"Who calls me?" said Pinocchio in a fright.

"It is I!"

Pinocchio turned round and saw a big cricket crawling slowly up the
wall.

"Tell me, Cricket, who may you be?"

"I am the Talking-Cricket, and I have lived in this room a hundred years
or more."

"Now, however, this room is mine," said the puppet, "and if you would do
me a pleasure go away at once, without even turning round."

"I will not go," answered the Cricket, "until I have told you a great
truth."

"Tell it me, then, and be quick about it."

"Woe to those boys who rebel against their parents and run away from
home. They will never come to any good in the world, and sooner or later
they will repent bitterly."

"Sing away, Cricket, as you please, and as long as you please. For me, I
have made up my mind to run away tomorrow at daybreak, because if I
remain I shall not escape the fate of all other boys; I shall be sent to
school and shall be made to study either by love or by force. To tell
you in confidence, I have no wish to learn; it is much more amusing to
run after butterflies, or to climb trees and to take the young birds out