Pinocchio,not having listened to the good adviceof the Talking Cricket, falls into thehands of the Assassins "Dear, oh, dear! When I come to think of it,"said theMarionette to himself, as he once more set out on hisjourney, "weboys are really very unlucky. Everybodyscolds us, everybody gives us advice,everybody warns us.

　　If we were to allow it, everyone would try to be fatherand mother tous; everyone, even the Talking Cricket.

　　Take me, for example. Just because I would not listen tothatbothersome Cricket, who knows how many misfortunesmay be awaiting me! Assassinsindeed! At leastI have never believed in them, nor ever will. To speaksensibly,I think assassins have been invented by fathersand mothers to frighten childrenwho want to run awayat night. And then, even if I were to meet them onthe road,what matter? I'll just run up to them, and say,`Well, signori, what do youwant? Remember that youcan't fool with me! Run along and mind your business.'

　　At such a speech, I can almost see those poor fellowsrunning likethe wind. But in case they don't run away,I can always run myself. .."Pinocchio was not given time to argue any longer, for he thought heheard a slight rustle among the leaves behind him.

　　He turned to look and behold, there in the darknessstood two bigblack shadows, wrapped from head to footin black sacks. The two figures leapedtoward him assoftly as if they were ghosts.

　　"Here they come!" Pinocchio said to himself, and,notknowing where to hide the gold pieces, he stuck allfour of them under histongue.

　　“说真个的，”木偶一面重新上路，一面自言自语说，“我们这种可怜孩子多倒霉！人人都骂我们，人人都教训我们，人人都要我们这样做那样做。人人都一开口就自以为是我们的爸爸，自以为是我们的老师。人人都这样，连那样会说话的蟋蟀也这样。看这会儿，就因为我没听这只讨厌蟋蟀的啰哩啰嗦，它就说我不知道要遇到多少灾难！我还要遇到杀人的强盗呢！还好我不相信有什么杀人强盗，从来就不相信。依我看，杀人强盗全是那些做爸爸的想出来，吓唬吓唬夜里想出去的孩子的，就算我真在路上碰到他们，难道我会害怕他们吗，我根本不怕，我要走到他们面前，对他们叫着说：‘杀人强盗先生，你们要把我怎么样？记住吧，可别跟我开玩笑！去你们的吧，别开口了！’我这番话说得那么绝，那些倒霉的杀人强盗啊，我好像已经看见他们了，他们像阵风似地逃走啦。万一他们凶神恶煞，偏不逃走呢？那有什么，我逃走就是了，事情不就结了吗……”
　　可皮诺乔没能把他那套大道理说完，因为就在这时候，他好像听见后面树叶子沙沙响，很轻很轻的，
　　他回头一看，就看见黑地里有两个难看的黑影，这是两个人，全身用装炭的口袋套着，踮起脚尖一跳一跳地紧紧追来，活像两个鬼怪。
　　“他们真在这里！”皮诺乔心里说了一声。他不知把四个金币藏到哪儿好，一下子把它们藏到了嘴里，正好塞在舌头底下。