THE TINY COBBLER
Reading edition
"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:
"Boots, boots, I would be A thousand miles across the sea."
And, whisk! away he went and was lost to sight before Uncle John Hare could get out his spyglass.
"Well, well," laughed the wonderful shoemaker, coming to the door and shading his eyes with his hand, "it didn't take him long to walk away. Ha! ha! My boots are better than airships." I guess he thought he had done a good day's work, and maybe he had, for two diamonds and three rubies are a fair price for one boot, although it may have a stride of a thousand leagues, more or less.
And just you wait until you hear what happens in the next story.