The Tale of Daddy Longlegs | Page 7

dozens of shoes--all of them many times bigger than he was--he couldn't help being alarmed when he heard Jimmy Rabbit walk out of the shoe shop and lock the door behind him.
Daddy wished that he had told Mrs. Ladybug in the beginning that he wouldn't help Farmer Green with his harvesting. Then he would never have started on his long journey to the oat field and worn out his shoes. And if he hadn't worn out his shoes, of course he would never have visited Jimmy Rabbit's shoe shop and got himself into such terrible trouble.
He soon saw that he might call for help until his voice was cracked worse than ever without its doing him the least bit of good. So he stopped shouting and began to climb out of the pile of shoes that surrounded him. And he was very glad, then, that he had eight long legs to help him. But when he found himself free of the shoes he seemed but little better off than before. There he was, a prisoner in the shoe shop! And the daylight was fast fading.
If Daddy Longlegs had been half as wise as his neighbors believed him he wouldn't have stayed in his prison two minutes. But after trying the door and the two windows and finding that he couldn't open them he made up his mind that there was nothing for him to do except to wait until Jimmy Rabbit came back the following day.
And there was the chimney all the time! Daddy Longlegs could have crawled up it just as easily as Santa Claus could have crept down it! But because he had never left anybody's house or shop by way of the chimney, Daddy Longlegs never once thought of doing such a thing.
And his thinking that Jimmy Rabbit wouldn't come back until the next morning shows that Daddy knew very little about the ways of his neighbors. Almost anybody else would have been sure that Jimmy Rabbit would keep his shoe shop open at night, because he was always wider awake after dark. And many others of the field-people were exactly like him in that respect.
Daddy Longlegs had been sleeping soundly for some time--inside the toe of a shoe--when the sound of voices awakened him. At first he kept very still. Being naturally a timid person he did not want to show himself until he was sure he was safe from harm.
And then, before he realized what was happening, he felt himself picked up--shoe and all--and he heard Jimmy Rabbit say, "Try on this shoe, Peter Mink!"
Since there was no doubt--the next instant--that Peter Mink was thrusting his foot into Daddy's hiding-place, there was only one thing for Daddy to do. Knowing that he was in great danger of being crushed, he withdrew into the very tip of the shoe. And luckily for him, Peter Mink's toes did not quite reach him.
After that Daddy Longlegs could hear nothing more; nor did he know what was happening. But to make a long story short, Jimmy Rabbit gave Peter Mink another shoe--for Peter's other foot--and bowed his customer politely out of his shop.
After that Jimmy Rabbit promptly locked the door again. But this time he locked himself in instead of out. You see, he never felt safe in Peter Mink's company.
Naturally, Jimmy locked Daddy Longlegs out of the shop, too, though he didn't know it.
And there Peter Mink stood in the moon-lit meadow, with his new shoes on his feet, and with Daddy Longlegs hidden in the toe of his right shoe.
But no matter if it was the right shoe, Daddy Longlegs thought it was all wrong.

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RIDE BY MOONLIGHT
IT was not exactly a pleasant ride that Daddy Longlegs had in the toe of Peter Mink's shoe. Not only was it dark pocket inside the shoe, but it was so cramped that Daddy was most uncomfortable. And what was still worse, he hadn't even the faintest idea where he was going.
Sometimes Daddy was almost sure that Peter Mink was carrying him around Blue Mountain. And at other times he thought that Peter must be following Swift River--to see where it went, perhaps. Anyhow, Daddy suffered such a pitching and tossing and tumbling and jouncing as he had never known in all his life.
Then at last, to Daddy's great relief, Peter Mink kept quite still for a long time.
That was when Peter burrowed into a haystack to take a nap. And since it was then many hours past Daddy Longlegs' regular bedtime, he went to sleep too. But he awoke with a great start when Peter Mink crawled out of his shelter about dawn. And at first Daddy couldn't imagine what was happening. But after he had been bounced about a bit he remembered the terrible accident that had happened to