“But in order to go to school I need some clothes.”
Geppetto, who was so poor that he had not a cent in his pocket, made a beautiful suit of clothes out of some cardboard painted all over with flowers. He made a pair of shoes out of the bark of a tree, and a cap out of stale bread crumbs all molded together.
Pinocchio ran immediately to look at himself in a tub filled with water, and he was so delighted with his appearance that he said proudly, “Truly, I look like a gentleman!”
“Yes, indeed,” replied Geppetto, “because, bear in mind, it is not fine clothes so much as clean ones that make a gentleman.”
“By the by,” added the marionette, “now in order to go to school I lack something else.”
“What is that?”
“Why, I lack an A B C card.”
“You are right; but how can I get one?”
“That is easy. Go to the store and buy it.”
“And the money?”
“I have none.”
“Neither have I,” added the good old man, looking sad.
Pinocchio, although he was a happy boy, looked sad too, because real trouble is understood by everybody, even by boys.
