I'll take you there.' We flew all night
long, and next morning the fishermen were looking toward the sea,
crying, 'There is a poor little man drowning,' and I knew it was you,
because my heart told me so and I waved to you from the shore--"
"I knew you also," put in Geppetto, "and I wanted to go to you; but how
could I? The sea was rough and the whitecaps overturned the boat. Then
a Terrible Shark came up out of the sea and, as soon as he saw me in the
water, swam quickly toward me, put out his tongue, and swallowed me as
easily as if I had been a chocolate peppermint."
"And how long have you been shut away in here?"
"From that day to this, two long weary years--two years, my Pinocchio,
which have been like two centuries."
"And how have you lived? Where did you find the candle? And the matches
with which to light it--where did you get them?"
"You must know that, in the storm which swamped my boat, a large ship
also suffered the same fate. The sailors were all saved, but the ship
went right to the bottom of the sea, and the same Terrible Shark that
swallowed me, swallowed most of it.
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