"Does your story end here?"
"No," replied the marionette, "a few more words and then I shall be done. After you bought me you led me here to kill me, but then, being a kind man, you decided to drown me. This attention on your part was most honorable, and I shall always remember your goodness. You would certainly have succeeded in drowning me too, if it had not been for the good Fairy."
"Who is this Fairy?"
"She is my mother, who like all the other mothers in the world loves her child and never forgets him, and always helps him no matter how bad he is. She loved me and tried to make me a good and studious boy. As soon as the good Fairy saw I was in danger of drowning she sent a school of fishes, which, believing I really was a dead donkey, began to eat me. And what mouthfuls they took! Some ate my ears, some ate my legs and mane, some my back, and there was one big fish that ate my tail at one bite. When the fish had eaten everything they came at last to the bones—or rather they came to the wood. Finding that too hard for their teeth,
