“It must be done quickly, for the flower show is next week,” Hanny said anxiously. “When will you make the shoes, Uncle Hanny?” “I will take the measurements now,” he said. “Run for my tape measure.” Miss Mohr and Miss Gordon protested that the nurseryman was far too busy to take time to carve wooden shoes for the children. “I will do it at night,” he replied. “To whittle wood provides relaxation after a hard day in the fields.” The two young women declared that they would pay for the work. Mr. Van Der Lann would not hear of such a thing. He insisted that the children were Hanny’s friends and his, and that it was little enough he could do to show his liking. Soon Hanny came running back with a tape measure. Peter sat the children on a bench, and one by one, measured their feet. Carefully, he marked down the figures on a sheet of paper. “Connie has the largest foot,” he reported. “For her shoes I must have a very long piece of white wood.” “What will our shoes look like when they are finished?” asked Rosemary. “I will show you,” Hanny said. Off she darted to the house again. In a moment she returned, two pairs of wooden shoes tucked under her arms. The shoes were too small for Connie and Jane, but the other Brownies tried them on. First Sunny tried to walk in them. Her feet felt very stiff and awkward. After she had taken four steps one of the shoes slipped off. “You don’t do it right,” laughed Hanny. “See, I will show you.” She slipped into the shoes which were an exact fit. Instead of walking, she ran across the yard toward the cheese house. The door was open. One moment the children saw Hanny and her long braids framed in the doorway. The next instant she had disappeared into the building. But setting neatly by the door were the wooden shoes! “How did she do that?” cried Vevi in admiration. “Why, she didn’t even slow down when she went through the doorway!” “I never saw her slip off her shoes,” added Jane. “She did it in a flash.” “Hanny learned that trick when she was very young,” Peter chuckled. “She did not like to take time to remove her shoes before entering the house, so she learned to take them off on the fly.” Hanny only stayed in the cheese house a moment. Soon she came out to pick up her shoes again. “Let me see if I can do that!” cried Vevi. Hanny gave her the shoes, putting on her leather ones again. “I like these American shoes much better,” she said. “Wooden shoes are clumsy.” Vevi slipped into the sabots. She took four little choppy steps and then one of the shoes sailed off. “I can’t run in them at all,” Vevi said, very much discouraged. She went after the shoe which had rolled down a slope toward the canal. Hanny skipped after her to the water’s edge. “I’ll show you something else you can do with a wooden shoe,” she told the Brownies. “Watch!” Picking up the wooden shoe that Vevi had lost she carefully set it down in the shallow water. “See, a boat!” she laughed.