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evening she came back, and took them up again, and this time she did not lay them down, but took out her money, and paid the old man for them, and then ran away, hiding the shoes under her apron, for she was rather afraid of being laughed at for having bought shoes of the old man. At once she took them to her greatest friend, who was a girl named Alys. “Look at these pretty pink shoes,” she said. “I have just bought them of the old man at the stall, and they only cost five silver pennies. See how pretty they are!” Alys looked at them and said, “It is true they are very pretty, but I don’t think they will wear well; however, as they are so very cheap, that does not much matter. I wonder if he has another pair just like them, that I could buy.”

So Lisbeth and Alys went back to the stall, and Alys bought a pair of shoes just like Lisbeth’s; and then they both went to show them to the other young girls in the village, and one by one each said she would have a pair for herself, till there was not a girl who was not wearing the old man’s shoes. Then the women began. If they were so cheap, they said, why should they not buy them too? They were not bound to buy only Ralph’s