“‘Kind sir,’ she said, ‘have you seen anything of a stray shoe? I have lost one of mine, and I’m in great trouble about it.’
“Smat looked at the girl, and she was so beautiful that he couldn’t help but blush. Seeing this, the girl began to blush. And so there they were, two young things a-blushing at one another, and wondering what was the matter.
“‘I have seen no stray shoe,’ said Smat; ‘but if you’ll come in and show me the one you have on, I think I’ll know its fellow when I see it.’
“The girl went into the house and sat on a chair, and showed Smat the shoe that she hadn’t lost. She had the smallest and the neatest foot he had ever seen.
“‘I hope you are no kin to Cinderella,’ said Smat, ‘for then you couldn’t get a shoe to fit your other foot until some kind fairy made it.’
“‘I never heard of Cinderella,’ the girl replied. ‘I only know that I have lost my shoe, and I’m afraid I’ll never get another just like it.’
“Smat scratched his head, and then he thought about the awl and the axe and the shoemaker’s wax, and the pegs and the leather that were found close together. So he said to the beautiful girl:—
“‘Just sit here a little while, and I’ll see if I can’t get you a shoe to fit your foot. But I must have the other shoe as a pattern to work by.’
“At first the girl didn’t want to trust him with the shoe, but she saw that he was in earnest, and so she pulled off the only shoe she had and placed it in Smat’s hands. He saw at once that the leather he had was a match for that in the shoe, and he set to work with a light heart,—with a light heart, but his hand was heavy. And yet, somehow or other, he found that he knew all about making shoes, although he had never learned how. The leather fitted itself to the last, and everything went smoothly. But the beautiful girl, instead of feeling happy that she would soon have a mate to her shoe, began to grow sad. She sat in a corner with her head between her hands and her hair hanging down to her feet, and sighed every time Smat bored a hole in the leather with his awl or drove in a peg. Finally, when he handed her the shoe entirely finished, she looked at it, sighed, and let it fall from her hands.
“‘Of course,’ said Smat, ‘I don’t feel bad over a little thing like that. But you don’t have to pay anything for the shoe, and you don’t have to wear it unless you want to.’