In a little more than an hour, all his friends were invited. Some had accepted quickly and gladly. Others had to be coaxed with the promise of chocolate cake.

Among his schoolmates, Pinocchio had one whom he liked best of all—the tall, thin, bright one whose nickname, fittingly, was “Lampwick.” As the laziest boy in the school and the biggest troublemaker, his values were the antithesis of Pinocchio's. Nevertheless, an affinity existed between them.

That day, Pinocchio went straight to his friend's house to invite him to the party, but Lampwick wasn't home. He went a second time, and again a third, but still without luck.

Where could he be? Pinocchio searched everywhere and finally found him standing near a farmer's wagon.

“What are you doing here?” asked Pinocchio, running up to him.

“I'm waiting for midnight to strike to go—”

“Where?”

“Far, far away!”

“And I've gone to your house three times looking for you!”

“What did you want?”

“Haven't you heard? Don't you know about my good luck?”

“What?”

“Tomorrow I end my days as a puppet and become a real boy—like you and all my other friends.”

“That's great!”

“Will you come to my party tomorrow?”

“But I'm telling you that I'm going away tonight.”

“What time?”

“Midnight.”

“Where are you going?”

“To another country—the best in the world—a wonderful place!”

“What is it?”

“It's called Playland. Why don't you come with me?”

“Me? Oh, no!”

“You're making a big mistake, Pinocchio. Believe me, if you don't come, you'll be sorry. Where can you find a place that's better? No schools, no teachers, no books! And no homework either! You find homework as irksome as I do, right? Well, in that heavenly place there's no such thing as homework! And here, it's only on weekends that we have no school. In Playland, every day is like the weekend. Vacation begins on the first day of January and ends on the last day of December. Oh, that's the place for me! All countries should be like it! We'll be so happy there!”

“But how do you spend your time in Playland?”

“That's the best part. Here, we have to suffer the monotony of our daily school routine. There, you play all day long. At night you go to bed, and the next morning, the fun begins all over again. What do you think of that?”

“Hmm…” said Pinocchio, nodding his wooden head as if to say, “That sounds pretty good.”

“Do you want to go with me, then? Yes or no?”

“But what if something bad happens?”

“Don't be such a pessimist. Nothing is going to happen. So is it yes or no? Make up your mind.”

“No, no, and again no! I've promised my kind fairy to be a good boy and to be home before dark. Anything else