“Pinocchio, don’t listen to the advice of bad companions; if you do you will repent it!”

Poor Blackbird!  If only he had not spoken!  The Cat, with a great leap, sprang upon him, and without even giving him time to say “Oh!” ate him in a mouthful, feathers and all.

Having eaten him and cleaned her mouth she shut her eyes again and feigned blindness as before.

“Poor Blackbird!” said Pinocchio to the Cat, “why did you treat him so badly?”

“I did it to give him a lesson.  He will learn another time not to meddle in other people’s conversation.”

They had gone almost half-way when the Fox, halting suddenly, said to the puppet: 

“Would you like to double your money?”

“In what way?”

“Would you like to make out of your five miserable sovereigns, a hundred, a thousand, two thousand?”

“I should think so! but in what way?”

“The way is easy enough.  Instead of returning home you must go with us.”

“And where do you wish to take me?”

“To the land of the Owls.”

Pinocchio reflected a moment, and then he said resolutely: 

“No, I will not go.  I am already close to the house, and I will return home to my papa, who is waiting for me.  Who can tell how often the poor old man must have sighed yesterday when I did not come back!  I have indeed been a bad son, and the Talking-Cricket was right when he said:  ‘Disobedient boys never come to any good in the world.’  I have found it to be true, for many misfortunes have happened to me.  Even yesterday in Fire-Eater’s house I ran the risk—­Oh! it makes me shudder only to think of it!”

“Well, then,” said the Fox, “you are quite decided to go home?  Go, then, and so much the worse for you.”

“So much the worse for you!” repeated the Cat.

“Think well of it, Pinocchio, for you are giving a kick to fortune.”

“To fortune!” repeated the Cat.

“Between today and tomorrow your five sovereigns would have become two thousand.”

“Two thousand!” repeated the Cat.

“But how is it possible that they could become so many?” asked Pinocchio, remaining with his mouth open from astonishment.

“I will explain it to you at once,” said the Fox.  “You must know that in the land of the Owls there is a sacred field called by everybody the Field of Miracles.  In this field you must dig a little hole, and you put into it, we will say, one gold sovereign.  You then cover up the hole with a little earth; you must water it with two pails of water from the fountain, then sprinkle it with two pinches of salt, and when night comes you can go quietly to bed.  In the meanwhile, during the night, the gold piece will grow and flower, and in the morning when you get up and return to the field, what do you find?  You find a beautiful tree laden with as many gold sovereigns as a fine ear of corn has grains in the month of June.”