“Did we not tell you so?” replied another voice. “Why, if I had not lost all that I had put in my pockets before leaving Africa, by this time I should have become a prince. And now were it not for the fact that I have promised to stay with these people, to be a panther at two francs and a half a day, I would gladly go along with you.”
“Thank you; thank you for your good intentions,” answered the marionette. “In case you decide to go with me, I start to-morrow morning at dawn.”
“On what steamship?”
“What did you say?” asked Pinocchio.
“On what steamship do you sail?”
“Sail! I am going on foot.”
At these words everybody laughed.
“There is little to laugh at, my dear people. If you knew how many miles I have traveled on these legs by day and by night, over land and sea, you would not laugh. What! do you think Fairyland, the country of the Blockheads, and the Island of the Bees are reached in a single stride? I go to Africa, and I go on foot.”
“But it is necessary to cross the Mediterranean Sea.”
“It will be crossed.”