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THE RED SHOES
3
shoes, and thought there could not be any very great sin in putting them on—and so far there was not—but she next went to the ball, and began to dance: only, when she wanted to go to the right, the shoes would dance to the left: and when she wanted to go up the room, the shoes persisted in going down the room; and then down the steps into the street, and out through the town gate. And she danced on, in spite of herself, right into the gloomy forest.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Page_3_illustration_in_fairy_tales_of_Andersen_%28Stratton%29.png/480px-Page_3_illustration_in_fairy_tales_of_Andersen_%28Stratton%29.png)
IT WAS THE OLD SOLDIER.