Pinocchio sells his A-B-C book topay his way into the Marionette TheaterSee Pinocchio hurrying off to school with his new A-B-Cbook under his arm! As he walked along, his brain was busyplanning hundreds of wonderful things, building hundredsof castles in the air. Talking to himself, he said:

　　"In school today, I'll learn to read, tomorrow to write,and the day after tomorrow I'll do arithmetic. Then, cleveras I am, I can earn a lot of money. With the very firstpennies I make, I'll buy Father a new cloth coat. Cloth,did I say? No, it shall be of gold and silver with diamondbuttons. That poor man certainly deserves it; for, after all,isn't he in his shirt sleeves because he was good enough to buy a book for me? On this cold day, too! Fathers areindeed good to their children!"As he talked to himself, he thought he heard sounds ofpipes and drums coming from a distance: pi-pi-pi,pi-pi-pi. . .zum, zum, zum, zum.

　　He stopped to listen. Those sounds came from a littlestreet that led to a small village along the shore.

　　"What can that noise be? What a nuisance that I haveto go to school! Otherwise. . ."There he stopped, very much puzzled. He felt he hadto make up his mind for either one thing or another.

　　Should he go to school, or should he follow the pipes?

　　"Today I'll follow the pipes, and tomorrow I'll go toschool. There's always plenty of time to go to school,"decided the little rascal at last, shrugging his shoulders.

　　No sooner said than done. He started down the street,going like the wind. On he ran, and louder grew thesounds of pipe and drum: pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi, pi-pi-pi. . .zum, zum, zum, zum.

　　雪一停，皮诺乔就夹着他那本呱呱叫的新识字课本去上学，他一路走，他的小脑袋瓜里浮现出成千个幻想，成千座空中楼阁，越来越美。
　　他自言自语说：
　　“我在学校里，今天就要学会读书，明天就要学会写字，后天就要学会计算，以后凭着我的本领，我要挣许许多多钱。我第一次拿到钱就马上给爸爸买一件漂亮的布上衣，可我干吗买布的呢？我要买件金丝银线织的，钮扣是宝石做的，这位可怜人实在该穿这样的衣服，为什么，一句话，他为了给我买书，为了让我能够读书，竟把上衣也给卖了，光穿件衬衫……可天又这么冷！只有做爸爸的才肯作出这种牺牲！……”
　　他正在这样激动地说着这番话，忽然听见远处有音乐声，又是吹笛子，又是敲鼓：的的的，的的的……咚，咚，咚，咚。
　　他停下来竖起耳朵听，这声音是打岔道那边尽头传过来的，这条岔道很长很长，一直通到海边一个小村子。
　　“这音乐声是怎么回事？可惜我得去上学，要不……”
　　他站在那里拿不定主意，可无论如何得作出决定：或者去上学，或者去听吹笛子。
　　“今天就去听吹笛子，明天再去上学吧，去上学，反正日子长着呐，”这个小淘气最后耸耸肩膀说，
　　说干就干，他走到那条岔道上，撒腿就跑，他越往前跑，吹笛子和敲鼓的声音就越清楚：的的的，的的的，的的的……咚，咚，咚，咚。