"That is true," replied the fisherman, "But as I see that you live in the water, and so must be a fish, and as you know how to reason and talk, I will let you choose the way you will be cooked. Should you like to be boiled, or fried, or stewed in a pan with tomato sauce?"
"To tell the truth," answered Pinocchio, “If I can choose, I should prefer to be set free and go home."
"You are joking. Do you think I would lose the chance of eating so rare a fish? Leave it to me. I will fry you with the others. Being fried with companions is always a consolation."
At this the unhappy Pinocchio began to cry and exclaimed, “How much better would it have been if I had gone to school! I listened to the bad advice of my school friends, and now I am paying for it. Ih! Ih! Ih!"
And he twisted and turned and wriggled like an eel, so that the fisherman took a piece of cord and bound his feet together as if he had been a chicken in a market, and threw him in with the others. Then he brought
