In Their Shoes Read online

  “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them”

  TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

  Contents

  Title Page

  Epigraph

  The Story of Yexian

  by Duan Chengshi

  Puss in Boots

  by Charles Perrault

  Hop o’ my Thumb

  by Charles Perrault

  The Twelve Dancing Princesses

  by The Brothers Grimm

  The Red Shoes

  by Hans Christian Andersen

  The Story of Chernushka

  by Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev

  Brer Rabbit and Mr. Dog

  by Joel Chandler Harris

  Perseus and the Winged Sandals

  by Murielle Szac

  The Pair of Shoes

  by Pierre Gripari

  About the Illustrator

  About the Publisher

  Copyright

  The Story of Yexian

  DUAN CHENGSHI

  THERE IS A STORY AMONG SOUTHERNERS THAT before the Qin and the Han there was a cave master named Wu. The local people called the place Wu cave. Wu took two wives but one wife died, leaving a daughter named Yexian. When she was young, she was intelligent and skilled at metalworking. Her father loved her, but before a year had passed, her father also died. She was treated badly by her stepmother, who often ordered her to collect firewood from dangerous places and to draw water from the deeps.

  Once Yexian caught a fish about two inches long with red fins and golden eyes. She placed it in a basin of water. She changed the basin several times, and it grew bigger by the day. Finally it got so big she couldn’t find a container for it, and she threw it into the pond in the back. When the girl had leftover food, she would sink it into the water to feed the fish. Whenever the girl came to the pond, the fish would stick its head out and pillow it on the bank, but it wouldn’t do this when other people came. Her stepmother knew about this, but whenever she watched for it, it never showed itself. So she tricked Yexian, saying, “You have certainly worked hard. I’m going to give you some new clothes.” The girl changed out of her old clothes. Later the stepmother sent her to fetch water from another spring. Reckoning that the spring was several hundred li away, the stepmother slowly dressed in the girl’s old clothes, put a long knife in her sleeve, and went to the pond to call the fish. The fish immediately stuck out its head, whereupon she chopped it off and killed the fish. It had already grown to be more than ten feet long. She served its meat, and the taste was twice as good as ordinary fish. Then she hid the bones under the dung heap.

  On the following day the girl came back to the pond, and when the fish didn’t appear, she went out to the countryside to wail with grief. Suddenly out of the sky appeared a person with loose hair hanging down and wearing coarse clothing. He comforted the girl, saying, “Don’t cry. Your stepmother has killed the fish, but its bones are under the dung heap. Now you go back home and hide the bones in your room. Whenever you need something, you have but to pray to the bones and your wish will be granted.” The girl did as he said, and gold, pearls, clothing and food came to her as she wished.

  On the day of the cave festival the stepmother went out and ordered the girl to keep watch over the fruit trees in the garden. Yexian waited until her stepmother had gone a long way; then she also went out, dressed in a robe spun of kingfisher blue, and wearing shoes of gold upon her feet. The daughter of the stepmother recognized her and said to her mother, “That person looks just like my stepsister.” The stepmother also suspected this. Yexian became aware that she had been discovered and hurriedly went back home. On the way she left behind one shoe, which was picked up by a cave dweller. When the stepmother returned home, she only saw the girl fast asleep in the garden, arms wrapped around a tree, so she didn’t worry any more about it.

  The cave was near an island in the sea. On this island was the kingdom of Tohan. It had a strong army and had sovereignty over dozens of islands. Its watery coastline stretched for several thousand li. The cave dweller sold the girl’s shoe in Tohan, and the king acquired it. He told those around him to try it on, but it was an inch too small, even for those with small feet. Then he ordered every woman in his kingdom to try it on, but in the end there was not one person that it fit. It was as light as down, and even when treading on stone, it made no sound. The king of Tohan suspected that the cave dweller had got the shoe in some improper way, so he imprisoned and tortured him, but he never did end up finding out where it had come from. After that, the king threw the shoe down by the wayside, and went through houses everywhere to arrest people. If there was a woman who could wear it, the king’s men were to take her into custody and inform the king.

  The Tohan king then found Yexian. He ordered her to put on the shoe; then he believed that it was the girl he had sought. Yexian then dressed in her robe spun of kingfisher blue and her golden shoes and went to the king, as lovely as an angel. She began to serve the king as wife, and he took the fish bones along with Yexian back to his country. Her stepmother and sister were killed by flying stones, but the cave dwellers took pity on them and buried them in a stone pit, calling it the “distressed woman’s tomb”. The cave people did matchmaking sacrifices at this tomb; if they prayed for a woman there, the wish would certainly come true.

  When the king of Tohan got back to his country, he made Yexian his primary wife. The first year he greedily prayed to the fish bones and acquired unlimited jewels and jade. The next year the bones simply didn’t respond, so the king buried them by the seashore and covered them over with one hundred bushels of pearls, bordering them with gold. Later, when some conscripted soldiers mutinied, their general opened the hiding place to provide for the army. One night the bones were washed away by the tide.

  My long-time household servant, Li Shiyuan, told me this story. Shiyuan originally was a Yangzhou cave dweller, and he remembers many strange occurrences of the south.

  This is the earliest version of the Cinderella story that has ever been recorded… and it dates back to the 9th century in China. DUAN CHENGSHI was a chronicler and a scholar who lived during the Tang dynasty. He was very curious and travelled a lot. His version of Cinderella is set on the coast of today’s Vietnam and was written on a scroll in Classical Chinese.

  Puss in Boots

  CHARLES PERRAULT

  A MILLER WHO HAD THREE CHILDREN LEFT NOTHing for them to inherit, except for the mill, a donkey, and a cat. These bequests did not take long to share out, and neither the solicitor nor the notary were called in: their fees would soon have eaten up the whole of the miserable inheritance. The eldest son got the mill, the middle one the donkey, and the youngest got only the cat. The young man was inconsolable at being left so meagre a bequest. “My brothers,” he said, “will be able to make a decent living if they work together; but as for me, once I’ve eaten my cat and made his fur into a muff to keep my hands warm, I shall just have to starve to death.”

  The cat, who could understand what he said, but pretended not to, said in a calm and serious manner: “You mustn’t be upset, Master; all you need to do is give me a bag, and have a pair of boots made for me to walk among the brambles, and you will see that you are not as badly provided for as you believe.” The cat’s master did not expect much to come of this, but he had seen the cat play so many cunning tricks when catching rats and mice, such as to play dead by hanging upside down by his feet or burying himself in flour, that he had some hope that the cat might help him in his wretched plight. When the cat had been given what he had asked for, he dressed up smartly in his boots and, putting the bag round his neck, he took hold of the tie-strings in his two front paws. Then he set off for a warren where there were plenty of rabbits. In h
is bag he put bran and sow-thistles, and then waited, stretching himself out as if he were dead, for some young rabbit, still ignorant of this world’s trickery, to come and poke its nose into it in order to eat the food he had put there. Scarcely had he lain down than he got what he wanted: a silly young rabbit went into the bag, and instantly Master Cat, pulling the strings tight, caught and killed it without mercy.

  Full of pride at his catch, he went to visit the King in his palace, and asked to speak to him. He was shown up to His Majesty’s apartments, where he entered and said, bowing low before the King: “Sire, I have here a rabbit from a warren, which My Lord the Marquis of Carabas” (this was the name which he saw fit to give his master) “has commanded me to present to you on his behalf.”

  “Tell your master,” said the King, “that I thank him, and that I am well pleased.”

  On another occasion, he went into a cornfield and hid himself, holding his bag open again; two partridges went into it, he pulled the string tight, and caught the pair of them. Then he went to present them to the King, as he had with the rabbit. The King was again pleased to accept the two partridges, and tipped him some money. The cat continued in this way for two or three months, from time to time taking game from his master’s hunting-grounds to the King.

  One day, he found out that the King would be going for a drive along the river in his coach, with his daughter, the most beautiful princess in the world, and he said to his master: “If you follow my advice, your fortune will be made. All you have to do is to go bathing in the river, at a place that I will show you, and then leave everything to me.” The Marquis of Carabas did as his cat suggested, not knowing what his purpose was. While he was bathing, the King passed by, and the cat began to shout at the top of his voice: “Help! help! My Lord the Marquis of Carabas is drowning down here!” At his cries, the King put his head to the window, and recognizing the cat who had so often brought him game, he ordered his guards to hurry to the rescue of His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas.

  While they were getting the poor Marquis out of the river, the cat went up to the coach, and told the King that, while his master was bathing, some thieves had come and stolen his clothes, even though he had shouted “Stop thief!” as loud as he could (the cat, the rascal, had hidden them under a large stone). The King at once ordered the Gentlemen of the Royal Wardrobe to go and fetch one of his finest suits for His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas. The King treated him with great kindness, and since the fine clothes which he had just been given added to his good looks (for he was handsome and well-built), the King’s daughter found him much to her liking. The Marquis had only to throw a glance at her two or three times with great respect and a little tenderness for her to fall madly in love with him. The King invited him to get into the coach and join them on their outing.

  The cat, delighted to see that his plan was beginning to succeed, went on ahead, and having met some labourers with scythes cutting grass in a meadow he said to them: “Good people mowing the grass: unless you tell the King that His Lordship, the Marquis of Carabas, is the owner of this meadow you are mowing, you will all be chopped up, as fine as sausagemeat.”

  The King did not fail to ask the peasants who owned the meadow they were cutting. “It belongs to His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas,” they said with one voice, for they were scared by the threat that the cat had made.

  “It’s a fine estate you have here,’ said the King to the Marquis of Carabas. “Indeed, Sire,” answered the Marquis, “and that meadow produces an abundant crop every year.”

  Master Cat, still going on ahead, met some labourers harvesting, and said to them: “Good people harvesting the corn: unless you tell the King that His Lordship, the Marquis of Carabas, is the owner of all these cornfields, you will all be chopped up, as fine as sausagemeat.”

  The King came past a moment later, and asked who owned all the cornfields he could see. “His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas,” replied the harvesters, and the King again congratulated the Marquis. Master Cat, still going ahead of the coach, said the same thing to everyone he met, and the King was astonished to see how much land was owned by His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas.

  Eventually, Master Cat arrived at a fine castle owned by an ogre, who was as rich as could be, because all the lands that the King had passed through were part of the castle estate. The cat, who had taken care to find out who this ogre was, and what he had the power to do, asked to speak to him, saying that he did not like to pass so near his castle without having the honour of paying his respects. The Ogre received him as politely as an ogre is able to, asking him if he would like to rest a while.

  “I have been told,” said the cat, “that you have the gift of turning yourself into all kinds of animals, for instance, that you could change into a lion or an elephant.”

  “That’s quite true,” replied the Ogre roughly, “and to prove it, watch me turn into a lion.” The cat was so scared to see a lion standing before him that immediately he sprang up on the roof, which was quite difficult and dangerous because of his boots, which were no good for climbing over tiles. Some time later, seeing that the Ogre had gone back to his original shape, the cat came down, admitting that he had been really frightened. “I have also been told,” he said, “but I can scarcely believe it, that you also have the power of taking the shape of tiny little animals, for instance of turning into a rat or a mouse, but I must confess that I think it quite impossible.”

  “Impossible?” retorted the Ogre; “just wait and see”; and in a moment he changed himself into a mouse, which began to run about the floor. No sooner had the cat seen it than he jumped on it and ate it up.

  Meanwhile the King had seen the Ogre’s fine castle as he went by, and thought that he would like to go inside. The cat, hearing the noise made by the coach as it passed over the drawbridge, ran to meet it, and said to the King: “Welcome, Your Majesty, to the castle of His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas.”

  “My goodness, Marquis!” exclaimed the King, “is this castle yours as well? – I can’t imagine anything finer than this courtyard with all its buildings around it. Let us see what is inside, please.”

  The Marquis offered his hand to the young Princess, and following the King, who went first, they entered a great hall, where they found a magnificent banquet. The Ogre had had it set out for his friends, who should have been coming to see him on that very day, but, because they knew the King was there, dared not come in.

  The King, delighted by the good qualities of His Lordship the Marquis of Carabas, just like his daughter, who loved him to distraction, said to the Marquis, seeing the great riches that he possessed, and after he had drunk five or six glasses of wine: “If you want to be my son-in-law, my Lord Marquis, you have only to say the word.” The Marquis bowed deeply, and accepted the honour that the King had done him; and that very day he married the Princess. The cat became a great lord, and never chased a mouse again, except to please himself.

  The Moral of this Tale

  Although the benefits are great

  For one who owns a large estate

  Because he is his father’s son,

  Young men, when all is said and done,

  Will find sharp wits and commonsense

  Worth more than an inheritance.

  Another Moral

  If the son of a miller, in ten minutes or less,

  Can take a girl’s fancy, and make a princess

  Look longingly at him, it proves an old truth:

  That elegant clothes on a good-looking youth

  Can play a distinctly significant part

  In winning the love of a feminine heart.

  Puss in Boots is a French and Italian fairy tale from the Middle Ages. The earliest known writer of this story is Giovanni Francesco Straparola, but CHARLES PERRAULT – who lived in France in the 17th century – is the first one who recorded the famous version that people are so familiar with today.

  Hop o’ my Thumb

  CHARLES PERRAULT
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  ONCE UPON A TIME THERE LIVED A WOODCUTTER and his wife, who had seven children, all of them boys. The eldest was only ten years old, the youngest only seven. You may find it surprising that the woodcutter had so many children in so short a time; but the fact is that his wife was a quick worker, and never produced fewer than two at once.

  They were very poor, and the seven children were a great burden, since none of them was old enough to earn his living. What grieved them even more was that their youngest son was very delicate, and hardly ever spoke a word, which they took to show his stupidity, although it was a sign of intelligence. He was very small; when he was born he was hardly bigger than a man’s thumb, for which reason Hop o’ my Thumb was what he was called. The poor child was the family scapegoat and was always given the blame for everything. Despite this, he was the cleverest of all the brothers, and had the sharpest wits, and though he did not say much, he listened a lot.

  There came a year when times were very hard, and the shortage of food was so severe that the wretched couple resolved to get rid of their children. One night, after the children had gone to bed, while the woodcutter was sitting beside the fire with his wife, he said, with despair gripping his heart: “As you can see, we no longer have enough food for the children; I cannot bear to see them dying of hunger before my eyes, and I have decided to take them with me into the wood tomorrow and leave them there to get lost, which will be easy enough; for while they are occupied collecting sticks for firewood, all we will have to do is run away without letting them see.”

  “Alas!” said the woodcutter’s wife, “how could you take your own children away in order to get rid of them?” However many times her husband told her how poor they were, she could not agree to his plan: she was poor, but she was their mother. Nonetheless, after reflecting on the pain it would cause him to watch them dying of hunger, she did agree, and went to bed in tears.