10. Pinocchio Eats Dates

SOON he met a man in a paper hat and a white apron. He was pushing a
cart filled with a kind of fruit that Pinocchio had never seen before.

"Dates! dates! fresh dates! sweet dates! real African dates!" came
the cry.

"Even he speaks of Africa!" thought Pinocchio. "Africa seems to
follow me. But what has Africa to do with dates, and what are these
dates? I have never heard of them." The man stopped; Pinocchio stopped
also. A lady bought some of the dates, and it happened that one of them
fell on the ground. The marionette picked it up and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she said with a smile. "Keep it yourself; you have
earned it."

The man with the cart went on, "Dates! dates! fresh dates! sweet
dates! real African dates!"

Pinocchio looked after him for a time and then put the date into his
mouth. Great Caesar! How delicious! Never before had he tasted
anything so sweet. The orange peel was nothing compared with this! What
the circus people had told him, then, was really true!

"To Africa I go," he said, "even if I break a leg. What do I care
about the Red Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Green, or any other sea? I will
go!"