The Red Shoes || Bedtime stories for kids

 

The Red Shoes Story

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The Red Shoes Story Summary 

There was once a young  girl who was very cute and elegant, but in summer she was forced to run about with naked feet. She was very poor, and in winter wore very large wooden shoes which made her little covering quite red and that looked so risky! 

The little girl is dancing with wear red shoes.

In the center of the village lived an old dame shoe-shop; she sat and repaired together, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes out of old red strips of cloth; they were very ungraceful, but it was a kind conception. They were meant for the young girl. The young girl was called Karen. 

On the very day her mother was buried, Karen received the red shoes, and wore them for the first time. They were surely not conscious for mournful, but she had no others, and with knee-hi, feet she followed the poor straw casket in them. Suddenly a large old carriage run up, and a large old woman sat in it: she peep at the young girl, felt sympathy for her, and then said to the priest: 

"Here, give me the young girl. I will adopt her!" 

And Karen feel all this resulted on consider of the Red

Shoes, but the old woman perceived they were dreadful, and they were scorched. But Karen herself was clearly and perfectly dressed; she must learn to read and stitch; and people said she was a good little thing, but the looking-glass said: you art more than lovely, you art pretty!"  Now the royal lady once traveled by the land, and she had her young daughter with her. 

And this young daughter was a princess, and people seeped to the palace, and Karen was there also. The young princess stand up in her fine white dress, in a window, and let herself be stared at; she had neither a train nor a golden crown, but magnificent red Tunisia shoes. 

They were definitely far more beautiful than those Dame shoe-shops had made for little karen. Not a thing in the world can be matched with red shoes. At this time Karen was enough age to be confirmed; she had new dresses and was to have new shoes also. The rich shoe-shop in the city took the size of her little feet. This happened at his home, in his bedroom; where were stand up large display cabinets, full of beautiful shoes and magnificent  boots.

All this looked attractive, but the old woman could not see poorly, and so had no happiness in them. In the centre of the shoes stand up a pair of red ones, similarly to those the princess had worn. How   adorable they were! The bootmaker also said they had been made for the kid of a count, but were not conformable. "That must be shiny leather!" said the old woman. "They shined so!" 

"Exactly' they sparkle!" said Karen, and they completely comfortable,

and were purchased, but the old woman didn't know about their being red, otherwise she would never have permitted Karen to have gone in red shoes to be verified. Still similar was the matter. Everyone watched at her feet; and when she moved by the chapel gate on the chapel pavement. It looked like if the old statistic on the graves, those pictures of old priests and the wives of priests with hard collars, and long black clothes, keeped their eyes on her red shoes.

And she concept only of them as the clergyman laid his hand upon her head, and spoke of the holy baptism, of the covenant with GOD, and how she should be now a matured Christian; and the organ pealed so solemnly; the sweet children's voices sang, and the old music-director sang, but Karen had only the concept of her red shoes.

In the afternoon, the old woman heard from everyone that the shoes had been red, and she said that it was very wrong of Karen, that it was not at all becoming, and that in future Karen should only go in black shoes to church, even when she should be older. The next Sunday there was the sacrament, and Karen looked at the black shoes, looked at the red ones, looked at them again, and put on the red shoes. 

The sun shone gloriously; Karen and the old woman walked along the path through the corn; it was rather dusty there. At the church door stood an old soldier with a crutch, and with a wonderfully long beard, which was more red than white, and he bowed to the ground, and asked the old woman whether he might dust her shoes. AndKaren stretched out her little foot. "See, what beautiful dancing shoes!" said the soldier. "Sit firm when you dance;" and he put his hand out toward the soles. 

And the old woman gave the old soldier alms, and went into the church with Karen. And all the people in the church looked at Karen's red shoes, and all the pictures, and as Karen knelt before the altar, and raised the cup to her lips, she only concep of the red shoes, and they seemed to swim in it; and she forgot to sing her psalm, and she forgot to pray our, "Our Father in Heaven!" 

Now all the people went out of church, and the old woman got into her carriage. Karen raised her foot to get in after her, when the old soldier said, "Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!" And Karen could not help dancing a step or two, and when she began her feet continued to dance; it was just as though the shoes had power over them. 

She danced round the church corner, she could not leave off; the coachman was obliged to run after and catch hold of her, and he lifted her in the carriage, but her feet continued to dance so that she trod on the old Woman dreadfully. At length she took the shoes off,  and then her legs had peace. The shoes were placed in a closet at home, but Karen could not avoid looking at them.  

Now the old woman was sick, and it was said she could not recover. She must be nursed and waited upon, and there was no one whose duty it was so much as Karen's. But there was a great ball in the city, to which Karen was invited. She looked at the old woman, who could not recover, she looked at the red shoes, and she believed there could be no sin in it; she put on the red shoes, she might do that also, she believed.

But then she went to the ball and began to dance. When she wanted to dance to the right, the shoes would dance to the left, and when she wanted to dance up the room, the shoes danced back again, down the steps, into the street, and out of the city gate.

She danced, and was forced to dance straight out into the gloomy wood. Then it was suddenly light up among the trees, and she fancied it must be the moon, for there was a face; but it was the old soldier with the red beard; he sat there, nodded his head, and said, "Look, what beautiful dancing shoes!" 

Then she was terrified and wanted to fling off the red shoes, but they clung fast; and she pulled down her stockings, but the shoes seemed to have grown to her feet. And she danced,  and must dance, over fields and meadows, in rain and sunshine, by night and day; but at night it was the most fearful.

She danced over the churchyard, but the dead did not dance, they had something better to do than to dance. She wished to sit herself on a poor man's grave, where the bitter tansy grew; but for her there was neither peace nor rest; and when she danced toward the open church door, she saw an angel standing there. 

He wore long, white garments; he had wings which reached from his shoulders to the earth; his countenance was severe and grave; and in his hand he held a sword, broad and glittering. "Dance shalt you!" said he. "Dance in your red shoes until you are pale and cold! Until Your skin shrivels up and you are a bones sketch! Dance will you from door to door, and where proud, vain children dwell, you will knock, that they may hear you and tremble! Dance shall you!

"Mercy!" cried Karen. But she did not hear the angel's reply, for the shoes carried her through the gate into the fields, across the roads and bridges, and she must keep dancing. One morning she danced past a door which she knew well. Within sounded a psalm; a coffin, decked with flowers, was borne forth. Then she knew that the old woman was dead, and felt that she was abandoned by all, and condemned by the angel of GOD. She danced, and she was forced to dance through the gloomy night. 

The shoes carried her over a stack in stone; she was torn till she bled; she danced over the heath till she came to a little house. Here, she knew, dwelt the executioner; and she tapped with her fingers at the window, and said, "Come out! Come out! I cannot come in, for I am forced to dance!" And the executioner said, "you do not know who I am, I fancy? I strike bad people's heads off; and I hear that my axe rings!" 

"Don't strike my head off!" said Karen. "Then I can't repent of my sins! 

But strike off my feet in the red shoes!" And then she confessed her entire sin, and the executioner struck off her feet with the red shoes, but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the field into the deep wood. And he carved out little wooden feet for her,  and crutches, taught her the psalm criminals always sing; and she kissed the hand which had wielded the axe, and went over the heath.

Now I have suffered enough for the Red Shoes!" said she. Now I will go into the church so that people may see me!" And she hastened towards the church door: but when she was near it, the red shoes danced before her, and she was terrified, and turned round. 

The whole week she was unhappy, and wept many bitter tears; but when Sunday returned, she said, "Well, now I have suffered and struggled enough! I really believe I am as good as many one who sits in the church, and holds her head so high!" And away she went boldly; but she had not got farther than the churchyard gate before she saw the red

shoes dancing before her; and she was frightened, and turned back, and repented of her sin from her heart. 

And she went to the parsonage, and begged that they would take her into service; she would be very industrious, she said, and would do everything she could; she did not care about the wages, only she wished to have a home, and be with good people. And the clergyman's wife was sorry for her and took her into service; and she was hardwork and intelligent. 

She sat still and listened when the clergyman read the Bible in the evenings. All the children believed a great deal of her; but when they spoke of dress, grandeur, and beauty, she shook her head. The following Sunday, when the family was going to church, they asked her whether she would not go with them; but she glanced sorrowfully, with tears in her eyes, at her crutches. 

The family went to hear the word of GOD; but she went alone into her little chamber; there was only room for a bed and a chair to stand in it; and here she sat down with her prayer book; and whilst she read with a pious mind, the wind bore the strains of the organ towards her, and she raised her tearful countenance, and said, "O GOD, help me!" 

And the Sun shone so clearly, and straight before her stood the angel of GOD in white garments, the same she had seen that night at the church door; but he no longer carried the sharp sword, but in its stead a splendid green spray, full of roses.

And he touched the ceiling with the spray, and the ceiling rose so high, and where he had touched it there gleamed a golden star. And he touched the walls, and they widened out, and she saw the organ which was playing; she saw the old pictures of the preachers and the preacher's wives." 

The congregation sat in cushioned seats, and sang out of their prayer books. For the church itself had come to the poor girl in her narrow chamber, or else she had come into the church. She sat in the pew with the clergyman's family, and when they had finished the psalm and looked up, they nodded and said, "It is right that you art come!" 

"It was through mercy!" she said. And the organ peeled and the children's voices in the choir sounded so sweet and soft! The clear sunshine streamed so warmly through the window into the pew where Karen sat! Her heart was so full of sunshine, peace, and joy, that it broke. Her soul flew on the sunshine to GOD, and there no one asked after the red shoes.

The Red Shoe Story Moral Lesson 

"The proud and the disobedient must suffer"