“Surely I have,” answered Pinocchio, seriously.
The stickleback seemed to be very much excited. He moved around the nest he had made and watched it anxiously. The cause for this was soon evident. A second stickleback made its appearance from behind the rocks. At once the two engaged in a terrific struggle. They bit each other, used their tails as weapons, and charged each other viciously. During the battle they changed color—to a beautiful blue mottled with silver.
Pinocchio was struck with wonder. “Look! Look! One is wounded.... He falls.... He dies!” he cried. “And look at the other. How quickly he returns to the nest to guard the eggs!”
“But how is it,” here asked Marsovino, “that once I saw a stickleback swallow one of his little ones?”
“If you had followed him, you would later have seen the small fish come safely out of the large one’s mouth,” answered Tursio.
“‘Look! Look! One is Wounded.’”
“But why did the large one swallow the small one?” asked Pinocchio.
“Because the little one probably wanted to run away from the nest. It was too soon, the little one was too young to take care of himself; so the father took the only means he had to save the youngster from an enemy,” patiently explained Tursio.
Just then a small fish attracted the dolphin’s attention.