“Hello there!” repeated the marionette a little louder.  But there
   was no answer.

“They are deaf, or asleep, or dead!” concluded the marionette, after calling out at the top of his voice again and again.

Then he thought it might be a deserted village, and he entered bravely between the towers.  There was no one to be seen.  As he stretched out his tired limbs on the ground he murmured.  “Since it is useless to think of eating, I may at least rest.”  And in a few minutes he was sound asleep.

He dreamed that he was being pulled along by an army of small insects that resembled ants.  It seemed to him that he was making every effort to stop them, but he could not succeed.  They dragged and rolled him down a slope toward a frightful precipice, over which he must fall.  I even seemed as if they had entered his mouth by hundreds, busying themselves in tearing out his tongue.  It served him right, too, because his tongue had made many false promises and caused everybody much suffering."You will never tell any more lies!” the ants seemed to say.

Then the marionette awoke with a struggle and a cry of fear.  His dream was a reality.  He was covered with ants.  He brushed them off his face, his arms, his legs, — in short, his whole body.  They had tortured him for four or five hours, and only the fact that he was made of very hard wood had saved his life.

“Thanks to my strong constitution.” thought the marionette, “I am as good as new.”

28.  Pinocchio Is Carried Away In An Eggshell

Pinocchio now found himself in a dense growth of shrubbery which made his progress difficult.  He pushed on among the thorny plants.  They would have stopped any one but a wooden marionette.  His clothes were torn, to be sure, but he did not mind that.

“Soon I shall have a suit that will make me look like a price.  Goods of the best quality, and tailoring that has never been equaled!  The gold, the silver, and the diamonds must be found.”  And he went on at a brisk gait as if he had been on the highway.

Trees, shrubs, underbrush, nothing else!  The scene would have grown tiresome had it not been for a swarm of butterflies of the most beautiful and brilliant colors.  They flew here and there, now letting themselves be carried by the wind, now hovering about in search of the flowers hidden in the thick foliage.From time to time a hare would run between Pinocchio’s feet, and after a few bounds would turn sharply around to stare at him with curious eyes, as much as to say that a marionette was a comical sight.  Young monkeys peeped through the leaves, laughed at him, and then scampered away.

Pinocchio walked along fearlessly, caring little for what went on around him, and thinking only of the treasures for which he was seeking.

On and on he walked until at length he found himself at the edge of a vast plain.  He gave a great sigh of relief.  The long march through the woods had tired him.  However, he kept his eyes open, now and then looking down at his feet to see if any precious stones were lying about.  Presently his attention was drawn to a great hole or nest, in which he saw some white objects shaped like hen’s eggs, but considerably larger than his head.