewer – his bristly mustache, even the hair above his ears stood on end.

  – Pay, you scoundrel, or I’ll stab you like a beetle!

  Had to pay one gold out of five. Sniffing in frustration, Pinocchio left the accursed tavern.

  The night was dark – that’s not enough – black as soot. Everything around was asleep. Only above Pinocchio’s head the night bird Splyushka flew inaudibly.

  Touching his nose with a soft wing, Splyushka repeated:

  – Don’t believe, don’t believe, don’t believe!

  He stopped in annoyance:

  — What do you want?

  – Don’t trust the cat and the fox…

  – Come on! robbers

  A greenish light appeared at the edge of the sky – the moon was rising.

  A black forest was visible ahead.

  Pinocchio went faster. Someone behind him also moved faster.

  He started running. Someone ran after him in silent gallops.

  He turned around.

  Two men were chasing him, they had bags on their heads with cut holes for the eyes.

  One, shorter, brandished a knife, the other, taller, held a pistol, whose muzzle expanded like a funnel . ..

  — Ai-ai! squealed Pinocchio and, like a hare, ran towards the black forest.

  Stop, stop! the robbers shouted.

  Pinocchio, although he was desperately frightened, nevertheless guessed – he put four gold coins in his mouth and turned off the road to a hedge overgrown with blackberries … But then two robbers grabbed him …

  – Trick or Treat!

  Pinocchio, as if not understanding what they wanted from him, only often, often breathed through his nose. The robbers were shaking him by the collar, one was threatening him with a pistol, the other was rummaging through his pockets.

  — Where is your money? growled the tall one.

  – Money, brat! the short one hissed.

  – I’ll tear it to shreds!

  – Head off!

  Here Pinocchio shook with fear so that the gold coins rang in his mouth.

  — That’s where his money is! howled the robbers. – He has money in his mouth …

  One grabbed Pinocchio by the head, the other by the legs. They started throwing it up. But he only clenched his teeth tighter.

  Turning him upside down, the robbers banged his head on the ground. But that didn’t matter to him either.

  The shorter robber began to pry his teeth with a wide knife. Just about already, and unclenched … Pinocchio contrived – with all his strength he bit him on the hand … But it turned out not to be a hand, but a cat’s paw. The robber howled wildly. Pinocchio at this time wriggled out like a lizard, rushed to the fence, dived into the prickly brambles, leaving shreds of pants and jackets on the thorns, climbed over to the other side and rushed to the forest.

  At the edge of the forest, the robbers overtook him again. He jumped up, grabbed a swinging branch and climbed up a tree. The robbers are behind him. But bags on their heads prevented them.

  Climbing to the top, Pinocchio swayed and jumped to a neighboring tree. The robbers follow him…

  But both immediately broke loose and flopped to the ground.

  While they were groaning and scratching, Pinocchio slid off the tree and began to run, moving his legs so quickly that they were not even visible.

  The trees cast long shadows from the moon. The whole forest was striped…

  Pinocchio either disappeared into the shadows, or his white cap flickered in the moonlight.

  So he got to the lake. The moon hung over the mirror water, like in a puppet theater.

  Pinocchio rushed to the right – swampy. To the left – swampy… And behind the branches crackled again…

  – Hold it, hold it!

  – Here it is!

  All he had to do was throw himself into the water. At this time, he saw a white swan sleeping near the shore, with its head under its wing. Pinocchio rushed into the lake, dived and grabbed the swan by the paws.

  — Hoo, — the swan cackled, waking up, — what indecent jokes! Leave my paws alone!

  The swan opened its huge wings, and at the time when the robbers were already grabbing Pinocchio by the legs sticking out of the water, the swan importantly flew across the lake.

  On the other side Pinocchio let go of his paws, plopped down, jumped up and over the moss bumps, through the reeds, he started to run straight to the big moon – over the hills.

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  The robbers hang Pinocchio on a tree

  Pinocchio could hardly move his legs from fatigue, like a fly on the windowsill in autumn.

  Suddenly, through the hazel branches, he saw a beautiful lawn and in the middle of it, a small, moonlit house with four windows. The sun, moon and stars are painted on the shutters. Large azure flowers grew all around.

  Paths strewn with clean sand. A thin jet of water spouted from the fountain, and a striped ball danced in it.

  Pinocchio climbed onto the porch on all fours. Knocked in the door.

  It was quiet in the house. He knocked harder – they must have been sound asleep there.

  At this time, robbers jumped out of the forest again. They swam across the lake, the water poured from them in streams. Seeing Pinocchio, the short robber hissed vilely like a cat, the tall one yelped like a fox…

  Pinocchio pounded on the door with his hands and feet: raised nose.

  Her eyes were closed.

  — Girl, open the door, the robbers are chasing me!

  — Oh, what nonsense! said the girl, yawning with her pretty mouth. — I want to sleep, I can’t open my eyes…

  She raised her hands, stretched sleepily and disappeared into the window.

  Pinocchio fell in despair with his nose into the sand and pretended to be dead.

  The robbers jumped up:

  — Aha, now you won’t get away from us! If during the chase they had not dropped a knife and a pistol, it would have been possible to end the story about the unfortunate Pinocchio at this place.

  Finally, the robbers decided to hang him upside down, tied a rope to his feet, and Pinocchio hung on an oak branch… They sat down under the oak tree, holding out their wet tails, and waited for the golden ones to fall out of his mouth. ..

  leaves on oak.

  Pinocchio swayed like a piece of wood. The robbers are tired of sitting on wet tails…

  — Hang on, my friend, until the evening, — they said ominously and went to look for some roadside tavern.

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  A girl with blue hair brings Pinocchio back to life

  Behind the branches of the oak where Pinocchio hung, the dawn spread. The grass in the clearing turned gray, the azure flowers were covered with dew drops.

  The girl with curly blue hair leaned out the window again, wiped her sleepy pretty eyes and opened them wide.

  This girl was the most beautiful puppet in the puppet theater of Signor Karabas Barabas.

  Unable to endure the host’s rude antics, she ran away from the theater and settled in a secluded house in a dove-gray clearing.

  Animals, birds and some of the insects were very fond of her, probably because she was a well-mannered and meek girl.

  The animals supplied her with everything necessary for life.

  The mole brought nourishing roots.

  Mice – sugar, cheese and pieces of sausage.

  The noble poodle dog Artemon brought rolls.

  Magpie stole chocolates in silver papers for her at the market.

  Frogs brought lemonade in nutshells.

  Hawk – fried game.

  Maybugs – different berries.

  Butterflies – pollen from flowers – to powder.

  Caterpillars squeezed toothpaste out of themselves and lubricated creaking doors.

  Swallows destroyed wasps and mosquitoes near the house…

  So, opening her eyes, the girl with blue hair immediately saw Pinocchio hanging upside down.

  She put her hands to her cheeks and cried out:

  — Ah, ah, ah!

  The noble poodle Artemon appeared under the window, wagging his ears. He had just cut his back half of his torso, which he did every day. The curly hair on the front half of the body was combed, the tassel at the end of the tail was tied with a black bow. On the front paw is a silver watch.

  – I’m ready!

  Artemon turned his nose to the side and raised his upper lip above his white teeth.

  – Call someone, Artemon! the girl said. — It is necessary to remove poor Pinocchio, take it to the house and invite a doctor…

  — Ready!

  Artemon was so ready to spin that damp sand flew from his hind legs… He rushed to the anthill, woke up the whole population with barking and sent four hundred ants to gnaw through the rope on which Pinocchio was hanging.

  Four hundred serious ants crawled in single file along a narrow path, climbed an oak tree and gnawed through the rope.

  Artemon picked up the falling Pinocchio with his front paws and carried him into the house… Putting Pinocchio on the bed, he rushed at a dog gallop into the thickets of the forest and immediately brought the famous doctor Owl, the paramedic Zhaba and the folk healer Bogomol, who looked like a dry twig, from there.

  The owl put her ear to Pinocchio’s chest.

  “The patient is more dead than alive,” she whispered, and turned her head back one hundred and eighty degrees.

  The toad kneaded Pinocchio with its wet paw for a long time. Thinking, she looked with bulging eyes at once in different directions. Spanked with big mouth:

  — The patient is more alive than dead…

  The folk healer Mantis, with his hands dry as blades of grass, began to touch Pinocchio.

  “One of two things,” he whispered, “either the patient is alive or he is dead. If he is alive, he will remain alive or he will not remain alive. If he is dead, he can be revived or not revived.

  “Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, fluttered its soft wings and flew away to the dark attic.

  All of Toad’s warts swelled out of anger.

  — What disgusting ignorance! she croaked and, slapping her belly, jumped into the damp cellar.

  The healer Mantis, just in case, pretended to be a withered twig and fell out of the window.

  The girl threw up her pretty hands:

  — Well, how can I treat him, citizens?

  “Castor oil,” Toad croaked from underground.

  – Castor oil! laughed the Owl in the attic contemptuously.

  “Either castor oil or not castor oil,” Mantis rasped outside the window.

  Then, skinned and bruised, the unfortunate Pinocchio groaned:

  — Castor oil is not needed, I feel very well!

  A girl with blue hair bent over him with care:

  — Pinocchio, I beg you — close your eyes, hold your nose and drink.

  — I don’t want, I don’t want, I don’t want!..

  — I’ll give you a piece of sugar…

  Immediately a white mouse climbed up the blanket onto the bed, it was holding a piece of sugar.

  “You will get it if you obey me,” said the girl.

  – Give me one saaaaaaar…

  – Understand, if you don’t take your medicine, you might die…

  — I’d rather die than drink castor oil…

  Then the girl said sternly, in an adult voice:

  — Hold your nose and look at the ceiling… One, two, three.

  She poured castor oil into Pinocchio’s mouth, immediately slipped him a piece of sugar and kissed him.

  — That’s all…

  Noble Artemon, who loved everything prosperous, grabbed his tail with his teeth, twirled under the window, like a whirlwind of a thousand paws, a thousand ears, a thousand shining eyes.

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  Girl with blue hair wants to educate Pinocchio

  The next morning Pinocchio woke up cheerful and healthy as if nothing had happened.

  A girl with blue hair was waiting for him in the garden, sitting at a small table covered with doll dishes. Her face was freshly washed, her upturned nose and cheeks were full of pollen.

  While waiting for Pinocchio, she angrily brushed away the bored butterflies:

  — Come on, really…

  She looked at the wooden boy from head to toe, grimaced. She told him to sit down at the table and poured cocoa into a tiny cup.

  Pinocchio sat down at the table, twisted his leg under him. He stuffed almond cakes whole into his mouth and swallowed without chewing. He climbed right into the vase of jam with his fingers and sucked them with pleasure. When the girl turned away to toss a few crumbs at the elderly ground beetle, he grabbed the coffee pot and drank all the cocoa from the spout. He choked and spilled cocoa on the tablecloth.

  Then the girl said to him sternly:

  — Pull your leg out from under you and lower it under the table. Do not eat with your hands, there are spoons and forks for this.

  She fluttered her eyelashes in indignation.

  — Who is raising you, please tell me?

  — When Carlo’s dad brings up, and when no one.

  — Now I will take care of your education, be calm.

  “Here you are!” thought Pinocchio.

  On the grass around the house the poodle Artemon was running after small birds. When they perched on the trees, he lifted his head, jumped up and barked with a howl.

  “He’s good at chasing birds,” Pinocchio thought enviously.

  Sitting properly at the table gave him goosebumps all over his body.

  At last the painful breakfast was over. The girl told him to wipe the cocoa from his nose. She straightened the folds and bows on the dress, took Pinocchio by the hand and led him into the house – to educate.

  And the merry poodle Artemon was running around on the grass and barking; the birds, not in the least afraid of him, whistled merrily; the breeze flew merrily over the trees.

  “Take off your rags, they’ll give you a decent jacket and pants,” said the girl.

  Four tailors — a single craftsman, a gloomy crayfish Sheptallo, a gray woodpecker with a tuft, a large stag beetle and a mouse Lisetta — sewed a beautiful boyish costume from old girls’ dresses.

  Sheptallo cut, Woodpecker poked holes and sewed with its beak. The stag twisted the threads with its hind legs, Lisette gnawed through them.

  Pinocchio was ashamed to put on girlish rags, but he had to change his clothes anyway. Sniffling, he slipped four gold coins into the pocket of his new jacket.

  – Now sit down with your hands in front of you. Don’t hunch over,” said the girl, and took a piece of chalk. – We will do arithmetic … You have two apples in your pocket …

  Pinocchio winked slyly:

  — You’re lying, not a single one…

  — I’m saying, — the girl patiently repeated, — suppose you have two apples in your pocket. Someone took one apple from you. How many apples do you have left?

  Two.

  Think carefully.

  Pinocchio frowned – he thought so well. — Two…

  — Why?

  — I won’t give Nekt an apple, even though he fights!

  “You don’t have any talent for mathematics,” the girl said ruefully. Let’s take a dictation.

  She raised her pretty eyes to the ceiling.

  – Write: “And the rose fell on the paw of Azor.” Have you written? Now read this magic phrase in reverse.

  We already know that Pinocchio never even saw a pen and an inkwell. The girl said: “Write,” and he immediately stuck his nose into the inkwell and was terribly frightened when an ink blot fell from his nose onto the paper.

  The girl clasped her hands, she even burst into tears.

  – You nasty rascal, you should be punished!

  She leaned out the window:

  — Artemon, take Pinocchio to the dark closet!

  Noble Artemon appeared at the door showing white teeth. He grabbed Pinocchio by the jacket and, backing away, dragged him into the closet, where large spiders hung in the corners in the cobwebs. He locked him there, growled to give him a good scare, and again rushed off after the birds.

  The girl, throwing herself on the doll’s lace bed, wept because she had to act so cruelly to the wooden boy. But if you have already taken up education, you need to bring the matter to the end.

  Pinocchio was grumbling in a dark closet:

  — What a stupid girl… There was a teacher, you think… She has a porcelain head, a body stuffed with cotton. .. , listen…

  He raised his ink-stained nose and in the darkness he could make out a bat hanging upside down under the ceiling.

  — What do you want?

  – Wait for the night, Pinocchio.

  – Hush, hush, – the spiders rustled in the corners, – do not shake our nets, do not scare away our flies …

  Pinocchio sat down on a broken pot, resting his cheek. He was in trouble and worse than this, but he resented the injustice.

  — Is this how children are brought up?.. This is torment, not upbringing… So don’t sit there and don’t eat like that… The child, perhaps, hasn’t mastered the primer yet, — she grabs the inkwell right away… And the dog probably chases the birds, — to him nothing…

  The bat squeaked again:

  — Wait for the night, Pinocchio, I’ll take you to the Land of Fools, where your friends are waiting for you — a cat and a fox, happiness and fun. Wait for the night

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  Pinocchio ends up in the Land of Fools

  A girl with blue hair came to the closet door.

  – Pinocchio, my friend, are you finally repenting?

  He was very angry, besides, he had other things on his mind.

  — I really need to repent! You won’t wait…

  — Then you’ll have to sit in the closet until the morning…

  The girl sighed bitterly and left.

  The night has come. The owl laughed in the attic. The toad crawled out of the underground to slap its belly on the reflections of the moon in the puddles.

  The girl lay down to sleep in a lace bed and sobbed for a long time in distress falling asleep.

  Artemon, with his nose under his tail, was sleeping at the door of her bedroom.

  The pendulum clock in the house struck midnight.

  The bat fell from the ceiling.

  – It’s time, Pinocchio, run! squeaked in his ear. – In the corner of the closet there is a rat passage to the underground … I’m waiting for you on the lawn.

  She flew out the skylight. Pinocchio rushed to the corner of the closet, getting tangled in cobwebs. The spiders hissed angrily after him.

  He crawled underground through a rat passage. The move was getting narrower and narrower. Pinocchio was now barely squeezing underground … And suddenly he flew headfirst into the underground.

  There he almost fell into a rat trap, stepped on the tail of a snake that had just drunk milk from a jug in the dining room, and jumped out through the cat’s hole onto the lawn.

  A mouse flew noiselessly over the azure flowers.

  – Follow me, Pinocchio, to the Land of Fools!

  Bats do not have a tail, so the mouse does not fly straight, like birds, but up and down – on membranous wings, up and down, like a devil; her mouth is always open, so as not to waste time, along the way she catches, bites, swallows alive mosquitoes and night butterflies.

  Pinocchio ran after her up to her neck in the grass; wet gruel lashed his cheeks.

  Suddenly the mouse rushed high to the round moon and from there shouted to someone:

  — I brought it!

  Pinocchio immediately flew head over heels down a steep cliff. Rolled, rolled and plopped into mugs.

  Scratched, mouth full of sand, sat up with bulging eyes.

  — Wow!..

  Basilio the cat and Alice the fox were standing in front of him.

  “Brave, daring Pinocchio must have fallen from the moon,” said the fox.

  “It’s strange how he survived,” the cat said grimly.

  Pinocchio was delighted with his old acquaintances, although it seemed suspicious to him that the cat’s right paw was tied with a rag, and the fox’s entire tail was stained with swamp mud.

  — Every cloud has a silver lining, — said the fox, — but you ended up in the Land of Fools…

  And she pointed with her paw at the broken bridge across the dry stream. On the other side of the stream, among the heaps of garbage, dilapidated houses, stunted trees with broken branches and bell towers slanting in different directions were visible …

  “The famous hare-fur jackets for Papa Carlo are sold in this city,” the fox sang licking his lips, “abcs with colored pictures… Oh, what sweet pies and lollipop cockerels are sold on sticks! You haven’t lost your money yet, chubby Pinocchio, have you?

  Fox Alice helped him to his feet; thinking paw, cleaned his jacket and led him across the broken bridge. Basilio the cat hobbled grimly behind.

  It was already the middle of the night, but no one was sleeping in the City of Fools.

  Skinny dogs in burrs roamed along the crooked, dirty street, yawning from hunger:

  — E-he-he…

  Goats with tattered hair on their sides nibbled the dusty grass near the pavement, shaking their stubs of tails.

  — B-e-e-e-e-yes…

  Hanging her head, a cow stood; her bones stuck through her skin.

  “Muuuch…” she repeated thoughtfully.

  Plucked sparrows were sitting on the hummocks of mud – they did not fly away – at least crush them with your feet …

  Chickens with torn tails staggered from exhaustion …

  On the other hand, ferocious police bulldogs in three-cornered hats and prickly collars stood at attention at the crossroads.

  They shouted at the hungry and mangy inhabitants:

  — Hurry! Keep right! Don’t delay!..

  The fox was dragging Pinocchio down the street. They saw well-fed cats in gold glasses walking under the moon on the sidewalk, arm in arm with cats in caps.

  The fat Fox, the governor of this city, was walking with his nose up, and with him was a haughty fox holding a night violet flower in its paw.

  Fox Alice whispered:

  — Those who sowed money on the Field of Miracles are walking around… Today is the last night when you can sow. By morning you will have collected a lot of money and bought all sorts of things … Let’s go quickly.

  The fox and the cat led Pinocchio to a wasteland where there were broken pots, torn shoes, holey galoshes and rags…

  – Golden luggage.

  – Sprinkle with salt.

  – Scoop up from a puddle, fields well.

  – Don’t forget to say “crex, fex, pex”…

  Pinocchio scratched his ink-stained nose.

  — And you go away after all…

  — My God, we don’t even want to look where you bury your money! – said the fox.

  — God forbid! said the cat.

  They moved a little and hid behind a pile of rubbish.

  Pinocchio dug a hole. He said three times in a whisper: “Crex, fex, pex,” put four gold coins in the hole, fell asleep, took a pinch of salt from his pocket, sprinkled it on top. He took a handful of water from a puddle and poured it.

  And sat down to wait for the tree to grow…

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  The police grab Pinocchio and do not let him say a single word in his defense

  Fox Alice thought that Pinocchio would go to sleep, but he was still sitting on the garbage heap, patiently sticking out the nose.

  Then Alice told the cat to stay on guard, and she herself ran to the nearest police station.

  There, in a smoky room, at a table covered in ink, the duty bulldog was snoring thickly.

  The fox said to him in the most well-intentioned voice:

  “Mr. courageous duty officer, is it possible to detain one homeless thief? A terrible danger threatens all the rich and respectable citizens of this city.

  The bulldog on duty barked so awake that there was a puddle under the fox out of fear.

  – Worrrish! Gum!

  The fox explained that a dangerous thief Pinocchio was found in a wasteland.

  The attendant, still growling, called. Two Doberman Pinschers burst in, detectives who never slept, did not trust anyone, and even suspected themselves of criminal intent.

  The attendant ordered them to deliver a dangerous criminal dead or alive to the department. The detectives answered briefly:

  – Tyaf!

  And they rushed to the wasteland with a special cunning gallop, bringing their hind legs to the side.

  The last hundred steps they crawled on their stomachs and at once rushed at Buratino, grabbed him under the armpits and dragged him to the department.

  Pinocchio dangled his legs, begged to be told – for what? for what? The detectives answered:

  — They’ll sort it out there…

  The fox and the cat, wasting no time, dug out four gold coins. The fox began to divide the money so cleverly that the cat had one coin, she had three.

  The cat silently dug its claws into her face.

  The fox hugged him tightly with her paws. And for a while they both rolled around in a ball in the wasteland. Cat and fox hair flew in tufts in the moonlight.

  Having peeled off each other’s sides, they divided the coins equally and disappeared from the city that same night.

  In the meantime, the detectives brought Pinocchio to the department. The duty bulldog got out from behind the table and searched his pockets himself. Finding nothing but a piece of sugar and crumbs of almond cake, the duty officer sniffed bloodthirstyly at Pinocchio:

  — You have committed three crimes, scoundrel: you are homeless, without a passport and unemployed. Take him outside the city and drown him in a pond.

  The detectives answered:

  — Tyaf!

  Pinocchio tried to tell about Papa Carlo, about his adventures. All in vain! The detectives picked him up, dragged him at a gallop outside the city, and threw him off the bridge into a deep, dirty pond full of frogs, leeches, and water beetle larvae.

  Pinocchio plopped into the water, and the green duckweed closed over him.

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  Pinocchio meets the inhabitants of the pond, finds out about the loss of four gold coins and receives a golden key from the turtle Tortila

  We must not forget that Pinocchio was wooden and therefore could not drown. Nevertheless, he was so frightened that he lay on the water for a long time, all covered with green duckweed.

  The inhabitants of the pond gathered around him: black-bellied tadpoles known for their stupidity, water beetles with oar-like hind legs, leeches, larvae that ate everything that came across, up to themselves, and, finally, various small ciliates.

  The tadpoles tickled him with hard lips and chewed the tassel on his cap with pleasure. The leeches crawled into the pocket of the jacket. One water beetle climbed several times on his nose, which stuck high out of the water, and from there threw himself into the water – like a swallow.

  Small ciliates, wriggling and hastily trembling with hairs that replaced their arms and legs, tried to pick up something edible, but they themselves fell into the mouths of water beetle larvae.

  Pinocchio finally got tired of this, he splashed his heels on the water:

  – Let’s go! I’m not your dead cat.

  The inhabitants shied away in all directions. He rolled over onto his stomach and swam.

  Large-mouthed frogs sat on the round leaves of water lilies under the moonlight, staring at Pinocchio with bulging eyes.

  “Some kind of cuttlefish is swimming,” one croaked.

  “Nose like a stork,” croaked another.

  “It’s a sea frog,” a third croaked.

  Pinocchio, in order to rest, climbed onto a large leaf of a water lily. He sat down on it, tightly clasped his knees and said, chattering his teeth:

  – All the boys and girls have drunk milk, are sleeping in warm beds, I am sitting alone on a wet leaf … Give me something to eat, frogs.

  Frogs are known to be very cold-blooded. But it is vain to think that they have no heart. When Pinocchio, chattering his teeth, began to talk about his unfortunate adventures, the frogs jumped up one after another, flashed their hind legs and dived to the bottom of the pond.

  They brought from there a dead beetle, a dragonfly wing, a piece of ooze, a grain of crayfish caviar, and a few rotten roots.

  Having put all these edible things in front of Pinocchio, the frogs again jumped onto the leaves of the water lilies and sat like stone, raising their large-mouthed heads with bulging eyes.

  Pinocchio sniffed and tasted the frog treat.

  — I vomited, — he said, — what a disgusting thing!..

  Then the frogs again all at once — splashed into the water…

  The green duckweed on the surface of the pond hesitated, and a large, terrible snake head appeared. She swam to the leaf where Pinocchio was sitting.

  The tassel on his hat stood on end. He almost fell into the water from fear.

  But it wasn’t a snake. It was not afraid of anyone, an elderly turtle Tortila with blind eyes.

  — Oh, you brainless, gullible boy with short thoughts! Tortila said. – You should sit at home and study hard! Has brought you to the Land of Fools!

  — Well, I wanted to get more gold coins for Papa Carlo… I am a very good and sensible boy…

  “The cat and the fox stole your money,” the turtle said. – They ran past the pond, stopped to drink, and I heard how they boasted that they dug up your money, and how they fought over it … Oh, you brainless, gullible fool with short thoughts! ..

  – No need to swear, – Pinocchio grumbled, – a person needs help here … What am I going to do now? Oh-oh-oh!.. How can I get back to Papa Carlo? Ai-ai-ai!..

  He rubbed his eyes with his fists and whimpered so plaintively that the frogs suddenly sighed all at once:

  – Uh-uh… Tortila, help the man.

  The tortoise looked at the moon for a long time, remembering something…

  — Once I helped one person in the same way, and then he made tortoise combs out of my grandmother and my grandfather, — she said. And again she gazed at the moon for a long time. – Well, sit here, little man, and I’ll crawl along the bottom – maybe I’ll find one useful little thing.

  She sucked in the snake’s head and slowly sank under the water.

  The frogs whispered:

  Tortila the turtle knows a great secret.

  A long, long time has passed.

  The moon was already leaning behind the hills…

  The green duckweed again wavered, a turtle appeared, holding a small golden key in its mouth.

  She put it on a leaf at Pinocchio’s feet.

  — Brainless, gullible fool with short thoughts, — said Tortila, — do not grieve that the fox and the cat stole gold coins from you. I give you this key. It was dropped to the bottom of the pond by a man with a beard so long that he put it in his pocket so that it would not interfere with his walking. Oh, how he asked me to find this key at the bottom! ..

  Tortila sighed, was silent, and sighed again so that bubbles came out of the water…

  — But I didn’t help him, I was very angry at the people for my grandmother and my grandfather, who were made into tortoiseshell combs. The bearded man talked a lot about this key, but I forgot everything. I only remember that I need to open some door for them and that will bring happiness. ..

  Pinocchio’s heart began to beat, his eyes lit up. He immediately forgot all his misfortunes. He pulled leeches out of his jacket pocket, put the key there, politely thanked the turtle Tortila and the frogs, rushed into the water and swam to the shore.

  When he appeared like a black shadow on the edge of the shore, the frogs hooted after him:

  — Pinocchio, don’t lose the key!

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  Pinocchio flees from the Country of Fools and meets a comrade in misfortune

  Turtle Tortila did not show the way from the Country of Fools.

  Pinocchio ran wherever his eyes looked. Stars glittered behind the black trees. Rocks hung over the road. A cloud of fog lay in the gorge.

  Suddenly a gray lump jumped ahead of Pinocchio. Now I heard the barking of dogs.

  Pinocchio clung to the rock. Two police bulldogs from the City of Fools rushed past him, snuffling furiously.

  A gray lump darted sideways from the road – onto a slope. Bulldogs follow him.

  When the stomping and barking had gone far away, Pinocchio began to run so fast that the stars quickly swam behind the black branches.

  Suddenly a gray lump jumped the road again. Pinocchio managed to see that it was a hare, and on top of it, holding him by the ears, a pale little man was sitting.

  Pebbles fell from the slope – the bulldogs jumped the road after the hare, and again everything was quiet.

  Pinocchio ran so fast that the stars were now rushing like crazy behind the black branches.

  For the third time, the gray hare jumped over the road. The little man, hitting his head on a branch, fell off his back and plopped right under Pinocchio’s feet.

  – Rrr-gaff! Hold it! – the police bulldogs galloped after the hare: their eyes were so filled with anger that they did not notice either Pinocchio or the pale little man.

  – Goodbye, Malvina, goodbye forever! the little man squeaked in a whining voice.

  Pinocchio bent over him and was surprised to see that it was Pierrot in a white shirt with long sleeves.

  He was lying head down in the wheel furrow and, obviously, considered himself already dead and squeaked out a mysterious phrase: “Farewell, Malvina, farewell forever!”, parting with his life.

  Pinocchio started shaking him, pulled him by the leg—Pierrot didn’t move. Then Pinocchio found a leech that had fallen into his pocket and put it to the nose of a lifeless little man.

  The leech without thinking twice bit him on the nose. Pierrot quickly sat up, shook his head, tore off the leech and groaned:

  — Oh, I’m still alive, it turns out!

  Pinocchio grabbed his cheeks, white as tooth powder, kissed him, asked:

  — How did you get here? Why did you ride the gray hare?

  “Pinocchio, Pinocchio,” replied Pierrot, looking around fearfully, “hide me as soon as possible… After all, the dogs were not chasing a gray hare, they were chasing me… Signor Karabas

  Barabas haunts me day and night. He hired police dogs in the City of Fools and vowed to take me dead or alive.

  In the distance the dogs barked again. Pinocchio grabbed Piero by the sleeve and dragged him into a thicket of mimosa, covered with flowers in the form of round yellow fragrant pimples.

  There, lying on the rotting leaves. Pierrot began to tell him in a whisper:

  – You see, Pinocchio, one night the wind was noisy, it was raining like a bucket …

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  Pierrot tells how he, riding a hare, got into the Land of Fools

  – You see, Pinocchio, one night the wind was noisy, it was raining like a bucket. Signor Karabas Barabas sat near the hearth and smoked a pipe. All the dolls are already asleep. I didn’t sleep alone. I was thinking about a girl with blue hair…

  — Found someone to think about, you fool! interrupted Pinocchio. – I ran away from this girl last night – from a closet with spiders …

  – How? Have you seen the girl with blue hair? Have you seen my Malvina?

  – Just think – unseen! A crybaby and pestering. ..

  Pierrot jumped up, waving his arms.

  — Lead me to her… If you help me find Malvina, I will reveal the secret of the golden key to you…

  — How! Buratino shouted joyfully. Do you know the secret of the golden key?

  – I know where the key is, how to get it, I know that they need to open one door … I overheard the secret, and therefore Signor Karabas Barabas is looking for me with police dogs.

  Pinocchio was terribly tempted to boast right away that the mysterious key was in his pocket. In order not to let it slip, he pulled off the cap from his head and stuffed it into his mouth.

  Piero begged to be taken to Malvina. Pinocchio, using his fingers, explained to this fool that it was dark and dangerous now, but when it dawned, they would run to the girl.

  Having forced Pierrot to hide again under the mimosa bushes, Pinocchio spoke in a woolly voice, since his mouth was covered with a cap:

  “So,” continued Pierrot, “I’m awake, you understand, and suddenly I hear someone knocking loudly on the window.

  Signor Karabas Barabas grumbled:

  — Whom did it bring in such doggy weather?

  – It’s me – Duremar – they answered outside the window – a seller of medicinal leeches. Let me dry myself by the fire.

  You understand, I really wanted to see what kind of sellers of medicinal leeches are. I slowly pushed back the corner of the curtain and poked my head into the room. And – I see:

  Signor Karabas Barabas got up from his chair, stepped on his beard, as always, cursed and opened the door.

  A long, wet, wet man with a small, small face, as wrinkled as a morel mushroom, entered. He was wearing an old green overcoat, with tongs, hooks, and hairpins dangling from his belt. In his hands he held a tin can and a net.

  “If your stomach hurts,” he said, bowing as if his back was broken in the middle, “if you have a severe headache or a pounding in your ears, I can put half a dozen excellent leeches behind your ears.

  Signor Karabas Barabas grumbled:

  – To hell with it, no leeches! You can dry by the fire as much as you like.

  Duremar stood with his back to the hearth. Immediately, steam began to rise from his green coat and smell of mud.

  “The leech trade is going badly,” he said again. – For a piece of cold pork and a glass of wine, I’m ready to put a dozen of the most beautiful leeches to your thigh, if you have chunks in your bones …

  – To hell with the devil, no leeches! shouted Karabas Barabas. – Eat pork and drink wine.

  Duremar began to eat pork, his face contracted and stretched like rubber. After eating and drinking, he asked for a pinch of tobacco.

  “Signor, I am full and warm,” he said. “To repay your hospitality, I will tell you a secret.

  Signor Karabas Barabas sniffed his pipe and answered:

  — There is only one secret in the world that I want to know. Everything else I spit and sneezed.

  “Signor,” said Duremar again, “I know a great secret, it was told to me by the tortoise Tortila.

  At these words Karabas Barabas bulged his eyes, jumped up, got tangled in his beard, flew straight at the frightened Duremar, pressed him to his stomach and roared like a bull:

  — Dearest Duremar, most precious Duremar, speak, speak quickly, what Tortila has told you!

  Then Duremar told him the following story: “I was catching leeches in a dirty pond near the City of Fools. For four soldi a day I hired a poor man who would undress and go up to his neck into the pond and stand there until the leeches were sucking on his naked body. Then he went ashore, I collected leeches from him and again sent him into the pond. When we had fished out a sufficient amount in this way, a snake’s head suddenly appeared from the water.

  “Listen, Duremar,” said the head, “you scared the whole population of our beautiful pond, you muddy the water, you don’t let me rest in peace after breakfast… When will this disgrace end?..

  I saw that it was an ordinary turtle, and, not at all afraid, answered:

  – Until I catch all the leeches in your dirty puddle …

  – I am ready to pay you off, Duremar, so that you leave our pond alone and never come again.

  Then I began to mock the turtle:

  – Oh, you old floating suitcase, stupid aunt Tortila, how can you buy me off? Is it with your bone lid where you hide your paws and head… I would sell your lid for scallops. ..

  The turtle turned green with anger and said to me: light to get this key…”

  Before Duremar had time to utter these words, Karabas Barabas yelled at the top of his voice:

  “That man is me! I! I! Dear Duremar, why didn’t you take the key from the Turtle?

  — Here’s another! – answered Duremar and collected wrinkles all over his face, so that it looked like a boiled morel. – Here’s another! — to exchange the most excellent leeches for some kind of key… In short, we quarreled with the turtle, and she, raising her paw out of the water, said:

  — I swear, neither you nor anyone else will receive a magic key. I swear, only the person who makes the entire population of the pond ask me for it will get it…

  With its paw raised, the turtle plunged into the water.

  – Without wasting a second, run to the Land of Fools! shouted Karabas Barabas, hurriedly stuffing the end of his beard into his pocket, snatching up his hat and lantern. – I’ll sit on the bank of the pond. I will smile sweetly. I will beg frogs, tadpoles, water bugs to ask for a turtle… I promise them one and a half million of the fattest flies… I will weep like a lonely cow, moan like a sick chicken, cry like a crocodile. I will kneel before the smallest frog… I must have the key! I will go into the city, I will enter a certain house, I will penetrate into a room under the stairs … I will find a small door – everyone walks past it, and no one notices it. I’ll stick the key in the keyhole …

  “At this time, you understand, Pinocchio,” Pierrot said, sitting under the mimosa on rotten leaves, “I became so interested that I leaned out from behind the curtain. Signor Karabas Barabas saw me.

  — You’re eavesdropping, you scoundrel! – And he rushed to grab me and throw me into the fire, but again he got tangled in his beard and with a terrible roar, overturning chairs, stretched out on the floor.

  I don’t remember how I found myself outside the window, how I climbed over the fence. In the darkness the wind roared and the rain whipped.

  Above my head a black cloud lit up with lightning, and ten paces behind me I saw Karabas Barabas and a leech seller running… I thought: “I’m dead”, stumbled, fell on something soft and warm, grabbed someone’s ears…

  It was a gray hare. He squealed with fear, jumped high, but I held him tightly by the ears, and we galloped in the dark through fields, vineyards, orchards.

  When the hare got tired and sat down, resentfully chewing his split lip, I kissed him on the forehead.

  – Well, please, well, let’s jump a little more, gray …

  The hare sighed, and again we were rushing somewhere to the right, then to the left…

  When the clouds parted and the moon rose, I saw a little town under the mountain with belfries leaning in different directions.

  Karabas Barabas and a seller of leeches ran on the road to the city.

  The hare said:

  — Ehe-he, here it is, rabbit happiness! They go to the City of Fools to hire police dogs. Done, we’re gone!

  The hare lost heart. He buried his nose in his paws and hung his ears.

  I begged, I cried, I even bowed at his feet. The hare did not move.

  But when two snub-nosed bulldogs with black bandages on their right paws galloped out of the city, the hare trembled all over, I barely had time to jump on him, and he gave a desperate rattle through the forest … You yourself saw the rest, Pinocchio.

  Pierrot finished the story, and Pinocchio asked him cautiously:

  — And in what house, in what room under the stairs is there a door that opens with a key?

  — Karabas Barabas didn’t have time to tell about it… Ah, it doesn’t matter to us — the key is at the bottom of the lake… We will never see happiness…

  — Have you seen this? Buratino shouted into his ear. And, pulling a key out of his pocket, he turned it over in front of Pierrot’s nose. – Here he is!

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  Pinocchio and Pierrot come to Malvina, but they immediately have to run away together with Malvina and the poodle Artemon

  to whom last night a bat took Pinocchio away from the house of a girl with blue hair to the Land of Fools.

  It was funny to look at Pierrot, he was in such a hurry to see Malvina as soon as possible.

  “Listen,” he asked every fifteen seconds, “Pinocchio, will she be happy with me?”

  — How do I know…

  Fifteen seconds later again:

  — Listen, Pinocchio, what if she isn’t happy?

  — How do I know…

  Finally they saw a white house with sun, moon and stars painted on the shutters. Smoke rose from the chimney. Above it floated a small cloud that looked like a cat’s head.

  The poodle Artemon sat on the porch and from time to time growled at this cloud.

  Pinocchio did not really want to return to the girl with blue hair. But he was hungry and even from afar sniffed the smell of boiled milk through his nose.

  — If the girl decides to educate us again, we’ll drink milk — and I won’t stay here for no reason.

  At this time, Malvina left the house. In one hand she held a china coffee pot, in the other a basket of biscuits.

  Her eyes were still teary—she was sure that the rats had dragged Pinocchio out of the closet and eaten it.

  As soon as she sat down at the doll table on the sandy path, the azure flowers wavered, the butterflies rose above them like white and yellow leaves, and Pinocchio and Pierrot appeared.

  Malvina opened her eyes so wide that both wooden boys could freely jump there.

  Piero at the sight of Malvina began to mutter words so incoherent and stupid that we do not include them here.

  Pinocchio said as if nothing had happened:

  – So I brought him – educate …

  Malvina finally realized that this was not a dream.

  — Oh, what happiness! she whispered, but immediately added in an adult voice: “Boys, go immediately to wash and brush your teeth.” Artemon, take the boys to the well.

  — You saw, — Pinocchio grumbled, — she has a quirk in her head — to wash, brush her teeth! Anyone from the world will live clean…

  Yet they washed. Artemon brushed his jackets with a brush at the end of his tail…

  They sat down at the table. Pinocchio stuffed food on both cheeks. Pierrot didn’t even take a bite of the cake; he looked at Malvina as if she were made of almond paste. She finally got tired of it.

  “Well,” she said to him, “what did you see on my face? Have breakfast, please.

  — Malvina, — answered Piero, — I haven’t eaten anything for a long time, I compose poetry…

  Pinocchio shook with laughter.

  Malvina was surprised and opened her eyes wide again.

  — In that case, read your poems.

  With her pretty hand she propped up her cheek and raised her pretty eyes to a cloud that looked like a cat’s head.

  Piero began to recite verses with such a howl as if he were sitting at the bottom of a deep well:

  Malvina fled to foreign lands,

  Malvina disappeared, my fiancee…

  I’m crying, I don’t know where to go…

  Wouldn’t it be better to part with the puppet life?

  Before Pierrot had time to read, before Malvina had time to praise the poems that she liked very much, a toad appeared on the sandy path.

  With her eyes bulging terribly, she said:

  — Tonight Tortila, who lost her mind, told Karabas Barabas all about the golden key…

  Malvina screamed in fright, although she did not understand anything. Pierrot, absent-minded, like all poets, uttered a few senseless exclamations, which we do not reproduce here. But Pinocchio immediately jumped up and began to stuff cookies, sugar and sweets into his pockets.

  – Run as soon as possible. If police dogs bring Karabas Barabas here, we are dead.

  Malvina turned as pale as the wing of a white butterfly. Pierrot, thinking that she was dying, knocked over a coffee pot on her, and Malvina’s pretty dress turned out to be covered in cocoa.

  Artemon jumped up with a loud bark—and he had to wash Malvina’s dresses—grabbed Pierrot by the scruff of the neck and began shaking him until Pierrot stuttered:

  — Enough, please…

  The toad looked with bulging eyes at this fuss and again she said:

  – Karabas Barabas with police dogs will be here in a quarter of an hour.

  Malvina ran to change clothes. Pierrot was desperately wringing his hands and even tried to throw himself backwards onto the sandy path.

  Artemon was carrying bundles of household items. Doors slammed. The sparrows chattered frantically on the bush. Swallows swept over the very earth. The owl laughed wildly in the attic to increase the panic.

  Only Pinocchio did not lose his head. He loaded Artemon with two bundles with the most necessary things. They put Malvina on the knots, dressed in a pretty traveling dress. He told Pierrot to hold on to the dog’s tail. He himself took the lead:

  — No panic! Let’s run!

  When they – that is, Pinocchio, courageously striding ahead of the dog, Malvina, bouncing on the knots, and behind Pierrot, stuffed with stupid verses instead of common sense – when they came out of the thick grass onto a smooth field, – a disheveled beard stuck out of the forest Karabas Barabas. He shielded his eyes from the sun with his palm and looked around.

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  Terrible fight at the edge of the forest

  Signor Karabas kept two police dogs on a leash. Seeing the fugitives on a flat field, he gaped his toothy mouth.

  – Yeah! he shouted and released the dogs.

  The fierce dogs first began to throw the ground with their hind legs. They didn’t even growl, they even looked in the other direction, and not at the fugitives – they were so proud of their strength. Then the dogs slowly went to the place where Pinocchio, Artemon, Piero and Malvina stopped in horror.

  Everything seemed to be dead. Karabas Barabas walked clubfoot after the police dogs. Every minute his beard slipped out of his jacket pocket and tangled under his feet.

  Artemon tucked his tail and growled angrily. Malvina shook her hands:

  – I’m afraid, I’m afraid!

  Pierrot dropped his sleeves and looked at Malvina, confident that it was all over.

  Pinocchio was the first to come to his senses.

  — Pierrot, — he shouted, — take the girl by the hand, run to the lake, where the swans are!0003

  Malvina, as soon as she heard this courageous order, jumped off Artemon and, picking up her dress, ran to the lake. Pierrot is behind her.

  Artemon dropped the bundles, took off his watch and the bow from the tip of his tail. He bared his white teeth and jumped to the left, jumped to the right, straightening his muscles, and also began throwing the ground with his hind legs with a pull.

  Pinocchio climbed up the resinous trunk to the top of an Italian pine standing alone on the field, and from there he shouted, howled, squeaked at the top of his lungs:

  – Beasts, birds, insects! Ours are being beaten! Save the innocent little wooden men!..

  The police bulldogs seem to have just now seen Artemon and immediately rushed at him. The nimble poodle dodged and with his teeth bit one dog by the stub of the tail, the other by the thigh.

  The Bulldogs turned clumsily and charged at the poodle again. He jumped high, letting them pass under him, and again managed to peel off one side, the other – the back.

  The bulldogs attacked him for the third time. Then Artemon, dropping his tail on the grass, rushed around in circles across the field, now letting the police dogs close, then throwing himself to the side in front of their very noses …

  The snub-nosed bulldogs are now really angry, snuffling, running after Artemon slowly, stubbornly, ready to die better, but to get to the fussy poodle’s throat.

  Meanwhile Karabas Barabas went up to an Italian pine tree, grabbed the trunk and started shaking it:

  — Get off, get off!

  Pinocchio clung to a branch with his hands, feet, teeth. Karabas Barabas shook the tree so that all the cones on the branches swayed.

  On the Italian pine, the cones are prickly and heavy, the size of a small melon. To fix such a bump on the head – so oh-oh!

  Pinocchio was barely holding on to the swaying branch. He saw that Artemon had already stuck out his tongue with a red rag and was jumping more and more slowly.

  – Give me the key! yelled Karabas Barabas, opening his mouth.

  Pinocchio crawled along the branch, got to a hefty cone and started biting the stem on which it hung. Karabas Barabas shook harder, and the heavy lump flew down, bang! – straight into his toothy mouth.

  Karabas Barabas even sat down.

  Pinocchio tore off the second bump, and she – bang! – Karabas Barabas right in the crown, like a drum.

  – They beat us! Buratino shouted again. “To the aid of innocent little wooden men!”

  Swifts were the first to come to the rescue – they began to cut the air in front of the noses of the bulldogs with a strafing flight.

  Dogs clicked their teeth in vain – a swift is not a fly: like a gray lightning – w-zhik past the nose!

  From a cloud that looked like a cat’s head fell a black kite – the one that usually brought game to Malvina; he dug his claws into the back of the police dog, soared on magnificent wings, picked up the dog and released him . ..

  The dog, screeching, flopped upside down with its paws.

  Artemon ran into another dog from the side, hit him with his chest, knocked him down, bit him, bounced off…

  And again Artemon rushed across the field around a lonely pine tree and after him the bruised and bitten police dogs.

  Toads came to help Artemon. They dragged two snakes, blind from old age. The snakes still had to die – either under a rotten stump, or in the stomach of a heron. The toads persuaded them to die a heroic death.

  Noble Artemon has now decided to engage in open battle. He sat on his tail, bared his fangs.

  The Bulldogs attacked him and the three of them rolled into a ball.

  Artemon snapped his jaws, pulled with his claws. The bulldogs, ignoring the bites and scratches, were waiting for one thing: to get to Artemon’s throat – with a stranglehold. Screeching and howling were all over the field.

  A family of hedgehogs went to help Artemon: the hedgehog himself, the hedgehog, Yezhov’s mother-in-law, two unmarried aunts and little hens.

  Fat black-velvet bumblebees in golden cloaks flew, buzzed, ferocious hornets hissed their wings. Ground beetles and biting beetles with long whiskers crawled.

  All animals, birds and insects selflessly attacked the hated police dogs.

  A hedgehog, a hedgehog, a mother-in-law, two unmarried aunts of a hedgehog and little hens curled up in a ball and hit the bulldogs in the muzzle with the needles at the speed of a croquet ball.

  Bumblebees, hornets from the raid stung them with poisoned stings.

  Serious ants slowly climbed into the nostrils and released poisonous formic acid there.

  Ground beetles and beetles bit the skull by the navel.

  Butterflies and flies crowded in a dense cloud before their eyes, blotting out the light.

  Toads were holding two snakes ready to die a heroic death.

  And so, when one of the bulldogs opened its mouth wide to expel the poisonous formic acid, the old blind man already threw himself head first into his throat and crawled into his esophagus with a screw. The same thing happened to another bulldog: the second blind man already rushed into his mouth. Both dogs, punctured, stung, scratched, panting, began to roll helplessly on the ground. The noble Artemon emerged victorious from the battle.

  Meanwhile, Karabas Barabas finally pulled a prickly lump out of his huge mouth.

  The blow to the top of his head made his eyes bulge. Staggering, he again grabbed the trunk of the Italian pine. The wind blew his beard.

  Pinocchio, sitting at the very top, noticed that the end of the beard of Karabas Barabas, lifted by the wind, had stuck to the resinous trunk.

  Pinocchio hung on the bough and, teasingly, squealed:

  – Uncle, you won’t catch up, uncle, you won’t catch up!..

  Jumped to the ground and started running around the pine trees.

  Karabas-Barabas, stretching out his arms to grab the boy, ran after him, staggering around the tree. He ran once, just about, it seems, and grabbed the fleeing boy with his crooked fingers, ran another, running around for the third time . .. His beard was wrapped around the trunk, tightly glued to the resin.

  When the beard ended and Karabas Barabas rested his nose against a tree, Pinocchio showed him his long tongue and ran to Swan Lake to look for Malvina and Pierrot. A battered Artemon on three legs, his fourth tucked in, hobbled after him at a lame dog trot.

  Two police dogs were left on the field, for whose life, apparently, it was impossible to give even a dead dry fly, and the bewildered doctor of puppet science, signor Karabas Barabas, his beard tightly glued to an Italian pine.

  contents ↑

  In the cave

  Malvina and Pierrot were sitting on a damp, warm hummock in the reeds.

  They were covered with a cobweb net, littered with dragonfly wings and sucked mosquitoes.

  Little blue birds, flying from reed to reed, looked with cheerful amazement at the bitterly weeping girl.

  Desperate shrieks and squeals could be heard from afar – it was Artemon and Pinocchio, obviously, selling their lives dearly.

  – I’m afraid, I’m afraid! repeated Malvina, and in desperation she covered her wet face with a burdock leaf.

  Pierrot tried to comfort her with verses:

  We are sitting on a hummock —

  Yellow, pleasant,

  Very fragrant.

  We will live all summer

  We are on this hummock,

  Ah, in solitude,

  To everyone’s surprise…

  Malvina stamped her feet on him:

  — I’m tired of you, tired of you, boy! Pick a fresh burdock – you see – this one is all wet and full of holes.

  Suddenly, the noise and screeching in the distance ceased. Malvina threw up her hands:

  — Artemon and Pinocchio died…

  And threw herself face down on a bump, into the green moss.

  Pierrot stumbled stupidly around her. The wind whistled softly through the reeds. Finally, steps were heard.

  Undoubtedly, it was Karabas Barabas walking in order to rudely grab and thrust Malvina and Piero into their bottomless pockets. The reeds parted, and Pinocchio appeared: his nose was upright, his mouth was up to his ears.

  A skinned Artemon was limping behind him, laden with two bales…

  — Also — they wanted to fight me! – said Pinocchio, not paying attention to the joy of Malvina and Piero. “What is a cat to me, what is a fox to me, what police dogs are to me, what Karabas Barabas himself is to me — pah! Girl, get on the dog, boy, hold on to the tail. Let’s go…

  And he courageously walked over the hummocks, pushing the reeds with his elbows, around the lake to the other side…

  Malvina and Piero didn’t even dare to ask him how the fight with the police dogs had ended and why Karabas Barabas wasn’t chasing them.

  When they reached the other side of the lake, the noble Artemon began to whine and limp on all his paws. We had to make a halt to bandage his wounds. Under the huge roots of a pine tree growing on a rocky hillock, they saw a cave. Bales were dragged there, and Artemon crawled in there. The noble dog first licked each paw, then held it out to Malvina. Pinocchio tore Malvinin’s old shirt into bandages, Pierrot held them, Malvina bandaged her paws.

  After bandaging Artemon put a thermometer, and the dog fell asleep peacefully.

  Pinocchio said:

  — Pierrot, roll to the lake, fetch some water.

  Piero obediently trudged along, muttering verses and stumbling, lost the lid on the way, barely bringing water at the bottom of the kettle.

  Pinocchio said:

  – Malvina, fly off, pick up branches for the fire.

  Malvina looked reproachfully at Pinocchio, shrugged her shoulders and brought a few dry stalks.

  Pinocchio said:

  — Here is the punishment with these well-bred…

  He himself brought water, he collected branches and pine cones himself, he made a fire at the entrance to the cave, so noisy that the branches on a tall pine swayed … He himself boiled cocoa on the water.

  – Live! Sit down for breakfast. ..

  Malvina was silent all this time, pursing her lips. But now she said very firmly, in an adult voice:

  – Do not think, Pinocchio, that if you fought with dogs and won, saved us from Karabas Barabas and behaved courageously in the future, then this saves you from having to wash your hands and brush your teeth before meals…

  Pinocchio just sat down: — here you go! – bulging eyes at the girl with an iron character.

  Malvina came out of the cave and clapped her hands:

  — Butterflies, caterpillars, beetles, toads…

  Less than a minute later, large butterflies arrived, stained with pollen. Caterpillars and sullen dung beetles crawled up. Toads slapped on their stomachs…

  Butterflies, sighing with their wings, sat down on the walls of the cave so that it would be beautiful inside and the crumbling earth would not fall into the food.

  The dung beetles balled up all the rubbish on the floor of the cave and threw it away.

  A fat white caterpillar crawled onto Pinocchio’s head and, hanging from his nose, squeezed some paste onto his teeth. Like it or not, I had to clean them.

  Another caterpillar brushed Piero’s teeth.

  A sleepy badger appeared, resembling a hairy pig…

  He took brown caterpillars with his paw, squeezed brown paste out of them onto his shoes, and with his tail perfectly cleaned all three pairs of shoes – those of Malvina, Pinocchio and Piero. Cleaned up, yawned:

  “A-ha-ha,” and waddled off.

  A bustling, motley, cheerful hoopoe with a red tuft flew in, which stood on end when he was surprised at something.

  – Whom to comb?

  — Me, — said Malvina. – Curl and comb, I’m disheveled…

  – Where’s the mirror? Listen, my dear…

  Then the bug-eyed toads said:

  – We will bring…

  Ten toads splashed their stomachs towards the lake. Instead of a mirror, they dragged a mirror carp, so fat and sleepy that it did not care where they dragged it under the fins.

  Karp was tailed in front of Malvina. To prevent him from suffocating, water was poured into his mouth from a kettle. The fussy hoopoe curled and combed Malvina. He carefully took one of the butterflies from the wall and powdered the girl’s nose with it.

  — Done, darling…

  F-ffrr! – flew out of the cave in a motley ball.

  Toads dragged the mirror carp back into the lake. Pinocchio and Pierrot – like it or not – washed their hands and even their necks. Malvina allowed me to sit down to have breakfast.

  After breakfast, brushing the crumbs off her knees, she said:

  – Pinocchio, my friend, last time we stopped at the dictation. Let’s continue the lesson…

  Pinocchio wanted to jump out of the cave – wherever his eyes looked. But it was impossible to leave helpless comrades and a sick dog! He grumbled:

  — They didn’t take any writing materials…

  — It’s not true, they did, — Artemon groaned. He crawled to the knot, untied it with his teeth, and pulled out a vial of ink, a pencil case, a notebook, and even a small globe.

  — Do not hold the insert frantically and too close to the pen, otherwise you will stain your fingers in ink, — said Malvina.

  She raised her pretty eyes to the ceiling of the cave to see butterflies and…

  At that moment, there was a crunch of branches, rough voices — a seller of medicinal leeches Duremar and dragging feet Karabas Barabas passed by the cave.

  A huge bump turned purple on the puppet theater director’s forehead, his nose was swollen, his beard was in tatters and smeared with tar.

  Groaning and spitting, he said:

  — They couldn’t get far. They are somewhere here in the forest.

  back to contents ↑

  In spite of everything, Pinocchio decides to find out from Karabas Barabas the secret of the golden key

  Karabas Barabas and Duremar slowly walked past the cave.

  During the battle on the plain, a seller of medicinal leeches sat behind a bush in fear. When it was all over, he waited until Artemon and Pinocchio had hidden in the thick grass, and only then, with great difficulty, tore off the beard of Karabas Barabas from the trunk of an Italian pine.

  — Well, the boy has beaten you! Duremar said. – You will have to put two dozen of the best leeches to the back of your head …

  Karabas Barabas roared:

  — A hundred thousand devils! Live in pursuit of the scoundrels!..

  Karabas Barabas and Duremar followed in the footsteps of the fugitives. They parted the grass with their hands, examined every bush, ransacked every bump.

  They saw the smoke of a fire at the roots of an old pine tree, but it never occurred to them that wooden men were hiding in this cave and that they also lit a fire.

  – I will cut this scoundrel Pinocchio into pieces with a penknife! grumbled Karabas Barabas.

  The fugitives hid in a cave.

  What to do now? Run? But Artemon, all bandaged, was sound asleep. The dog had to sleep twenty-four hours for the wounds to heal. Is it possible to leave a noble dog alone in a cave? No, no, to be saved is for everyone together, to die is for everyone together…

  Pinocchio, Piero and Malvina in the depths of the cave, with their noses buried in them, conferred for a long time. We decided: to wait here until the morning, to mask the entrance to the cave with branches, and to make Artemon’s speedy recovery a nourishing enema. Pinocchio said:

  — I still want to find out from Karabas Barabas at all costs where this door is, which is opened by a golden key. Something wonderful, amazing is kept behind the door … And it should bring us happiness.

  “I’m afraid to be left without you, I’m afraid,” moaned Malvina.

  — What do you need Pierrot for?

  — Ah, he only reads poems…

  — I will protect Malvina like a lion, — Pierrot said in a hoarse voice like big predators speak, — you don’t know me yet…

  — Well done Pierrot, it would be so long ago!

  And Pinocchio started to run in the footsteps of Karabas Barabas and Duremar.

  He soon saw them. The director of the puppet theater was sitting on the bank of the stream, Duremar put a compress of horse sorrel leaves on his bump. From afar, one could hear the ferocious rumbling in the empty stomach of Karabas Barabas and the boring squeaking in the empty stomach of the seller of medicinal leeches.

  – Signor, we need to refresh ourselves, – said Duremar, – the search for villains can drag on until late at night.

  “I would eat a whole pig and a couple of ducks now,” Karabas Barabas replied gloomily.

  Friends wandered to the tavern “Three minnows” – its sign could be seen on the hillock. But sooner than Karabas Barabas and Duremar, Pinocchio rushed there, bending down to the grass so that he would not be noticed.

  Near the door of the tavern, Pinocchio crept up to a large rooster, which, having found a grain or a piece of chicken gut, proudly shook its red comb, scuffed its claws and anxiously called the hens for a treat:

  – Ko-ko-ko!

  Pinocchio handed him crumbs of almond cake in his palm:

  — Help yourself, Signor Commander-in-Chief.

  The rooster looked sternly at the wooden boy, but could not resist and pecked at his hand.

  — Ko-ko-ko! ..

  — Signor Commander-in-Chief, I should go to the tavern, but in such a way that the owner does not notice me. I will hide behind your magnificent multi-colored tail, and you will lead me to the very hearth. Okay?

  – Ko-ko! said the rooster even more proudly.

  He did not understand anything, but in order not to show that he did not understand anything, he solemnly went to the open door of the tavern. Pinocchio grabbed him by the wings under the wings, covered himself with his tail and squatted his way into the kitchen, to the very hearth, where the bald owner of the tavern was bustling about, spinning skewers and frying pans on the fire.

  – Go away, you old bouillon meat! – the owner shouted at the rooster and kicked so hard that the rooster – ku-dah-tah-tah! – with a desperate cry, he flew out into the street to the frightened chickens.

  Pinocchio, unnoticed, darted past the owner’s feet and sat down behind a large earthenware jug.

  At that time the voices of Karabas Barabas and Duremar were heard.

  The owner, bowing low, came out to meet them.

  Pinocchio climbed inside the earthenware jug and hid there.

  to contents ↑

  Pinocchio learns the secret of the golden key

  Karabas Barabas and Duremar were supported by a roast pig. The owner poured wine into glasses.

  Karabas Barabas, sucking on a pig’s leg, said to the owner:

  — You’ve got wine, pour me out of that jug! – And he pointed with a bone to the jug where Pinocchio was sitting.

  “Signor, this jug is empty,” the owner replied.

  – You’re lying, show me.

  Then the owner picked up the jug and turned it over. Pinocchio with all his strength rested his elbows on the sides of the jug so as not to fall out.

  “Something is turning black there,” croaked Karabas Barabas.

  “Something is turning white there,” Duremar confirmed.

  – Sirs, boil on my tongue, shoot me in the small of the back – the jug is empty!

  – In that case, put it on the table – we will throw the dice there.

  The jug where Pinocchio sat was placed between the director of the puppet theater and the seller of medicinal leeches. Gnawed bones and crusts fell on Pinocchio’s head.

  Karabas Barabas, having drunk a lot of wine, stretched out his beard to the fire of the hearth so that adhering resin would drip from it.

  – I’ll put Pinocchio on my palm, – he boastfully said, – I’ll slap it with the other palm, – a wet place will remain from him.

  — The scoundrel deserves it, — Duremar confirmed, — but first, it would be good to put leeches on him so that they suck out all the blood…

  – No! pounded Karabas Barabas with his fist. — First, I’ll take away the golden key from him…

  The owner intervened in the conversation — he already knew about the escape of the wooden men.

  – Signor, you don’t need to tire yourself with searches. Now I will call two quick guys – while you are refreshed with wine, they will quickly search the whole forest and drag Pinocchio here.

  – Okay. Send guys, – said Karabas Barabas, putting huge soles to the fire. And since he was already drunk, he sang a song at the top of his lungs:0003

  My people are strange,

  Stupid, wooden.

  Lord of the Dolls,

  That’s who I am, come on…

  Terrible Karabas,

  Glorious Barabas…

  Dolls in front of me

  Spread like grass.

  Even if you are pretty —

  I have a whip,

  A whip with seven tails,

  A whip with seven tails.

  I will only threaten with a whip –

  My meek people

  Sings songs,

  Collects money

  In my big pocket,

  In my big pocket…

  Then Pinocchio spoke in a howling voice from the depths of the jug:

  — Reveal the secret, unfortunate one, reveal the secret! and bulged out at Duremar.

  Is that you?

  — No, it’s not me…

  — Who told me to reveal the secret?

  Duremar was superstitious; besides, he also drank a lot of wine. His face turned blue and wrinkled with fear, like a morel mushroom.

  Looking at him, and Karabas Barabas chattered his teeth.

  “Reveal the secret,” the mysterious voice howled again from the depths of the jug, “otherwise you won’t get off this chair, unfortunate one!”

  Karabas Barabas tried to jump up, but he couldn’t even get up.

  — What-what-what-what-ta-ta-secret? he stammered.

  The voice answered:

  – The secret of the turtle Tortila.

  Horrified, Duremar slowly crawled under the table. Karabas Barabas’s jaw fell off.

  – Where is the door, where is the door? — like a wind in a chimney on an autumn night, a voice howled…

  — I will answer, I will answer, shut up, shut up! whispered Karabas Barabas. — The door is in old Carlo’s closet, behind the painted hearth…

  As soon as he uttered these words, the owner entered from the yard.

  – Here are reliable guys, for money they will bring you, signor, even the devil himself …

  And he pointed to the fox Alice and the cat Basilio standing on the threshold.

  The fox respectfully took off her old hat:

  – Signor Karabas Barabas will give us ten gold coins for poverty, and we will give you into the hands of the scoundrel Pinocchio without leaving this place.

  Karabas Barabas reached under his beard into his vest pocket and took out ten gold coins.

  – Here is the money, but where is Pinocchio?

  The fox counted the coins several times, sighed, giving half to the cat, and pointed with her paw:

  — It’s in this jug, signor, under your nose…

  Karabas Barabas grabbed the jug from the table and frantically threw it on the stone floor. Buratino jumped out of the fragments and a pile of gnawed bones. While everyone stood with their mouths open, he, like an arrow, rushed out of the tavern into the yard – straight to the rooster, which proudly examined the dead worm with one eye, then the other.

  – It was you who betrayed me, you old cutlet mince! Pinocchio said to him, savagely sticking out his nose. “Well, now hit your heart out…

  And he tightly grabbed onto his general’s tail. The rooster, not understanding anything, spread its wings and started running on its ankle-legged legs. Pinocchio – in a whirlwind – behind him – downhill, across the road, across the field, to the forest.

  Karabas Barabas, Duremar and the owner of the tavern finally came to their senses from surprise and ran out after Pinocchio. But no matter how much they looked around, he was nowhere to be seen, only in the distance across the field a rooster was beating with all his might. But since everyone knew that he was a fool, no one paid attention to this rooster.

  to contents ↑

  Pinocchio for the first time in his life falls into despair, but everything ends happily

  The stupid rooster got tired, barely ran, his beak gaping. Pinocchio finally let go of his crumpled tail.

  – Go, General, to your chickens…

  And one went to where the Swan Lake shone brightly through the foliage.

  Here is a pine tree on a rocky hillock, here is a cave. Broken branches scattered around. The grass is crushed by wheel tracks.

  Pinocchio’s heart was beating desperately. He jumped off the hillock, looked under the gnarled roots …

  The cave was empty!!!

  Neither Malvina, nor Pierrot, nor Artemon.

  Only two rags were lying around. He picked them up – they were the sleeves torn off from Pierrot’s shirt.

  Friends have been kidnapped by someone! They died! Pinocchio fell face down, his nose stuck deep into the ground.

  It was only now that he realized how dear his friends were to him. Let Malvina be engaged in education, let Piero read poetry at least a thousand times in a row, Pinocchio would even give a golden key to see friends again.

  A loose mound of earth silently rose up near his head, a velvet mole with pink palms crawled out, squeaky sneezed three times and said:

  “- I’m blind, but I can hear perfectly. A cart pulled by sheep pulled up here. In it sat the Fox, the governor of the City of Fools, and the detectives. The governor ordered:

  – Take the rascals who beat my best police officers in the line of duty! Take!

  The detectives answered:

  — Tyaf!

  They rushed into the cave, and there began a desperate fuss. Your friends were tied up, thrown into a cart along with bundles, and left.

  What good was it to lie with your nose in the ground! Pinocchio jumped up and ran in the tracks of the wheels. He rounded the lake, went out into a field with thick grass. He walked, walked … He did not have any plan in his head. You have to save your comrades, that’s all. He reached a cliff, from where the night before last he fell into mugs. Below I saw a dirty pond where the turtle Tortila lived. On the way to the pond a cart descended; she was dragged by two skeletal-thin sheep with tattered wool.

  A fat cat with puffed-out cheeks and golden spectacles was sitting on the goat – he served under the governor as a secret whisperer in his ear. Behind him was the important Fox, the governor… Malvina, Pierrot, and the whole bandaged Artemon were lying on the knots, his tail, always so combed, was dragging with a brush over the dust.

  Behind the cart were two detectives, a Doberman Pinscher.

  Suddenly the detectives raised their dog muzzles and saw Pinocchio’s white cap on the top of the cliff.

  The Pinschers began to climb the steep slope with strong jumps. But before they reached the top, Pinocchio – and he can’t hide anywhere, can’t run away – folded his arms above his head and – like a swallow – rushed down from the steepest place, into a dirty pond covered with green duckweed.

  He described a curve in the air and, of course, would have landed in the pond under the protection of Aunt Tortila, if not for a strong gust of wind.

  The wind picked up the light wooden Pinocchio, whirled it around, twirled it like a “double corkscrew”, threw it to the side, and falling, it fell right into the cart, on the head of Governor Fox.

  A fat cat in golden glasses fell off the goat in surprise, and since he was a scoundrel and a coward, he pretended to have fainted.

  Governor Fox, also a desperate coward, with a squeal rushed to run away along the slope and immediately climbed into a badger hole. There he had a hard time: badgers severely crack down on such guests.

  The sheep shied away, the cart overturned, Malvina, Pierrot and Artemon, together with the bundles, rolled into the mugs.

  All this happened so quickly that you, dear readers, would not have had time to count all the fingers on your hand.

  Doberman pinschers rushed down the cliff in huge leaps. Jumping up to the overturned cart, they saw a fat cat in a swoon. We saw little wooden men lying in mugs and a bandaged poodle. But Governor Fox was nowhere to be seen. He disappeared, as if the one whom the detectives should protect, like the apple of an eye, fell through the ground.

  The first detective raised his muzzle and let out a dog howl of despair.

  The second detective did the same:

  — Ai, ai, ai, ai-oo-oo!..

  They rushed and searched the whole hillside. They howled again drearily, because they were already imagining a whip and an iron grate.

  Wagging their backsides in humiliation, they ran to the City of Fools to tell a lie at the police station that the governor had been taken to heaven alive – so they came up with their excuse along the way.

  Buratino slowly felt himself – his legs and arms were intact. He crawled into the mugs and freed Malvina and Piero from the ropes.

  Without saying a word, Malvina grabbed Pinocchio by the neck, but she couldn’t kiss her because his long nose got in the way.

  Piero’s sleeves were torn off to the elbow, white powder fell off his cheeks, and it turned out that his cheeks were ordinary – ruddy, despite his love of poetry.

  “I fought well,” he said in a rough voice. – If they didn’t give me a bandwagon, they wouldn’t take me for nothing.

  Malvina confirmed:

  – He fought like a lion.

  She grabbed Piero by the neck and kissed him on both cheeks.

  “Enough, enough licking,” grumbled Pinocchio, “run. Let’s drag Artemon by the tail.

  All three of them grabbed the unfortunate dog’s tail and dragged it up the slope.

  “Let me go, I’ll go myself, it’s so humiliating for me,” moaned the bandaged poodle.

  – No, no, you are too weak.

  But as soon as they climbed halfway up the slope, Karabas Barabas and Duremar appeared at the top. The fox Alice pointed with her paw at the fugitives, the cat Basilio bristled his mustache and hissed disgustingly.

  — Ha ha ha, that’s so clever! laughed Karabas Barabas. “The golden key itself goes into my hands!”

  Pinocchio hastily figured out how to get out of a new trouble. Pierrot pressed Malvina close to him, intending to sell his life dearly. This time there was no hope of salvation.

  Duremar was giggling at the top of the slope.

  – The sick poodle dog, signor Karabas Barabas, you give it to me, I will throw it into the pond for leeches so that my leeches get fat …0003

  — Come, come to me, little ones…

  — Don’t move! – Pinocchio ordered. Dying is so much fun! Pierrot, say some of your most vile rhymes. Malvina, laugh at the top of your lungs…

  Malvina, despite some shortcomings, was a good comrade. She wiped away her tears and laughed very hurtfully for those who stood at the top of the slope.

  Pierrot immediately composed poetry and howled in an unpleasant voice:

  Alice is sorry for the fox –

  A stick is crying over her.

  Basilio the beggar cat —

  Thief, vile cat.

  Duremar, our fool, —

  Ugly morel.

  Karabas you Barabas,

  We are not very afraid of you…

  At the same time Pinocchio grimaced and teased:

  — Hey you, director of the puppet theater, an old beer keg, a fat bag full of stupidity, come down, come down to us, – I’ll spit in your tattered beard!

  In response, Karabas Barabas growled terribly, Duremar raised his skinny arms to the sky.

  Fox Alice smiled wryly:

  — Permission to wring the necks of these impudent fellows?

  Another minute, and it would all be over… Suddenly swifts rushed with a whistle:

  — Here, here, here!..

  A magpie flew over the head of Karabas Barabas, chattering loudly:

  — Hurry, hurry, hurry!.

  And old papa Carlo appeared on the top of the slope. His sleeves were rolled up, a knotted stick was in his hand, his eyebrows were furrowed…

  He pushed Karabas Barabas with his shoulder, Duremar with his elbow, pulled the fox Alice along the back with his truncheon, threw his boot in the direction of Basilio the cat…

  After that, bending down and looking down from the slope where the little wooden men were standing, he said joyfully:

  — My son, Pinocchio, you rascal, you are alive and well — come to me as soon as possible!

  to contents ↑

  Pinocchio finally returns home together with his father Carlo, Malvina, Piero and Artemon

  The unexpected appearance of Carlo, his club and frowned eyebrows terrified the scoundrels.

  The Fox Alice crawled into the thick grass and gave a screech there, sometimes only stopping to shiver after being hit with a baton. Basilio the cat, flying ten paces away, hissed with anger like a punctured bicycle tire.

  Duremar picked up the skirts of his green coat and climbed down the hillside, repeating:

  — I had nothing to do with it, I had nothing to do with it. ..

  But on a steep place he fell off, rolled and, with a terrible noise and splash, flopped into the pond.

  Karabas Barabas stayed where he was. He only pulled his whole head up to the top of his shoulders; his beard hung down like tow.

  Pinocchio, Piero and Malvina climbed up. Papa Carlo took them one by one in his arms, shaking his finger:

  “Here I am, you fools!

  And he put it in his bosom.

  Then he went down a few steps from the slope and sat down over the unfortunate dog. Faithful Artemon raised his muzzle and licked Carlo’s nose. Pinocchio immediately leaned out from behind his bosom:

  – Papa Carlo, we won’t go home without a dog.

  “E-he-he,” answered Carlo, “it will be hard, well, I’ll somehow inform your dog.”

  He put Artemon on his shoulder and, puffing from the heavy load, climbed up, where Karabas Barabas stood with his head still drawn in, his eyes bulging.

  “My dolls…” he grumbled.

  Papa Carlo answered him sternly:

  — Oh, you! With whom, in his old age, he contacted – with swindlers known to the whole world, with Duremar, with a cat, with a fox. You hate little ones! Shame on you doctor!

  And Carlo went on the road to the city.

  Karabas Barabas followed him with his head drawn in.

  — Give me back my dolls!..

  — Never give them back! yelled Pinocchio, leaning out from behind his bosom.

  So they went, they went. We passed the tavern of the Three Minnows, where, at the door, the bald owner was bowing, pointing with both hands at the sizzling frying pans.

  A rooster with a torn-out tail was pacing up and down near the door, talking indignantly about Pinocchio’s hooligan act. The chickens sympathetically agreed:

  — Oh, what fear! Wow, wow, our rooster! ..

  Carlo went up the hill, from where he could see the sea, in some places covered with matte stripes from the wind, near the coast – the old sand-colored town under the hot sun and the linen roof of the puppet theater.

  Karabas Barabas, standing three paces behind Carlo, grumbled:

  — I’ll give you a hundred gold coins for the doll, sell it.

  Pinocchio, Malvina and Piero stopped breathing – they were waiting for what Carlo would say.

  He replied:

  — No! If you were a kind, good director of the theater, I would give you the little men, so be it. And you are worse than any crocodile. I will not give or sell, get out.

  Carlo went down the hill and, no longer paying attention to Karabas Barabas, entered the town.

  There, in an empty square, a policeman was standing motionless.

  From heat and boredom, his mustache drooped, his eyelids stuck together, flies swirled over his three-cornered hat.

  Karabas Barabas suddenly put his beard in his pocket, grabbed Carlo from behind by his shirt and yelled to the whole square:

  Stop the thief, he stole my dolls! . Karabas Barabas jumped up to him, demanding to arrest Carlo.

  — Who are you? the policeman asked lazily.

  – I am a doctor of puppet sciences, director of a famous theater, holder of the highest orders, the closest friend of the Tarabar king, signor Karabas Barabas . ..

  “Don’t yell at me,” the policeman replied.

  While Karabas Barabas was arguing with him, Papa Carlo, hurriedly tapping the pavement with his stick, came up to the house where he lived. He unlocked the door to the dark closet under the stairs, took Artemon off his shoulder, laid him on the bunk, took Pinocchio, Malvina, and Piero out of his bosom, and seated them side by side on the table.

  Malvina immediately said:

  — Papa Carlo, first of all take care of the sick dog. Boys, wash up immediately…

  Suddenly she threw up her hands in despair:

  — And my dresses! My brand new shoes, my pretty ribbons were left at the bottom of the ravine, in burdocks! ..

  – Don’t worry, don’t worry, – said Carlo, – in the evening I’ll go and fetch your bundles.

  He carefully unbandaged Artemon’s paws. It turned out that the wounds had almost healed and the dog could not move just because it was hungry.

  — A plate of oatmeal and a bone with a brain, — Artemon groaned, — and I’m ready to fight with all the dogs in the city.

  “Ah-ah-ah,” Carlo lamented, “I don’t have a crumb at home, and I don’t have a salt in my pocket…

  Malvina sobbed plaintively. Pierrot rubbed his forehead with his fist, thinking.

  — I will go outside to read poetry, passers-by give me a bunch of soldos.

  Carlo shook his head:

  — And you will spend the night, son, for vagrancy in the police department.

  Everyone, except Pinocchio, was depressed. He smiled slyly, spun around as if he was sitting not on the table, but on an upside down button.

  — Guys, stop whining! He jumped to the floor and pulled something out of his pocket. – Papa Carlo, take a hammer, separate the holey canvas from the wall.

  And with his nose turned up, he pointed to the hearth, and the pot over the hearth, and the smoke painted on a piece of old canvas.

  Carlo was surprised:

  — Why, son, do you want to rip off such a beautiful picture from the wall? In the winter, I look at it and imagine that it is a real fire and there is real lamb stew with garlic in the pot, and it makes me a little warmer.

  – Papa Carlo, I give you my word of honor as a puppet – you will have a real fire in the hearth, a real cast-iron pot and hot stew. Rip off the canvas.

  Pinocchio said this so confidently that Papa Carlo scratched his head, shook his head, grunted, grunted, took the pliers and the hammer and began to tear off the canvas. Behind him, as we already know, everything was covered with cobwebs and dead spiders hung.

  Carlo carefully brushed the web. Then a small door of darkened oak became visible. Laughing faces were carved on the four corners, and a dancing man with a long nose in the middle.

  When the dust was brushed off, Malvina, Piero, Papa Carlo, even the hungry Artemon exclaimed with one voice:

  — This is a portrait of Pinocchio himself!

  “I thought so,” said Pinocchio, although he did not think anything of the sort and was surprised himself. “Here is the key to the door. Papa Carlo, open…

  “This door and this golden key,” said Carlo, “were made a long time ago by some skilled craftsman. Let’s see what is hidden behind the door.

  He put the key in the keyhole and turned it… Quiet, very pleasant music rang out, as if an organ in a music box was playing…

  Papa Carlo pushed the door. With a creak, it began to open.

  At that moment hurried steps were heard outside the window, and the voice of Karabas Barabas roared:

  — In the name of the Tarabar King — arrest the old rogue Carlo!

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  Karabas Barabas breaks into the closet under the stairs

  Karabas Barabas, as we know, tried in vain to persuade the sleepy policeman to arrest Carlo. Having achieved nothing, Karabas Barabas ran down the street.

  His flowing beard clung to the buttons and umbrellas of passers-by.

  He pushed and clanged his teeth. Boys whistled piercingly after him, throwing rotten apples at his back.

  Karabas Barabas ran to the head of the city. In this hot hour, the boss was sitting in the garden, near the fountain, in his shorts and drinking lemonade.

  The chief had six chins, his nose sunk into rosy cheeks. Behind him, under a linden tree, four gloomy policemen kept uncorking bottles of lemonade.

  Karabas Barabas threw himself on his knees in front of the chief and, smearing tears on his face with his beard, yelled:

  — I am an unfortunate orphan, I was offended, robbed, beaten…

  — Who offended you, an orphan? ‘ the chief asked, puffing.

  – The worst enemy, the old organ grinder Carlo. He stole my three best dolls, he wants to burn my famous theater, he will set fire to and rob the whole city if he is not immediately arrested.

  To reinforce his words, Karabas Barabas pulled out a handful of gold coins and put them in the chief’s shoe.

  In short, he spun and lied so that the frightened chief ordered the four policemen under the linden:

  — Follow the venerable orphan and do everything you need in the name of the law.

  Karabas Barabas ran with four policemen to Carlo’s closet and shouted:

  — In the name of the Tarabar King — arrest the thief and scoundrel!

  But the doors were closed. No one answered in the closet. Karabas Barabas ordered:

  – In the name of the Tarabar King – break the door!

  The police pressed, the rotten halves of the doors fell off their hinges, and four brave policemen, rattling their sabers, fell with a crash into the closet under the stairs.

  It was at the very moment when Carlo, stooping, was leaving through the secret door in the wall.

  He was the last to leave. The door – ding! .. – slammed shut.

  Quiet music has stopped playing. Only dirty bandages and a torn canvas with a painted hearth were lying in the closet under the stairs…

  Karabas Barabas ran up to the secret door, pounded on it with his fists and heels:

  – Tra-ta-ta-ta!

  But the door was solid.

  Karabas Barabas ran up and hit the door with his back. The door didn’t budge. He stomped on the policemen:

  — Break the damned door in the name of the Gibberish King!

  — No, the work here is very hard, — they answered and went to the head of the city to say that they had done everything according to the law, but the devil himself, apparently, was helping the old organ grinder, because he had gone through the wall.

  Karabas Barabas pulled his beard, fell to the floor and began to roar, howl and roll around like mad along the empty closet under the stairs.

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  What they found behind the secret door

  While Karabas Barabas was riding like a madman and tearing his beard, Pinocchio was ahead, followed by Malvina, Piero, Artemon and – last – Papa Carlo descended the steep stone stairs to the dungeon.

  Papa Carlo was holding a candle stub. Its flickering light cast great shadows from Artemon’s shaggy head or from Piero’s outstretched hand, but it could not illuminate the darkness into which the staircase descended.

  Malvina, in order not to cry with fear, pinched her ears.

  Pierrot – as always, neither to the village nor to the city, – muttered verses:

  Shadows dance on the wall, –

  Nothing scares me.

  Let the stairs be steep,

  Let the darkness be dangerous —

  Anyway, the underground path

  Will lead somewhere. ..

  Pinocchio is ahead of his comrades — his white cap was barely visible deep below.

  Suddenly something hissed there, fell, rolled, and his plaintive voice was heard:

  — Help me!

  Instantly Artemon, forgetting his wounds and hunger, overturned Malvina and Pierrot, rushed down the steps like a black whirlwind. His teeth snapped. Some creature squealed vilely. Everything was quiet. Only Malvina’s heart was beating loudly, like in an alarm clock.

  A wide beam of light from below hit the stairs. The flame of the candle that Papa Carlo was holding turned yellow.

  – Look, look quickly! called Pinocchio loudly.

  Malvina hurriedly began to climb backwards from step to step, Pierrot jumped after her. Carlo was the last to leave, stooping down, losing his wooden shoes every now and then.

  Below, where the steep staircase ended, Artemon was sitting on a stone platform. He licked his lips. At his feet lay the strangled rat Shushara.

  Pinocchio lifted up the decayed felt with both hands – a hole in the stone wall was covered with it. There was a blue light coming from there.

  The first thing they saw when they climbed through the hole was the divergent rays of the sun. They fell from the vaulted ceiling through a round window.

  Wide rays with dust particles dancing in them illuminated a round room of yellowish marble. In the middle of it stood a puppet theater of marvelous beauty. A golden zigzag of lightning shone on its curtain.

  From the sides of the curtain rose two square towers, painted as if they were made of small bricks. The high roofs of green tin shone brightly.

  On the left tower there was a clock with bronze hands. On the dial, against each number, the laughing faces of a boy and a girl are drawn.

  On the right tower there is a round window made of colored glass.

  Above this window, on a roof of green tin, sat Talking Cricket. When everyone, with their mouths open, stopped in front of the wonderful theater, the cricket spoke slowly and clearly:0003

  – I warned you that terrible dangers and terrible adventures await you, Pinocchio. It’s good that everything ended happily, but it could have ended unsuccessfully … So-and-so …

  The voice of the cricket was old and slightly offended, because the Talking Cricket at one time still got hit on the head with a hammer and, despite a century of age and natural kindness , he could not forget the undeserved resentment. Therefore, he added nothing more – he twitched his antennae, as if brushing dust off them, and slowly crawled away somewhere into a lonely crack – away from the bustle.

  Then Papa Carlo said:

  — I thought we’d at least find a bunch of gold and silver here, but what we found was just an old toy.

  He went up to the clock built into the turret, tapped the dial with his fingernail, and since there was a key hanging on a copper stud on the side of the clock, he took it and started the clock…

  There was a loud ticking. The arrows moved. The big hand went to twelve, the small one to six. The inside of the tower hummed and hissed. The clock chimed six…

  Immediately, a window of multicolored glass opened on the right tower, a wind-up motley bird jumped out and, fluttering its wings, sang six times:

  — To us — to us, to us — to us, to us — to us…

  The bird disappeared , the window slammed shut, hurdy-gurdy music began to play. And the curtain went up…

  No one, not even Papa Carlo, had ever seen such a beautiful scenery.

  There was a garden on the stage. Fingernail-sized clockwork starlings sang in small trees with golden and silver leaves.

  There were apples hanging from one tree, each no bigger than a grain of buckwheat. Peacocks walked under the trees and, rising on tiptoe, pecked at the apples. Two goats jumped and butted on the lawn, and butterflies flew in the air, barely visible to the eye.

  So a minute passed. The starlings fell silent, the peacocks and kids moved back behind the side wings. The trees fell into secret hatches under the floor of the stage.

  Tulle clouds have begun to spread on the back decoration. The red sun appeared over the sandy desert. To the right and to the left, from the side curtains, branches of vines, resembling snakes, were thrown out – a snake-boa constrictor actually hung on one. On the other, a family of monkeys swayed, clutching their tails.

  This was Africa.

  Animals passed through the desert sand under the red sun.

  A maned lion rushed by in three leaps – although he was no bigger than a kitten, he was terrible.

  Waddling, a teddy bear with an umbrella hobbled along on its hind legs.

  An ugly crocodile crawled through, its small crappy eyes pretending to be kind. Still, Artemon did not believe and growled at him.

  A rhinoceros galloped — for safety, a rubber ball was put on its sharp horn.

  A giraffe ran, looking like a striped, horned camel, stretching its neck with all its might.

  Then came an elephant, a friend of the children, smart, good-natured, waving his trunk in which he held a soy candy.

  The last to trot sideways was a terribly dirty wild jackal dog. Barking, Artemon rushed at her – Papa Carlo managed with difficulty to drag him away from the stage by the tail.

  The beasts have passed. The sun suddenly went out. In the darkness, some things fell from above, some things moved in from the sides. There was a sound as if a bow had been drawn across the strings.

  Frosted street lights flashed. The stage was a city square. The doors in the houses opened, little people ran out, climbed into a toy tram. The conductor rang, the driver turned the handle, the boy quickly clung to the sausage, the policeman whistled, – the tram rolled away into a side street between high houses.

  A cyclist on wheels passed by – no more than a saucer for jam. A newsboy ran past, folded four times the sheets of a tear-off calendar – that’s how big his newspapers were.

  An ice cream man rolled an ice cream cart across the site. The girls ran out onto the balconies of the houses and waved to him, and the ice-cream man spread his hands and said:

  — We ate everything, come another time.

  Then the curtain fell, and a golden zigzag of lightning shone on it again.

  Papa Carlo, Malvina, Piero could not come to their senses from admiration. Pinocchio, thrusting his hands into his pockets, turned up his nose, said boastfully:

  — What did you see? So, it was not for nothing that I got wet in the swamp with Aunt Tortila … In this theater we will put on a comedy – you know what? The Golden Key, or the Extraordinary Adventures of Pinocchio and His Friends. Karabas Barabas will burst with vexation.

  Pierrot rubbed his wrinkled forehead with his fists:

  — I will write this comedy in sumptuous verse.

  “I will sell ice cream and tickets,” said Malvina. — If you find a talent in me, I’ll try to play the roles of pretty girls…

  — Wait, guys, when will you study? asked Papa Carlo.

  Everyone answered at once:

  — We will study in the morning… And in the evening we will play in the theater… , and if we start traveling around Italy from city to city, I will drive a horse and cook lamb stew with garlic . ..

  Artemon listened with his ear up, turned his head, looked at his friends with shining eyes, and asked: what should he do?

  Pinocchio said:

  – Artemon will be in charge of props and theatrical costumes, we will give him the keys to the pantry. During the performance, he can imitate the roar of a lion, the tramp of a rhinoceros, the grinding of crocodile teeth, the howl of the wind – through the rapid rolling of the tail and other necessary sounds backstage.

  – What about you, what about you, Pinocchio? everyone asked. What do you want to be at the theatre?

  – Folks, in a comedy I will play myself and become famous all over the world!

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  The new puppet theater gives its first performance

  Karabas Barabas was sitting in front of the hearth in a disgusting mood. Damp firewood barely smoldered. It was raining outside. The leaky roof of the puppet theater was leaking. The dolls’ hands and feet were damp, no one wanted to work at rehearsals, even under the threat of a seven-tail whip. The dolls hadn’t eaten anything for three days now and were whispering ominously in the pantry, hanging on nails.

  Not a single theater ticket has been sold since morning. And who would go to see boring plays and hungry, ragged actors at Karabas Barabas’s!

  The clock on the city tower struck six. Karabas Barabas wandered gloomily into the auditorium—it was empty.

  “Damn all the respectable spectators,” he grumbled and went out into the street.

  Coming out, he looked, blinked and opened his mouth so that a crow could easily fly in there.

  Opposite his theatre, a crowd stood in front of a large new linen tent, ignoring the damp wind from the sea.

  A long-nosed little man in a cap stood on a platform above the entrance to the tent, blew a hoarse trumpet and shouted something.

  The audience laughed, clapped their hands, and many went inside the tent.

  Duremar approached Karabas Barabas; from him, as never before, smelled of mud.

  “E-he-he,” he said, gathering his whole face into sour wrinkles, “nothing to do with medicinal leeches. So I want to go to them, – Duremar pointed to a new tent, – I want to ask them to light candles or sweep the floor.

  — Whose damn theater is this? Where did he come from? growled Karabas Barabas.

  — It was the puppets themselves who opened the Molniya puppet theater, they themselves write plays in verse, they play themselves.

  Karabas Barabas gritted his teeth, tore at his beard and walked towards the new linen tent. Over the entrance to it Pinocchio shouted:

  – The first performance of an entertaining, fascinating comedy from the life of wooden men. A true story about how we defeated all our enemies with wit, courage and presence of mind …

  At the entrance to the puppet theater, Malvina was sitting in a glass booth with a beautiful bow in her blue hair and was not in time to distribute tickets to those who wanted to watch a merry comedy from puppet life.

  Papa Carlo, in a new velvet jacket, twirled a hurdy-gurdy and winked merrily at the honorable audience.

  Artemon dragged the fox Alice out of the tent by the tail, who passed without a ticket. Basilio the cat, also stowaway, managed to get away and sat in the rain on a tree, looking down with angry eyes.

  Pinocchio, puffing out his cheeks, blew a hoarse trumpet:

  – The performance begins.

  And he ran down the stairs to play the first scene of the comedy, which showed how poor Papa Carlo was carving a wooden man out of a log, not assuming that this would bring him happiness.

  The turtle Tortila was the last to crawl into the theater, holding in his mouth a ticket of honor on parchment paper with golden corners.

  The show has started. Karabas Barabas gloomily returned to his empty theater. I took a whip in seven tails. He unlocked the closet door.

  — I will teach you bastards not to be lazy! he growled fiercely.

  – I’ll teach you how to lure the public to me!

  He cracked his whip. But no one answered. The pantry was empty. Only pieces of string hung from the nails.

  All the dolls – the Harlequin, and the girls in black masks, and the sorcerers in pointed hats with stars, and the hunchbacks with their noses like cucumbers, and the rapas, and the dogs – everything, everything, all the dolls ran away from Karabas Barabas.

  With a terrible howl, he ran out of the theater into the street. He saw how the last of his actors fled through the puddles to the new theater, where music played merrily, laughter and clapping were heard.

  Karabas Barabas only managed to grab a poofy dog ​​with buttons instead of eyes. But, out of nowhere, Artemon flew at him, knocked him down, grabbed the dog and rushed off with it to the tent, where hot lamb stew with garlic was prepared for the hungry actors backstage.

  Karabas Barabas remained sitting in a puddle in the rain.

  Illustrator L. Vladimirsky

  “Pinocchio” – Official site of the Theater “On Liteiny”

  In the play:

  Pinocchio		Igor Klyuchnikov
  Cricket		Honored Artist of Russia Sergey Zamorev
  Cat Basilio		Sergey Sobolev
  Fox Alice		Lyubov Yeltsova
  Papa Carlo		Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Ryazantsev Igor Pavlov
  Karabas-Barabas		Alexander Tsybulsky
  Duremar		Honored Artist of Russia Sergey Zamorev
  Turtle Tortilla		Ludmila Egorova Nonna Samarina
  Mouse Queen Shushara		Asya Shirshina Varvara Shcherbakova
  Dolmatian Officer		Polina Voronova Elena Ksenda
  Pierrot		Igor Miletsky
  Harlequin		Alexander Mayorov
  Malvina		Ekaterina Kulesh Maria Ovsyannikova
  Artemon		Konstantin Mukhin Sergey Kolos

  In a distant fairyland there lived a wooden boy Pinocchio, a girl with blue hair Malvina, a dog Artemon, a sad Pierrot, a bully Harlequin, a puppet master Papa Carlo, a ferocious director of the Karabas-Barabas puppet theater, a wise turtle Tortilla, a seller of leeches Duremar, the cunning Fox Alice, the old crook cat Basilio and the wise Cricket.

  No sooner had Pinocchio been born than unusual adventures began to happen to him. Curious Pinocchio stuck his long nose into a cauldron painted on canvas in Papa Carlo’s closet and pierced it through. Despite the advice of the wise Cricket, on the way to school, he exchanged his brand new alphabet for a ticket to the theater. And there he almost fell into a fire, on which a roast was being prepared for the ferocious Karabas Barabas. After, succumbing to the persuasion of scoundrels Alice and Basilio, Pinocchio set off on a campaign in the Land of Fools, buried five gold pieces, believing in a wonderful story about a tree on which money grows, because he needed to buy Papa Carlo a jacket and a new alphabet. And one day the Old Turtle Tortila, who lives in a quiet pond, gave Pinocchio a golden key …

  The moral of the tale is simple and beautiful. Bully, tomboy and inventor Pinocchio, always getting into disgusting stories, finds his way and his theater. At the beginning of the story, he comes to a performance at the Carabas-Barabas Theater and believes in the story played by Pierrot and Harlequin. He believes so much that he bursts onto the stage to protect the weak poet from the stick of the mocking Harlequin. At the end of the story, having opened the magic door with a golden key, he becomes not only an actor in his theater, but also its main character. The dream of every actor who plays for children is that his young viewers believe that such a path is possible. After all, each of those who will go on stage in the play “Pinocchio” also once sat in the auditorium and dropped his number at the most exciting moment of the performance.

  Performance is conducted by Tatyana Romanovskaya. Performance duration 1 hour 25 minutes. The performance comes with an intermission. premiered on December 25, 2003.

  Photo by Yuri Belinsky

  The fate of the actors of the film “The Adventures of Pinocchio”

  Dmitry Iosifov as Pinocchio

  Critics unanimously call the adaptation of Alexei Tolstoy’s fairy tale the best directorial work of Leonid Nechaev, although in December 1975 officials had other conversations. The picture was dubbed ugly: a cat without a tail, a fox in a dress, Pinocchio mocks the elderly Karabas. The Belarusfilm studio accepted the tape only because it was the end of the year, and failure to fulfill the plan threatened with deprivation of bonuses and fines.

  Children’s musical premiered on January 1, 1976th, became a hit, although it could gather dust on the shelf. What was the secret of the extraordinary success of the picture? Of course, in the songs written by Alexei Rybnikov, the pedagogical talent of the director, who managed to find a common language with all the child artists, and in the skill of eminent actors – Vladimir Etush, Yuri Katin-Yartsev, Rina Zelena.

  Almost none of the little stars of the fairy tale went on to film careers. What happened to the young artists of “The Adventures of Pinocchio” and how did the shooting affect the work of already established actors?

  DMITRY IOSIFOV

  Initially, Dmitry Iosifov auditioned for the role of Harlequin

  Charming Boy Leonid Nechaev noticed in the transition of Minsk: the child was in a hurry with his grandmother to figure skating. At first, the relative refused the director’s offer to bring her grandson to the film studio – Dima did not have enough time to study, music and sports, what kind of shooting is there. But Iosifov’s mom and dad became interested in the invitation.

  The boy was approved for the role of Harlequin, but the more the playwright watched his plasticity, reminiscent of the movement of a doll on hinges, the more clearly he understood that he was Pinocchio. For the image, Iosifov shaved off his hair and eyebrows in order to glue the fake ones, endured the selection of makeup with a dozen variants of noses, and performed tricks himself.

  Filming was not easy for the child: he quickly got tired, was capricious, and could not get along with all the adult colleagues. So, a nine-year-old boy adored his “screen fathers” Nikolai Grinko and Yuri Katin-Yartsev, but he did not like Vladimir Etush.

  “Once I played well against Vladimir Abramovich. They filmed the scene when Pinocchio sits on a pine tree and throws cones at Karabas. Real big pine cones. The director kept repeating: “You don’t really quit.” And then I let go of the horses. It was, of course, painful, ”admitted Iosifov.

  The director’s family is happy to review the fairy tale with his participation

  With the premiere of the musical, Dima woke up famous. I had to safely forget about figure skating: the directors strewed him with offers for new shootings. Soon Iosifov appeared in the films “About Little Red Riding Hood” and “Captain Sovri-head.”

  More and more delving into the acting profession, Dmitry decided to enter VGIK. He did not impress the admission committee, but Leonid Nechaev gave the pupil excellent recommendations, and later the teachers of the institute were convinced of the student’s talent. After studying in Moscow, the young man returned to Minsk for distribution and graduated from the directing department there.

  At a conscious age, Iosifov played in detective films. He considered the drama “Guard” to be his best film. Gradually, the roles diminished, but a new page in the artist’s biography opened up: director’s. He shot commercials, short films, episodes of Lethal Force. A major success of Dmitry was the TV series “Catherine. Takeoff”.

  The performer of the role of Pinocchio was also lucky in his personal life. While still a student, he married a costume designer Natalya. The wife gave the artist three children: Andrei, Anton and Artem. To the delight of the parent, the eldest son connected his fate with the world of cinema, becoming a cameraman.

  TATYANA PROTSENKO

  After Malvina, Tatyana Protsenko was supposed to play Little Red Riding Hood

  While traveling by train, the director’s assistant saw seven-year-old Tanya Protsenko showing her mother scenes and singing. Nechaev’s assistant was so impressed by the artistry of the child that she immediately suggested that the parent bring her daughter to the set.

  don’t miss Little Red Riding Hood or Malvina? How did the lives of those who broke the hearts of Soviet boys

  Tanya’s charm spread to all colleagues. Dmitry Iosifov recalled that the actor who played Pierrot was in love with Malvina not only according to the script. After the release of The Adventures of Pinocchio, Protsenko had a promising career: she was approved for the main role in the fairy tale About Little Red Riding Hood. Unfortunately, the girl’s dreams were crossed out once and for all by an accident – due to an unsuccessful fall from a bicycle, she seriously injured her back, and doctors strictly forbade her physical activity and shooting.

  Being very young, Tatyana quickly came to terms with the idea of ​​ending her acting career. She graduated from the film studies department of VGIK and became a member of the International Federation of Journalists. But if Protsenko made progress in her profession, then in her personal life she did not immediately find harmony. So, the first husband betrayed the former artist and, as it turned out, cheated on her even after the birth of her daughter.

  “I endured for a long time, then I went to my mother,” Tatyana confessed. – I don’t believe those who answer the question “How did you survive the divorce?” replies: “Easy!”. Divorce is always a deep wound that does not heal for a very long time, it bleeds. I “cut off” my husband from me, we did not communicate for several years. My mother helped me raise my daughter Anya, without her I would not have coped.

  Tatyana Protsenko is happy in her second marriage

  Protsenko was lucky when she got a job as an editor in a large publishing house. The ex-artist literally met her soulmate: her colleague Alexei Voytyuk was going through a painful divorce at that moment and, moreover, many years ago he played in the fairy tale “After the rain on Thursday”.

  do not missTrauma, career failures and betrayal of her husband: how did the life of the performer of the role of Malvina Tatyana Protsenko

  Tatyana married Alexei and gave birth to his son Vladimir. Voytyuk continued to develop his career as an actor, and Protsenko took up writing poetry. The creative union has been going on for more than 15 years, and fans believe that this marriage of the performer of the role of Malvina will never fall apart.

  ROMAN STOLCARTS

  Roman Stolkarts came to the audition with his mother

  It is symbolic that the performer of the role of Pierrot, like the film “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, celebrates his birthday on January 1st. It was not by chance that the boy came to the shooting: during the winter holidays he came to audition at the film studio with his mother, a pediatrician.

  “We were waiting in a huge queue to be called. And she believed in me so much! I was asked to read a poem. And here is a little Jewish boy standing and reading “The Winter Road” by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin,” Stolkarts shared.

  From dozens of applicants, Leonid Nechaev chose Roman, which at that time seemed like a real miracle. Collaboration with venerable actors, work on the role of the sad Pierrot, touching courtship of little Tanya Protsenko are some of the best childhood memories of Stolkarets. But on participation in “The Adventures of Pinocchio” his film career ended.

  In 2012, Roman Stolkarts met with Tatyana Protsenko in the studio of the TV show

  “Leonid Alekseevich surprisingly predicted the characters and fate of the children who played in the film. Today, I, a pediatrician, play, as I call it, in the “theater of one spectator.” I am an actor, and the viewer is a sick child who came to me. He feels bad. I convince him with knowledge and experience that everything will be fine, ”said Roman.

  Back in 1990, the doctor left Russia and moved with his wife to Israel. Stolkarts has four children there. The man does not forget about his acting past and keeps in touch with Dmitry Iosifov and Tatyana Protsenko, with whom he once shared the site. Roman even met his first love “Malvina” in the program “We Speak and Show” on NTV in 2012.

  WHERE ARE ARTEMON AND HARLEKIN GONE?

  Tomas Augustinas played only one role in the movie

  Tomas Augustinas, who played the noble poodle Artemon in the fairy tale, like Pierrot, was childishly in love with Tanya Protsenko. Thomas bought “Malvina” flowers and sweets, strove to hug her. But the girl indignantly rejected the admirer.

  “He seemed to me a big, kind and handsome dog. And suddenly a boy came and he was playing a poodle. I was left without a dog! The disappointment was too great. And I childishly pouted at Thomas, it seemed to me that it was his fault, he broke my dream to play with the dog. And secondly, I myself had sympathy for Roman – Pierrot. According to the plot, Malvina does not reciprocate Pierrot. And I liked Roma, ”admitted Protsenko.

  Nothing is known about the fate of Grigory Svetlorusov

  In the 80s, Thomas emigrated with his parents to Canada, where he graduated from a business school. According to rumors, he became a successful entrepreneur in Ottawa and almost forgot the Russian language.

  Even less is known about Grigory Svetlorusov, who portrayed Harlequin on the screen. The actor no longer acted in films, and there are legends about his fate. According to one version, the young man graduated from the Higher School of the KGB and became an intelligence officer, according to another, he went into business in Minsk. In addition, information appeared that Grigory had problems with the law, and he was hiding from justice in the United States.

  WHAT PARTICIPATION IN A FAIRY TALE MEAN FOR FAMOUS ACTORS

  On the eve of filming, Rina Zelena’s sister died

  If for young artists, work in Nechaev’s film could become a ticket to the world of cinema, then for adult venerable actors, shooting was commonplace. Nevertheless, for some stars, participation in the Adventures of Pinocchio turned out to be not only a useful experience, but also a real test.

  Rina Zelenaya found her place on the radio and in the Theater of Satire, and earned a little money with supporting roles in films. But it was the image of Tortilla that young viewers began to associate with a parodist after the release of Leonid Nechaev’s picture. Playing a wise turtle turned out to be not at all easy: on the eve of filming, the artist’s sister died.

  “She was so sad, she told sad stories. Since Rina Vasilievna did not walk well, she had to constantly move on the recommendation of doctors. She leaned on me, and we, while installing the camera, slowly walked around the pond, ”recalled Dmitry Iosifov.

  Elena Sanaeva dreamed of playing in the same film with her husband

  In the future, the life of Rina Zelena did not become easier: a year and a half after the premiere of The Adventures of Pinocchio, her beloved husband Konstantin Topuridze died of a second stroke. The niece Tamara Eliava looked after the widowed aunt, but Rina Vasilievna spent the last months within the walls of the House of Cinema Veterans. The actress was diagnosed with cancer, and Tamara decided that the ecology outside the city would suit her better. On April 1, 1991, the 89-year-old parodist died, never knowing that, by a tragic coincidence, a decree was signed on that day to award her the title of People’s Artist of the USSR.

  don’t miss Tortilla’s romance: Rina Zelenaya went blind after her husband’s death and died in a nursing home

  For Rolan Bykov and his wife Elena Sanaeva, working with Nechaev was a long-awaited event. “Somehow Roland and I had a conversation about where we could act together. He said that in “The Adventures of Pinocchio.” And about two months later the phone rang, and the director Nechaev suggested that we try out for these roles. When I heard the offer, I asked: “Are you kidding?” Sanaeva shared.

  The star couple brilliantly embodied the duet of Fox Alice and Cat Basilio on the screen, although this was accompanied by a number of difficulties. Firstly, the shooting in Yalta was unbearably hot, and the actors wore fur suits. Secondly, Bykov turned out to be the most ardent critic for his wife, which frightened even his colleagues on the site.

  The role of Papa Carlo became one of the main ones in the life of Nikolai Grinko

  “I was afraid of Bykov: when I hung upside down, he twisted me to nausea! I didn’t understand how bad I was. He worked for himself and for the result. He and his wife Elena Sanaeva, who played Lisa Alice, simply drove to death, brought to hysterics. She fell exhausted, and he shouted: “You are mediocrity, mediocre actress!”. Bykov is one of those people who spare neither themselves nor others, ”Iosifov reasoned.

  don’t missWidow of Rolan Bykov: “Damned cancer took my husband and father from me”

  Sanayeva herself did not blame her husband for his exactingness and strictness, admiring his talent. For more than 25 years she lived with Rolan Bykov. The actor starred until 1997, when doctors had already diagnosed him with lung cancer. A year later, the 68-year-old director died. No one could replace Elena Sanaeva’s beloved husband, and she drowned out her longing only by work and communication with her son and granddaughter.

  Yuri Katin-Yartsev in the role of Giuseppe the Gray Nose

  Cancer defeated Nikolai Grinko’s Papa Carlo. The role in the fairy tale has become one of the brightest in the artist’s career, in addition to the legendary images of the professor in Stalker, Chris’s father in Solaris and Gromov in The Adventures of Electronics. The actor, whom Andrei Tarkovsky called his talisman, was seriously ill in recent years and died of leukemia at 19.