    Once upon a time there was a little girl, pretty and dainty. But in the summer time she was obliged to go barefooted because she was poor, and in winter she had to wear large wooden shoes, so that her little instep grew quite red.
    In the middle of the village lived an old shoemaker's wife; she sat down and made, as well as she could, a pair of little shoes out of some old pieces of red cloth. They were clumsy, but she meant well, for they were intended for the little girl, whose name was Karen.
    Karen received the shoes and wore them for the first time on the day of her mother's funeral. They were certainly not suitable for a mourning; but she had no others, and so she put her bare feet into them and walked behind the humble coffin.
