from “The Adventures of Pinocchio – The Story of a Marionette”

by Carlo Collodi

XXV

Pinocchio promises the Fairy to be good and to study, because he is fed up with being a marionette.

He wants to become a good boy.

At the beginning, the good little woman started by saying that she was not the little Fairy with blue hair: but then, she realised that she had already been discovered and she did not want to go on play-acting, so she ended up by admitting who she was. She told Pinocchio:

-This marionette is a little scamp! How did you know that it was me?

-It is the deep love that I feel for you who told me.

-Do you remember? I was a child, when you left me, and now that you meet me again, I’m a woman. So much so, that I may even be your Mummy.

-This makes me very happy: instead of my little sister, I’ll call you my Mummy. I have longed so much to have a Mummy like all the other boys!... But, tell me, how could you grow up so fast?

-It’s a secret.

-Teach it to me: I too would love to grow up a bit. Can’t you see? I’m still as short as ever.

-But you can’t grow up- the Fairy replied

-Why?

-Because marionettes don’t ever grow up. They are born as marionettes, live as marionettes and die as marionettes.

-Oh! I’m fed up with being a marionette all the time! – shouted Pinocchio, clipping himself on the head.

-It is high time I became a man like everybody else.

-And you will become one, if you deserve it...

1930 – R. Bemporad & F° - Publishers in Florence

Art. MFA Micro Fairy. Five jointed parts made of terracotta, treated with a special brownish bee wax for antique; individually hand-made, hand-painted. Height 8 cm.