Page:Collodi - The Story of a Puppet, translation Murray, 1892.djvu/125

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ADVENTURES OF PINOCCHIO
113

Seized with a sad presentiment he began to run with all the strength he had left, and in a few minutes he reached the field where the little white house had once stood. But the little white house was no longer there. He saw instead a marble stone, on which were engraved these sad words:


HERE LIES

THE CHILD WITH THE BLUE HAIR

WHO DIED FROM SORROW

BECAUSE SHE WAS ABANDONED BY HER

LITTLE BROTHER PINOCCHIO.


I leave you to imagine the puppet's feelings when he had with difficulty spelt out this epitaph. He fell with his face on the ground, and covering the tombstone with a thousand kisses burst into an agony of tears. He cried all night, and when morning came he was still crying although he had no tears left, and his sobs and lamentations were so acute and heartbreaking that they roused the echoes in the surrounding hills.

And as he wept he said:

'Oh, little Fairy, why did you die? Why did not I die instead of you, I who am so wicked, whilst you were so good? . . . And my papa? Where can he be? Oh, little Fairy, tell me where I can find him, for I