little or no trouble. For this we are as happy as can be.”

“Happy as can be,” repeated the cat.

They said good-bye to Pinocchio and, wishing him luck, went on their way.

Chapter 15 “Pinocchio Goes to Jail”

If Pinocchio had been told to wait a day instead of twenty minutes, the time could not have seemed longer to him. He walked some distance from the field, then impatiently paced back and forth for about ten minutes. Finally he turned his nose back toward the Field of Wonders.

As he walked with hurried steps, his heart pounded and his busy brain kept thinking: “What if, instead of two thousand, I find five thousand—or one hundred thousand? First I'll buy myself a palatial mansion. Then I'll dress myself from head to toe in regal splendor. Then I'll buy hundreds of ponies to play with, and then I'll fill my kitchen with lollipops, ice cream, and candy.”

He amused himself with this fanciful reverie until he arrived back at the edge of the field. There he stopped to see if, by any chance, a tree filled with gold coins was in sight. When he saw nothing, his daydreams of sumptuous living came to an abrupt halt. He took a few steps forward but still saw nothing! He ran to the place where he had dug the hole and buried the gold pieces. He stared down at the ground. Again nothing! He got down on his hands and knees and scrutinized the earth inch by inch. Again nothing. Pinocchio became very thoughtful and scratched his head.

As he did so, he heard a hearty burst of laughter. He stood and turned sharply, and there on the branch of a tree sat a large parrot, busily grooming his feathers.

“What are you laughing at?” Pinocchio asked peevishly.

“I'm laughing because, while I was cleaning myself, I tickled myself under my wing.”

The puppet didn't answer. He walked to the brook, filled his shoe with water, and once more sprinkled the ground that covered the gold pieces.

Another burst of laughter, even louder than the first, was heard in the quiet field.

“Well,” cried the puppet, angrily this time, “will you tell me what's so funny?”

“I'm laughing at those fools who believe everything they hear and allow themselves to be deluded.”

“Are you insinuating, perhaps, that I'm one of those fools?”

“I certainly am, poor Pinocchio. The notion that gold coins can be harvested from a field is fallacious—and you're a fool to believe it. I, too, once believed that it's possible to amass a great fortune without doing any work, and today I'm very sorry for it. I've discovered, but too late, one of the cardinal rules