RED SHOES AND BLUE

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 15

RED SHOES AND BLUE

Elsie, who was clever for her age, heard the words "straying feet,'* and then she knew why she was sometimes not quite well behaved. It was her feet, that caused it all. 'Her feet made her go to the ■orchard when the fruit (which she ate) was still unripe. It was her feet that made her so slow to go to school and so quick to the creek when mother wanted her for the washing up. ; "If there was only some way of making them behave," and she slapped them, sitting on the verandah floor that Saturday aftension, feeling hot and sleepy.. ■■■■'.-. , , "There is a way," said a fairy lady, balancing herself among the wistaria. "I'm Cinderella's grandmother, you know, and am interested in footwear. If you had the right shoes on—l alone-stock.them—they'd lake you to "your.duty and away from disobedience guile easily. They're magic shoes, and they bud out from trees like flowers." -'■: "I've often heard about boot trees. Aunt Agatha, from the township, speaks of one she has, but I never knew shoes grew," ans then Elsie gasped, for a lovely tree appeared before her, drooping ana glossy like a pepper plant, : and amongst its delicate green leaves blossomed innumerable pairs of glittering little shoes. .. _ . Some she noticed were of red, with a satin sheen, while others were an azure blue and gloriously silken. ' ; "Wait," smiled the godmother, as she stretched out her hand to take a pair, "you have only three minutes to do the business, for then the tree fades away for ever. Now shoes of one colour will take you only to do what's right, but those of the other shade—l can?t say which—are wicked shoes, and will make you worse. Choose quickly, and then, if you have time, you can exchange." For a long, long second or two Elsie waited, wondering. The blue was the prettiest, but then the rose-red looked so kindly, and seemed to beckon her. Anyway, she would try those on first. Quickly she tore them off from the branch and slipped them on. Immediately she seemed to hear a number of little goblins laugh, and she felt the shoes tear at her feet, inviting her to go down the road that led to the dangerous swamp. She even moved to the verandah edge. Then-she stopped, forced herself to pull off the, shoes, and ran to the tree." ' ■. .'\ ■'.'..'■■.. . ■'■ : .'■ ■' ■: .■ .... "Quick, quick!" the godmother cried, and indeed Elsie saw that the leaves were beginning.to fade, and the trunk to grow ghostly like a pale birch on a moonlight night, Using both hands, she tore two shoes from the branch nearest,her. Then, dizzy but glad, she put them on her feet before they, too, should; fade. ; Then, her eyes clearing, she looked down at theni. Alas! in her haste she had.pulled one of each sort instead of a pair. She had one blue and-one red, one; good shoe and one bad one, and though no one would see-them she must wear them always. So now Elsie has often a queer little fight (do you also wear a red and a blue shoe?). Sometimes she wants to go to the forbidden places, '■and sometimes the blue shoe pulls her into the path of right. She tries to help the blue, shoe, however, all she can, and has'noticed lately, that • the red one is vbeginning to fade away. "■■■■■■ . ■ ; Anyway, Elsie's mother says she is. much improved.