At first he was very angry, but when he saw Pinocchio really stretched out on the floor without any feet, he felt sorry, and he took him gently by the neck and began to caress him. Swallowing a big sob, he said, “You dear little Pinocchio! How is it that you have burned off your feet?”
“I do not know, Papa; but, believe me, the night has been a horrible one, and I shall remember it always. It thundered and lightened and I was so very hungry! And the Talking Cricket said to me: ‘It serves you right; you have been wicked and you deserve it all.’ I said to him, ‘Take care, Cricket’; and he said to me, ‘You are a marionette and have a wooden head.’ I then took a hammer and threw it at him and it killed him. Then I placed a saucepan on some burning shavings to cook an egg, but when I broke the egg a little chicken flew out of the shell and said, ‘Good-by, little one.’ Meanwhile I grew more hungry and ran to a house and rang the doorbell for help. An old man with his nightcap on came to the window and emptied a bucket of water all over me. Was that a nice way to treat a boy? I came home right away and dropped into that chair and placed my feet on the stove. Now you have come back and found me with my feet all gone, and I am still awfully hungry. Ih! ih! ih! ih!”
