--- title: "The Adventures of Pinocchio" story_id: "7974bfa9-d44e-43b2-86fd-5cc3d34cb0a4" text_id: "3f0e4d99-01d3-4204-8cd1-7484ab0194d0" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 4 part_count: 36 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?part=4" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Adventures of Pinocchio > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio) Version: Modernized ## Chapter 4 The story of Pinocchio and the Talking Cricket, in which one sees that bad children do not like to be corrected by those who know more than they do. It took very little time to get poor old Geppetto to prison. In the meantime that rascal, Pinocchio, free now from the clutches of the Carabineer, was running wildly across fields and meadows, taking one short cut after another toward home. In his wild flight, he leaped over brambles and bushes, and across brooks and ponds, as if he were a goat or a hare chased by hounds. On reaching home, he found the house door half open. He slipped into the room, locked the door, and threw himself on the floor, happy at his escape. But his happiness lasted only a short time, for just then he heard someone saying: “Cri-cri-cri!” “Who is calling me?” asked Pinocchio, greatly frightened. “I am!” Pinocchio turned and saw a large cricket crawling slowly up the wall. “Tell me, Cricket, who are you?” “I am the Talking Cricket and I have been living in this room for more than one hundred years.” “Today, however, this room is mine,” said the Marionette, “and if you wish to do me a favor, get out now, and don’t turn around even once.” “I refuse to leave this spot,” answered the Cricket, “until I have told you a great truth.” “Tell it, then, and hurry.” “Woe to boys who refuse to obey their parents and run away from home! They will never be happy in this world, and when they are older they will be very sorry for it.” “Sing on, Cricket mine, as you please. What I know is that tomorrow, at dawn, I leave this place forever. If I stay here the same thing will happen to me as to all other boys and girls. They are sent to school, and whether they want to or not, they must study. As for me, let me tell you, I hate to study! It’s much more fun, I think, to chase after butterflies, climb trees, and steal birds’ nests.” “Poor little silly! Don’t you know that if you go on like that, you will grow into a perfect donkey and that you’ll be the laughingstock of everyone?” “Keep still, you ugly Cricket!” cried Pinocchio. But the Cricket, who was a wise old philosopher, instead of being offended at Pinocchio’s impudence, continued in the same tone: “If you do not like going to school, why don’t you at least learn a trade, so that you can earn an honest living?” “Shall I tell you something?” asked Pinocchio, who was beginning to lose patience. “Of all the trades in the world, there is only one that really suits me.” “And what can that be?” “That of eating, drinking, sleeping, playing, and wandering around from morning till night.” “Let me tell you, for your own good, Pinocchio,” said the Talking Cricket in his calm voice, “that those who follow that trade always end up in the hospital or in prison.” “Careful, ugly Cricket! If you make me angry, you’ll be sorry!” “Poor Pinocchio, I am sorry for you.” “Why?” “Because you are a Marionette and, what is much worse, you have a wooden head.” At these last words, Pinocchio jumped up in a fury, took a hammer from the bench, and threw it with all his strength at the Talking Cricket. Perhaps he did not think he would strike it. But, sad to relate, my dear children, he did hit the Cricket, straight on its head. With a last weak “cri-cri-cri” the poor Cricket fell from the wall, dead! ## Parts - [1](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown) — Chapter 1 - [2](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=2) — Chapter 2 - [3](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=3) — Chapter 3 - [4](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=4) — Chapter 4 - [5](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=5) — Chapter 5 - [6](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=6) — Chapter 6 - [7](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=7) — Chapter 7 - [8](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=8) — Chapter 8 - [9](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=9) — Chapter 9 - [10](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=10) — Chapter 10 - [11](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=11) — Chapter 11 - [12](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=12) — Chapter 12 - [13](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=13) — Chapter 13 - [14](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=14) — Chapter 14 - [15](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=15) — Chapter 15 - [16](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=16) — Chapter 16 - [17](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=17) — Chapter 17 - [18](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=18) — Chapter 18 - [19](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=19) — Chapter 19 - [20](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=20) — Chapter 20 - [21](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=21) — Chapter 21 - [22](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=22) — Chapter 22 - [23](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=23) — Chapter 23 - [24](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=24) — Chapter 24 - [25](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=25) — Chapter 25 - [26](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=26) — Chapter 26 - [27](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=27) — Chapter 27 - [28](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=28) — Chapter 28 - [29](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=29) — Chapter 29 - [30](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=30) — Chapter 30 - [31](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=31) — Chapter 31 - [32](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=32) — Chapter 32 - [33](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=33) — Chapter 33 - [34](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=34) — Chapter 34 - [35](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=35) — Chapter 35 - [36](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-adventures-of-pinocchio?format=markdown&part=36) — Chapter 36 ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text The Adventures of Pinocchio, 1925, The Macmillan Company, New York - author: Carlo Collodi - translator: Carol Della Chiesa ## Illustration [Maria L. Kirk](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/272508b5-83b0-4582-b80e-d1f0aedb31ea) — Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet, 1916, J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia and London ## Reading music Funeral March of a Marionette Charles Gounod Eastern Wind Symphony (wind ensemble) Clark McAlister (conductor, arranger) Masters Music Publications (source) [CC BY-NC 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)