047 The Red Shoes.doc

047 The Red Shoes

There once lived in a town a cute and pretty little girl whose name was 'Karen'. She had to wear a

torn dress, even walked around with bare feet in summer, and wore heavy and crude wooden shoes in

winter because she was so poor. Her feet were always full of scars and wounds.

The lady got down from her carriage and talked to the minister. "I want to take her with me and look after

her."

"She is alone. If you take care of her, that will be a great blessing for the girl." Karen thought,

'These shoes brought me this luck.' However, the noblewoman burned her dirty red shoes, put fresh new

clothes on her, let her read books and taught her how to do needlework.

She now became a polite girl. But one day, the Queen and the Princess were passing through the

town. Everyone in the town swarmed around the carriage. "How beautiful they are!" "It seems as if fairies

came down from the sky." All the people praised the Queen and the Princess.

But Karen could not take her eyes off of the from Princess' red, glittering and beautiful shoes. 'Is

there anything more beautiful than the Princess' red shoes in this world?' She even pricked herself with the

for a daughter of a count, but they did not fit on her feet. That's why they are in there." The noblewoman

had bad sight now, so she did not know that they were red. The red shoes fit Karen's feet very well.

Karen liked her new red shoes very much. When Karen appeared at the ceremony with her red

shoes, the minister advised her to wear black shoes instead of the red shoes. On the next Sunday, there was

the Communion Service, but Karen wore the red shoes and went to church again.

As soon as Karen and the noblewoman got down from their carriage, an old soldier bowed politely

and said, "Madam, I will clean the dust on your shoes." "Oh, thank you." As Karen showed her red shoes to

the soldier, he said, "Such a beautiful pair of shoes. It will look great if you dance with these shoes."

Then, he muttered to himself chanting a spell and touching Karen's shoes with his finger. "Red

shoes! Never ever come off from this young lady's feet when she dances." The noblewoman threw some

noblewoman took off Karen's shoes, she stopped dancing. As soon as they got home the lady threw the red