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It may readily be imagined that shoes of this form would not be very easily kept upon the foot without something to fasten them, and it was accordingly the custom to fit them, when they were delivered to the purchaser, with a leathern strap, the two ends of which were nailed to the sole in the hollow of the foot, the middle passing over the instep. Some of the shoes were already fitted with the strap, but the pair which Flor

ence chose were not.

Grimkie examined the shoes carefully to ascertain that the wood was sound in every part, for he knew very well that if there was any secret crack or flaw in it the defect would come out conspicuously to view under the process of finishing and polishing to which he intended to subject the shoes. He found that the wood was sound, and so he bought them. The price was nine cents.

The woman asked him whether he would have a pair of straps put upon them, but he said no.

While Grimkie and Florence were making this purchase, John loitered about in the neighborhood, looking into the windows of the toy shops, and watching a big dog that was riding by in a small cart drawn by a donkey. He said he could not imagine what Florence and Grim

kie could want of those shoes. They were not half as good as the leather ones used in America.

“True,” said Grimkie; “not so good to wear, but we have not bought them to wear. Look !" he added, showing John one of the shoes; "see what a capital boat that would make. You could have the toe for the bows and the heel for the stern; and you could set up a mast in the middle, by boring a hole down through the wood. It is hard wood, and very strong."

John seemed to look-upon the shoes with new interest after hearing this suggestion.

“I'll ask mother to let me buy one,” said he. “They won't sell you one,” replied Florence; "you will have to buy a pair.”

"You might buy a pair,” said Grimkie, “and give one of them to Auntie, and let her make a big pincushion of it."

When the children arrived at the hotel they showed Mrs. Morelle the shoes, and Florence taking off her own shoes put the wooden ones on, and tried to walk about the floor in them. But she could not keep them on very well, for want of the strap. The other kind of shoes, those that were made to come up high over the instep, would keep on without any strap, but they were not so pretty in form as these, nor could they so easily be put to any useful purpose in America. *

Mrs. Morelle was much pleased with Grimkie's idea, of finishing and polishing the shoes, and then of making something pretty of them, and she gave John nine sous to go and buy another pair, with the understanding that he was to have one for a boat, and that she was to make the other into a pincushion.

Clumsy as the big kind of shoes are, the children run about in them over the pavements very well, and yet not so fast as they can without them, for in especial emergencies they take them off. One day when Grimkie and John. were riding in an omnibus, in the environs of a French town, a small boy came running behind to get a ride. Finding that he could not run fast enough he stooped down and took off his wooden shoes, doing it so dexterously and so quick, that he scarcely stopped his running in the operation. He then came on barefooted at great speed, holding his shoes in his hand. He soon overtook the omnibus, and climbed up upon the steps; but just then the conductor of the omnibus came down from the top, where he had been to collect the fares of the outside passengers, and made the boy get off. So he dropped off the steps back into the road, and there, putting on his wooden shoes again, he walked along at his leisure.

CHAPTER XII.

RIDE IN THE DILIGENCE.

AT St. Lo, where the railroad came to an end, our party were still thirty or forty miles from Granville, which as will be seen by the map, was the port where they were to embark for the islands. This distance was to be traversed in a stage-coach. The French stage-coach is called a diligence.

The party remained several days at St. Lo, rambling about the town, and making excursions in the environs. On the day before they were to leave the town in order to continue their journey, Grimkie enquired where the diligence office was, and they told him it was at the station. It seems that most of the passengers by the diligence from St. Lo to Granville, were travelers who came by the trains, and for this reason the office was at the station.

So Grimkie said that he would go to the station and engage the places. John said he would like to go with him. Florence then said that she would like to go; and finally Mrs. Morelle,

finding that all the rest were going, said that she would go too.

"Yes, Auntie," said Grimkie, "we should like to have you go very much. Besides, you can see what kind of a diligence it is, and choose your seat better."

When they arrived at the station, they saw the diligence office, with a sign over the door, and opposite to it, on the other side of the yard, two or three diligences were standing. Grimkie asked a man who had the word OUEST in gilt capitals on his hat-band, by which Grimkie knew that he was one of the porters of the railroad, whether that was the diligence which was to go to Granville the next day.

"No, sir," said the porter, "that one is going to-day, but there is one like it to go to-morrow."

So Grimkie, followed by Mrs. Morelle, and also by Florence and John, went to the diligence to examine it. They found that like all the French diligences it was divided into compartments. The back part of it was a short omnibus with seats along the sides and a door behind. The front was what is called a coupé, with doors in the sides, one seat facing the horses, and glass windows in front.

Above, there was a large and comfortable seat *Pronounced coopeh.

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