Chapter 18 Pinocchio Becomes a Boy.
When Pinocchio and Geppetto were settled, Cricket revealed that the cottage had been given to him only yesterday by a little goat with blue hair.
She handed me the keys and went away, bleeding sadly.
Poor Pinocchio, she said, I will never see him again.
So the little blue goat on the white rock, the one who witnessed me being swallowed by the shark, really was fairy.
Pinocchio cried.
But where was she now, still out there, struck in the middle of the sea?
If he wasn't certain that her magic would help her to save herself, he would try to save her, too.
But now he had his father to take care of.
Pinocchio carefully made his father a bed of straw and helped the old man lie down.
The next step was to get him some nourishment.
"'Where can I find some milk?'
Pinocchio asked Cricket.
Three fields away from here lives Farmer John.
He has some cows.
Go there and he will give you what you want.
Pinocchio ran all the way there, but the farmer wouldn't give him a glass of milk unless Pinocchio gave him a penny.
I have no penny, Pinocchio said sadly.
Well, then you'll get no milk.
Pinocchio turned to go.
Wait a moment, said Farmer John.
Perhaps we can work out a trade.
Can you draw water from a well?
This time Pinocchio didn't protest.
He was a changed puppet.
I can try, he said.
Then go to that well you see there and draw me one hundred bucketfuls of water.
Pinocchio did just that, and one hundred bucketfuls later he had a warm glass of fresh milk for his father.
He had never worked so hard in his life.
From that day on, Pinocchio got up every morning before the sun rose and went to the farm to draw water for the farmer, and every day the farmer gave him a glass of warm milk for his poor old father in return.
Geppetto grew stronger and better every day.
But that wasn't all.
Pinocchio also took on lots of other little jobs.
He helped people with their chores.
He made things and sold them, and with the money he received, he and his father were able to keep from starving.
In the evenings Pinocchio studied by candlelight from an old second-hand school workbook that he had bought all by himself with some of the money he had earned.
Before long, he was able to save fifty whole pennies.
He decided he would buy a new suit.
His was full of holes and held together with tape.
On his way to market, Pinocchio ran into an old friend.
Why, it was the snail that had lived with Fairy.
"'Answer me quickly, sweet, but slow, snail!' he cried.
"'Where and how is Fairy?'
The snail replied, Fairy is lying sick in the hospital.
She doesn't even have one penny with which to buy a bite of bread.
Pinocchio gasped.
Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out his pennies and begged the snail to take them all.
He didn't need a new suit.
He would give anything he had to help Fairy.
If you come back in a few days, he added, I will have even more money to give you.
Inspired by Pinocchio's kindness and generosity.
The snail, quite against her normal habit, began to run like a lizard under the hot summer sun.
Where is your new suit?
Geppetto asked when Pinocchio returned.
Oh, I decided I didn't really need one after all, Pinocchio replied.
That day, instead of making eight baskets to sell at the market, Pinocchio made sixteen.
It was almost midnight when he finished, and he fell quickly into a deep sleep.
That night he dreamed that a beautiful, happy, healthy fairy kissed him and forgave him.
In return for his kindness and because he had taken care of his father, she promised to give him the thing he had always wanted most.
Awaking and opening his eyes, Pinocchio was stunned to realize that the dream had been real.
Instead of being a puppet made of wood, he was finally a real flesh-and-blood boy.
And that wasn't all.
Looking around he found the little straw cottage gone and his place was a big bed in a comfortable room in a real house.
Jumping down from the bed, Pinocchio saw a new suit, a new hat and a shiny pair of shoes laid out on a chair.
On the dresser was a note and a leather purse.
The note read, Boys with such kind hearts deserve to keep their pennies.
Fairy.
Opening the purse, Pinocchio found fifty pennies.
Running to the mirror, Pinocchio could hardly recognize himself.
In the glass was a tall boy with big blue eyes, dark brown hair, and a happy smiling mouth.
Why, he was downright handsome.
Pinocchio ran into his father's room where he found a man who had also much changed.
Several years younger and looking snazzy in new clothes, he was once again Master Geppetto the woodcarver, already hard at work on his latest craft project.
"'How did this happen?' the boy asked in wonder.
"'You made it happen,' Geppetto replied.
"'When bad boys become good and kind, magic happens.' and what happened to that poor, naughty old puppet Pinocchio?
There he is, answered Geppetto, and he pointed to a large puppet leaning against a chair.
The puppet's head was turned to one side, his arms hung limp and his legs were twisted under him.
Taking one last long look at his old life, Pinocchio sighed contentedly.
How silly I was, he said, and how happy I am now that I am a real boy.
And that, my dear readers, was no lie.
