mmunion day. She looked at her black
shoes, and then at her red ones, then again at the black and at the
red--and the red ones were put on.

The sun shone very brightly, and Karen and the old lady walked to church
through the cornfields, for the road was very dusty.

At the door of the church stood an old soldier, who leaned upon a crutch
and had a marvelously long beard that was not white but red. He bowed
almost to the ground and asked the old lady if he might dust her shoes.
Karen, in her turn, put out her little foot.

"Oh, look, what smart little dancing pumps!" said the old soldier. "Mind
you do not let them slip off when you dance," and he passed his hands
over them. The old lady gave the soldier a half-penny and went with
Karen into the church.

As before, every one saw Karen's red shoes, and all the carved figures
too bent their gaze upon them. When Karen knelt at the chancel she
thought only of the shoes; they floated before her eyes, and she forgot
to say her prayer or sing her psalm.

At last all the people left the church, and the old lady got into her
carriage. As Karen lifted her foot to step in, the old soldier said,
"See what pretty dancing shoes!" And Karen, in spite of herself, made a
few dancing steps. When she had once begun, her feet went on of
themselves; it was as though the shoes had received power over her. She
danced round the church corner,--she could not help it,--and the
coachman had to run behind and catch her to put her into the carriage.
Still her feet went on dancing, so, that she trod upon the good lady's
toes. It was not until the shoes were taken from her feet that she had
rest.

The shoes were put away in a closet, but Karen could not resist going to
look at them every now and then.

Soon after this the old lady lay ill in bed, and it was said that she
could not recover. She had to be nursed and waited on, and this, of
course, was no one's duty so much as it was Karen's, as Karen herself
well knew. But there happened to be a great ball in the town, and Karen
was invited. She looked at the old lady, who was very ill, and she
looked at the red shoes. She put them on, for she thought there could
not be any sin in that, and of course there was not--but she went next
to the ball and began to dance.

Strange to say, when she wanted to move to the right the shoes bore her
to the left; and when she wished to dance up the room the shoes
persisted in going down the room. Down the st