to explore. They wandered everywhere, and they looked into every nook and corner. They became everybody's friend. They couldn't have been happier.

“Oh, what a beautiful life this is!” said Pinocchio when, by chance, he met his friend Lampwick.

“Was I right or wrong?” answered Lampwick. “And to think that you didn't want to come! To think that even yesterday you were ready to return home to see your mother and to start studying again! If today you're free from pencils and books, you owe it all to me. Do you admit it? Only real friends would show such kindness.”

“It's true, Lampwick, it's true. If today I'm a really happy boy, it's all because of you. And to think that our teacher, when speaking to me of you, used to say, ‘Don't associate with that crass, loud boor! His unseemly behavior will only lead you into trouble.'”

“Poor teacher! Of course he, with his hypercritical nature and genteel manners, would say something like that,” answered the other. “I never could act in accord with his archaic rules. Do you remember that time he suddenly made a rule that anyone who spoke without raising his hand first would have to sit in the corner and wear a dunce cap? Then he made the rule retroactive by a day just so he could punish me for having called out the day before!” Pinocchio smiled knowingly, and then Lampwick continued, “He was awfully old-fashioned, too, wasn't he? The fact that he forced us to learn an obsolete language like Latin is proof of that. We didn't even comprehend what we were reading! Do you remember how we would memorize a string of meaningless syllables by rote, just so we could spit them back sequentially when called upon in class?” The puppet nodded, then Lampwick went on, “And he was so petty—always quibbling about minor points of grammar. He made me want to scream!” Pinocchio slowly shook his head back and forth as if in disbelief. “You know,” continued Lampwick, “it's old fuddy-duddies like him that contribute to the popular stereotype of schoolteachers as humorless bores. Do you agree? Anyway, I know that he despised me, and that's why he always minimized my accomplishments and tried to belittle me in front of the others. But that was okay. Really. I never let his tactics erode my morale. And today I feel no antagonism toward him whatsoever. Why? Because I have a magnanimous nature and I forgive him.”

“What a guy!” said Pinocchio, fondly embracing his friend.

Five months passed and the boys continued playing and enjoying themselves from morning till night. Pinocchio relished every bit of it—the toys, the