Content Warning: The source material uses outdated and offensive language about individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities. This guide includes this language in quoted material when necessary.

A carpenter, Mastro Cherry, finds a perfect piece of wood to shape into a table leg. As he starts to carve bark off the wood, he hears a tiny voice begging Mastro Cherry not to hit him too hard; Mastro Cherry looks around, confused, as there is no one there. He strikes the wood again and hears the voice once more; then, he hears giggling as he starts to plane the wood. He decides that the voice must be coming from the piece of wood. Mastro Cherry sits down heavily, shocked.

Mastro Cherry’s friend, Geppetto, comes to the door. He has decided to make himself a puppet, with which he will travel the world and make money. Geppetto, who is sometimes teased and called Polendina (“polenta head”) for his yellow wig, has a very bad temper. Believing that Mastro Cherry is insulting him, Geppetto gets in a physical fight with Mastro Cherry when he hears a voice saying, “Bravo, Polendina!” (3).

The two men, after brawling for a time, stop and decide to be friends again.