“Oh, my friend, you have come just in time! I implore you, for the love you bear your little tunny fishes, to help us, or we are lost!"
"With all my heart! Take hold of my tail, and in a few minutes we shall reach land."
As you may easily imagine, Geppetto and Pinocchio accepted the invitation without any argument.
"Are we too heavy?" asked Pinocchio.
"Heavy? Why you are like two feathers. It seems to me that I have two small shells clinging to my tail."
When they reached the shore Pinocchio was the first to scramble out and he helped his father to do the same. Then he turned to the Tunny, and with a voice trembling with emotion said: "My friend, you have saved my father's life and mine, too. I do not know how to thank you. Let me kiss you as a sign of eternal friendship."
The Tunny put his nose out of the water and Pinocchio, kneeling on the sand, kissed the fish tenderly. At this sign of affection, the poor Tunny, who was not accustomed to such kindness, felt so moved by it that he
