It was almost the end of the week.  The sun was shining and the sky was blue.  Fluffy clouds filled the sky.  It was very quiet in Mr. Cobblers shoe repair shop.  You could see people walking down the street, but no one was carrying shoes for Mr Cobbler to fix.

Mr. cobbler was snoozing at his cobbler bench. Hank the tank was snoozing comfortably on the old high-top shoe miss Kitty was chasing after a flying Ant in the windowsill, it was so quiet in the shoe repair shop that you could hear the old spider spinning her web from shoe to shoe.  You could hear the water dripping slowly in the sink that Mr Cobbler used to wash his hands. 

But suddenly miss Kitty slipped and with the great clickety clack and clackety bang she rolled off the windowsill and right into an old leather boot.

Hank the tank said — Miss Kitty, please be careful.  You will wake up Mr. Cobbler from his nap.  Gosh I am hungry.

Miss Kitty replied — Ouch that hurt, I think I have scratched my paw.

the flying Ant said — well look at that!  Miss Kitty is flying just like me.

Mr. cobbler said — oh dear me, what was that noise?

Now that Mr. Cobbler had been awoken from his snooze by all the clatter and he looked tearfully at Hank the Tank, Mr. Cobbler knew there was no food in the shoe repair shop.  Mr. Cobbler was very poor and he was getting more poor all the time he was the poorest that had ever been in all the years he had been fixing shoes.

There was no food there was no milk there was no bread and there was no fish so he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dog bone. Here you go Hank the Tank, you can chew on this dog bone.  Everybody knew that ole bone was a piece of leather shaped to look like a bone.  But no one talked about the leather bone.  Hank the Tank smiled and went to work chewing.

Poor Mr. Cobbler was all out of work.  He had made shoes for everybody in the village.   He made tiny little jumping shoes for a grasshopper.   He made tiny little singing shoes for a chirping cricket and he made some big old slugging shoes for the sleepy earthworm in the village.

Mr. Cobbler made very good shoes.  He made such good shoes that they almost never wore out. The grasshopper hops so high he was in the air most of the time and he never wore his shoes out.  The cricket sat around all day singing so he never wore his shoes out.  The earthworm just laid underneath the cool moist dirt so he never wore out his shoes.

Mr. Cobbler said – God will provide a little bit of work so we can pay our bills and get some food.

Then suddenly they heard a knock at the door. The spider stopped spinning her web. The flying ant stopped sunning herself on the windowsill.  Hank the Tank stopped chewing on an old shoe leather, you know, the thing that looked like a bone.   Everyone was very quiet.

Somebody was at the door. Mr. Cobbler hobbled across his Show repair shop.  He opened the door.  Then Mr. Cobbler looked over the top of his dusty glasses and looked right into the eyes of Sam centipede and his entire family.

Sam centipede said — we’ve come for shoes.

Mrs. Sam centipede said – yes, we need shoes for our five children. We need 100 shoes for each of us.

Mr. cobbler said you’d need shoes? 100 shoes for each of you.

Mr. Sam Centipedes said – yes, we need shoes 100 shoes for each of us. that will be 700 shoes.  Can you make this many shoes for us?

Mr. Cobbler said – Oh yes, I can make all 700 shoes. 

Mr. Cobbler reached for his needle his thread and his leather and he began to stitch shoes for the whole centipede family.  His fingers flew as soon the Shoe Repair Shop was piled high with centipede shoes.

Mr. Cobbler said I am very Happy.  I am Happy, Happy, Happy.  But most of all, I am so grateful for Gods mercy and his kindness.  He knew just what I needed.

Mr. Cobbler just kept stitching, for hours and hours he made little centipede shoes out of soft leather and very small shoelaces.   He made blue shoes for the boys and red shoes for the girls.   He made left and right shoes.  He just kept working.  The shoes were so beautiful.  The Shoe Repair shop had this wonderful smell of leather hanging in the air, the sun light glowed on the fresh cuts of leather.  It was so beautiful.

Mrs Sam Centipede started crying tears of joy.  Their feet were hurting from the hot sun.  The shoes fit wonderfully.

 Hank the Tank said – this is a lot of shoes.  They are everywhere. 

Miss Kitty said I don’t see shoes; In my mind, I see food we can buy with the money from the shoes for Mr. Cobbler.

Mr. Cobbler said — God has given us a wonderful gift. God has brought us the centipede family who need lots of shoes and now we can buy food let us pray for the great gift that God has given us. Let us give thanks for his mercy his goodness.

Then Miss Kitty went back to chasing the flying Ant out of the window.  Hank the Tank went back to snoozing on the old boot. 

The end.

Written by Jane Bullock Warner, published in Humpty Dumpty Childrens Magazine, May 1956

Adapted for ShalomTalk by Dan