"Very well, then," said Pinocchio, "if there is nothing else, I guess I'll have to eat them."
At first he made a disgusted-looking face, but, one after another, the skins and the cores disappeared into his mouth.
"Ah! Now I feel fine!" he said after finishing the last one.
"You see," observed Geppetto, "that I was right when I told you that you shouldn't be too fussy and too dainty about food. My dear, we never know what life may have in store for us!"
But the marionette, as soon as his belly was full of pears and he didn't have to think about being hungry any more, started to grumble that he wanted a new pair of feet.
But Geppetto, in order to punish him for all his mischief, let him alone the whole morning. After dinner, when Pinocchio still complained about his missing feet, the old man said to him:
"Why should I make your feet over again? If I do, I'm likely to see you run away from home once more."
"I promise you," answered the marionette, now crying his eyes out, "that from now on I'll be good -- "
"Boys always promise that when they want something," said Geppetto reasonably.
"I promise to go to school every day, to study, and to succeed -- "
"Boys always sing that song when they want to have their own way."
"But you know I am not like other boys! I am better than all of them and I always tell the truth. I promise you, Father, that I'll learn a trade, and I'll be a comfort to you in your old age."
Geppetto, although he tried to look very strict, felt his eyes fill with tears and his heart soften when he saw that Pinocchio, his pride and joy, was so unhappy. He said no more, but taking his tools and two pieces of wood, he set to work right away.
In less than an hour the feet were finished, two slender, nimble little feet, strong and quick, modeled as if by an artist's hands.
"Now close your eyes and sleep!" Geppetto said to his marionette, who had been yawning loudly.
Pinocchio closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, while Geppetto stuck on the two feet with a bit of glue melted in an eggshell, doing his work so well that the joint could hardly be seen.
