“You just wait a minute, I’ll give you my shoe;

’Twill make you a nice nest—as good as if new.”

With much toil and trouble she undid the knot,

Took off the small shoe, and picked out a spot

Behind a large pillar: there tucked it away;

And soon she forgot it in innocent play.

But the wrens chirped, “Why, here’s a nest ready-made,

In the very best place, too, and quite in the shade!”

They went to work quickly, without more ado,

To keep house like the woman “that lived in a shoe.”