“And they so little, too,” remarked Mrs. Meadows sympathetically.
“Why, it was no trouble in the world to them,” said Little Mr. Thimblefinger. “It didn’t seem as if they were building a house. Did you ever see a flower open? You look at it one minute, turn your head away and forget about it, and the next time you look, there it is open wide. That was the way with this house the little men built. It just seemed to grow out of the ground. As it grew, the little men climbed on it, waved their lanterns about, and the house continued to grow higher and higher, and larger and larger, until it was finished. Not a nail had been driven, not a board had been rived, not a plank had been planed, not a sill had been hewn, not a brick had been burned. And yet there was the house all new and fine, with a big chimney-stack in the middle.
“‘Now,’ said the Man in the Moon, when everything was done, ‘here is your house, and you may move in with bag and baggage.’
“‘That is quickly done,’ replied Smat. ‘What then?’
“‘Why, you must set up as a shoemaker,’ said the Man in the Moon.
“‘But I never made a shoe in my life,’ the young man declared.
“‘So much the more reason why you should make ’em before you die,’ the Man in the Moon remarked. ‘The sooner you begin to make shoes, the sooner you’ll learn how.’
“‘That’s so true,’ said Smat, ‘that I have no reply to make. ‘I’ll do as you say, if I can.’
“‘That’s better,’ cried the Man in the Moon. ‘If you do that, you’ll have small trouble. If you don’t, I wouldn’t like to tell you what will happen. Now listen! There is in this kingdom a person (I’ll not say who) that goes about with only one shoe. When you see that person, no matter when or where,—no matter whether it’s man, woman, or child,—you must let it be known that you are ready to make a shoe.’
“Then the Man in the Moon called to the leaders of his army of lantern bearers, and waved his hands. They, in turn, waved their tiny lanterns, and in a moment all were out of sight, and Smat was left alone. For some time afterwards he felt both lonely and uneasy, but this feeling passed away as soon as he went into his house. He was so astonished by what he saw in there that he forgot to feel uneasy. He saw that, although the house was newly built,—if it had been built,—it was in fact old enough inside to seem like home. Every room was finely furnished and carpeted, and in one part of the house, in a sort of shed-room, he found that a shoemaker’s shop had been fixed up. There he saw the awl and the axe, and the shoemaker’s wax, with the pegs and the leather that were found close together.