The Fairy gave him the sugar and Pinocchio, after chewing and swallowing it in a twinkling, said, smacking his lips:

As soon as the three doctors had left the room, the Fairy went to Pinocchio's bed and, touching him on the forehead, noticed that he was burning with fever.

"I want the sugar first, then I'll drink the bitter water."

"I don't like anything bitter."

She took a glass of water, put a white powder into it, and, handing it to the Marionette, said lovingly to him:

"Here it is," said the Fairy, taking a lump from a golden sugar bowl.

"Drink it and I'll give you a lump of sugar to take the bitter taste from your mouth."

"Drink it!"

"Drink this, and in a few days you'll be up and well."

"If it is bitter, I don't want it."

"Where's the sugar?"

"It is bitter, but it is good for you."

"Do you promise?"

"Yes."

Pinocchio looked at the glass, made a wry face, and asked in a whining voice: "Is it sweet or bitter?"

"If only sugar were medicine! I should take it every day."

"Now keep your promise and drink these few drops of water. They'll be good for you."

"How do you know, when you haven't even tasted it?"

The Fairy, with all the patience of a good mother, gave him more sugar and again handed him the glass.

"You are very sick."

Pinocchio took the glass in both hands and stuck his nose into it. He lifted it to his mouth and once more stuck his nose into it.

"I don't care."

"I don't care."

The Fairy closed the door.

"What's the matter now?"

"I don't like the way that door looks. It's half open."

"In a few hours the fever will take you far away to another world."

"It is too bitter, much too bitter! I can't drink it."

The Fairy took away the pillow.

"I won't drink it," cried Pinocchio, bursting out crying. "I won't drink this awful water. I won't. I won't! No, no, no, no!"

"Because that feather pillow on my feet bothers me."

"My boy, you'll be sorry."

"I can't drink it like that," the Marionette said, making more wry faces.

"Why?"

"I can imagine it. I smell it. I want another lump of sugar, then I'll drink it."

"It's no use. I can't drink it even now."

"I don't care."

At that moment, the door of the room flew open and in came four Rabbits as black as ink, carrying a small black coffin on their shoulders.

"No, not dead yet; but you will be in a few moments since you have refused to take the medicine which would have made you well."

"Oh, Fairy, my Fairy," the Marionette cried out, "give me that glass! Quick, please! I don't want to die! No, no, not yet -- not yet!"

"Aren't you afraid of death?"

And turning on their heels, they marched solemnly out of the room, carrying their little black coffin and muttering and grumbling between their teeth. In a twinkling, Pinocchio felt fine. With one leap he was out of bed and into his clothes.

"We have come for you," said the largest Rabbit.

"What do you want from me?" asked Pinocchio.

"Not a bit. I'd rather die than drink that awful medicine."

"For me? But I'm not dead yet!"

And holding the glass with his two hands, he swallowed the medicine at one gulp.

"Well," said the four Rabbits, "this time we have made the trip for nothing."

The Fairy, seeing him run and jump around the room gay as a bird on wing, said to him: "My medicine was good for you, after all, wasn't it?"

"Why, then, did I have to beg you so hard to make you drink it?"

"What a shame! Boys ought to know, after all, that medicine, taken in time, can save them from much pain and even from death."

"Good indeed! It has given me new life."

"I'm a boy, you see, and all boys hate medicine more than they do sickness."

"Come here now and tell me how it came about that you found yourself in the hands of the Assassins."

"Next time I won't have to be begged so hard. I'll remember those black Rabbits with the black coffin on their shoulders and I'll take the glass and pouf! -- down it will go!"

"It happened that Fire Eater gave me five gold pieces to give to my Father, but on the way, I met a Fox and a Cat, who asked me, 'Do you want the five pieces to become two thousand?' And I said, 'Yes.' And they said, 'Come with us to the Field of Wonders.' And I said, 'Let's go.' Then they said, 'Let us stop at the Inn of the Red Lobster for dinner and after midnight we'll set out again.' We ate and went to sleep. When I awoke they were gone and I started out in the darkness all alone. On the road I met two Assassins dressed in black coal sacks, who said to me, 'Your money or your life!' and I said, 'I haven't any money'; for, you see, I had put the money under my tongue. One of them tried to put his hand in my mouth and I bit it off and spat it out; but it wasn't a hand, it was a cat's paw. And they ran after me and I ran and ran, till at last they caught me and tied my neck with a rope and hanged me to a tree, saying, 'Tomorrow we'll come back for you and you'll be dead and your mouth will be open, and then we'll take the gold pieces that you have hidden under your tongue.'"

"I lost them," answered Pinocchio, but he told a lie, for he had them in his pocket. As he spoke, his nose, long though it was, became at least two inches longer.

"And where did you lose them?"

"In the wood near by."

"Where are the gold pieces now?" the Fairy asked.

"Ah, now I remember," replied the Marionette, becoming more and more confused. "I did not lose the gold pieces, but I swallowed them when I drank the medicine."

At this second lie, his nose grew a few more inches.

"If you lost them in the near-by wood," said the Fairy, "we'll look for them and find them, for everything that is lost there is always found."

The Fairy sat looking at him and laughing.

At this third lie, his nose became longer than ever, so long that he could not even turn around. If he turned to the right, he knocked it against the bed or into the windowpanes; if he turned to the left, he struck the walls or the door; if he raised it a bit, he almost put the Fairy's eyes out.

"Why do you laugh?" the Marionette asked her, worried now at the sight of his growing nose.

"I am laughing at your lies."

Pinocchio, not knowing where to hide his shame, tried to escape from the room, but his nose had become so long that he could not get it out of the door.

"Lies, my boy, are known in a moment. There are two kinds of lies, lies with short legs and lies with long noses. Yours, just now, happen to have long noses."

"How do you know I am lying?"