THE TINY COBBLER
"Tick, tack, two
The Cobbler makes a shoe
That takes a stride
The whole world wide,
Tick, tack, two."
"Did you hear that?" whispered the little dwarf, who in the last story has lost one of his wonderful thousand league boots, you remember. And if you don't, please take my word for it, as there won't be space enough in this story to tell you how it happened.
"Let's go in and ask the price," said Uncle John Hare. So the two little bunnies and the dwarf hopped out of the Bunnymobile and went into the hut. On a wooden bench sat a tiny man dressed in a big leather apron and red-peaked hat, busily making a boot. He didn't seem a bit surprised when the door opened, and he said:
"My little tame robin
Just told me that you
Have left in a tree,
Your thousand league shoe."
"That's right," answered the dwarf. "Will you sell me the one you are making?"
"What will you give me for it?" asked Jim Cobbler, waxing his thread and drawing it carefully through the holes he had just punched in the leather.
"Rubies and diamonds," answered the dwarf, taking a bag from his pocket. "Two diamonds and three rubies, five precious stones, the like of which you have never seen."
"I will finish the boot in a short time," answered Jim Cobbler, "and then you may try it on." And he set to work, and pretty soon, not so very long, it was finished. And would you believe it, it fitted the dwarf perfectly and matched his other boot exactly.
And as soon as he had paid for it, he walked outside and said in a singing way: