The Shoes by O. Henry

There was not much work for American Consul in Co-ralio, and Johnny had a lot of free time which he spent with his friend Billy Keogh.

One day they were sitting and drinking cold drinks In Johnny’s room when a servant came in. He brought Johnny some letters from America.

“The same thing happens every day,” said Johnny. “Every day I get so many letters from America. People there want to know everything about Coralio. They ask about the climate, about the people who live here. They want to know what they can sell to these people. And I must answer all these letters in such a hot weather.”

Billy Keogh was sitting on a corner of the table and playing with a knife for cutting papers.

“I can read these letters for you and answer them if you are so lazy,” he said.

“Please, Billy,” said the consul, “please open the letters and see what these people want from me.”

Keogh picked up a few letters from the table and began to read them.

“Listen, Johnny,” he said suddenly, “here is a letter from Dalesburg, the town you came from. The man who has written it, wants to come to Coralio and open a shoe shop here. He wants to know what you think about it.”

Johnny laughed. “Heavens! Good Heavens!” he said. “That is very interesting! To open a shoe shop in Coralio! Ha! Ha! Ha! Billy, there are about three thousand people in Coralio. How many of them wear shoes?”

Keogh laughed too. “How many people in Coralio wear shoes? Wait a minute, I shall count. One, two, three, four... Not more than twenty.”

“You are right. There are about three thousand people in Coralio and only twenty of them wear shoes. We shall write this man in America a nice letter; he will be glad to get it,” Johnny laughed. “Here, take a sheet of paper and write:

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter of July 2, I want to tell you that about three thousand people live in Coralio. There are no shoe shops in our town, and most of the people have no shoes.

John Atwood,

American Consul in Coralio.”

The two friends sent the letter and in a few days they quite forgot about it.

* * *

One day in August Billy Keogh walked into Johnny’s room and said,

“Do you know what has happened?”

“No, I don’t know and I do not want to know; it is too hot to-day to talk or to think,” answered Johnny lazily.

“Do you remember the letter about shoes which you got a month ago?”

“Well,” Johnny said.

“This man has come to Coralio with so many shoes that he will not be able to sell them in fifty years.”

“Don’t tell me that anybody was fool enough to come here, to Coralio to sell shoes,” Johnny cried.

“Oh, yes, he is here. I saw him in the port. He was standing there and looking at the people round him. They all were without shoes so the man was smiling happily.”

“Oh, Billy, what shall I do now,” said the consul in a weak voice.

“He has come here with his daughter. His surname is Hemstetter and he is... What’s the matter with you?”

Johnny jumped up from the sofa and cried,

“Oh, my God! That is Rosine and her father. What shall I do now? Billy, you must help me.”

Nobody spoke for a minute.

“Well, we must do something about it,” said Keogh at last. “First of all we must find them a good flat. You, Johnny, must go to see Mr. Hemstetter and his daughter, and I shall go to look for a flat.”

* * *

Johnny put on his hat and went to the port.

He found Mr. Hemstetter and his daughter under a big tree. Rosine looked up at Johnny and smiled. He saw that she was glad to see him.

“Hello, Johnny,” said Mr. Hemstetter, “I am very glad to see you, and thank you for your letter. Now I can see that you were right; most of the people in Coralio have no shoes, and I think that I shall be able to sell all the shoes I’ve brought here.”

Johnny did not know what to answer and was very glad to see that Billy Keogh was coming up to them.

“Well, Mr. Hemstetter,” Billy said, “I have found you a nice flat. Now you can go there and have a rest.”

That night the poor consul and his friend were thinking of what to do next.

“Send them back to America. Tell them everything,” Keogh said.

“I can’t do that, Billy,” answered Johnny. “I love Rosine, and what is more important, she loves me too. I don’t know what to do now. If Rosine finds out that my letter to her father was a joke, she ... she ... Oh, Billy, I can’t think about it. And the shoes! You are right!! Her father will not be able to sell all these shoes in fifty years.”

“Don’t worry,” said his friend, “they will open their shop here and we shall ask all our friends in town to buy new shoes.”

“No, that will not help us. Our friends cannot buy so many shoes. I must think of some other plan.”

Keogh went home, and Johnny sat down at his table and began to think. When morning came he was still sitting there. Suddenly he smiled, got up and began to sing. Then he sat down at his table again and wrote a long telegram to his friend in Dalesburg:

“Important. Send me at once 500 kilograms of dry burrs. The burrs must be very big, very strong, very dry.”

* * *

A week later Mr. Hemstetter opened the shop. Many people came to his shop and bought some shoes. All of them were Johnny’s friends. Keogh went to the shop every hour, and every hour he bought some shoes.

Mr. Hemstetter was quite happy but he was asking Johnny all the time why the natives did not buy his shoes.

“Don’t worry about it, Mister Hemstetter,” answered Johnny, “I am sure they will buy your shoes.”

One day Keogh came to the consul and said, “You know, Johnny, you must do something now. We cannot buy any more shoes; we have bought enough shoes for the next ten years.”

“Well, I cannot do anything now,” answered Johnny, “the ship from America will come to Coralio to-morrow and then I think I shall be able to help Mr. Hemstetter to sell his shoes.”

The ship came into the port early in the morning. In the afternoon Johnny brought home five big bags. Nobody knew what was in those bags.

That night Johnny opened one of the bags and took out of it some burrs. The burrs were large and strong. Johnny smiled and went to Keogh’s house.

Two hours later, when everybody in Coralio was asleep, he and Billy Keogh went into the streets. Their pockets were full of burrs. They went up and down the streets and dropped the burrs onto the sand and grass. Many times they came back to Johnny’s house, took some more burrs and went into the streets again.

There were no streets in Coralio where they did not drop the burrs.

* * *

The morning came.

Usually people from Coralio came to the bazaar very early to buy fruit, fish, meat and vegetables. But that morning nobody came. Didn’t the people want to buy food? Of course, they did. They wanted to do it, but they could not come to the bazaar. When the women came out of their houses they could not walk; something stung their feet terribly. The men heard the cries of their mothers and wives. They left their houses and hurried to help them, but something stung their feet and they could only dance and jump from one place to another. What was that? “Scorpions,” somebody cried. “Scorpions, scorpions!” The shouts were heard in different places now. The people were frightened and nobody knew what could be done. Then Billy Keogh told the people to go and buy shoes.

That day Mr. Hemstetter sold many shoes.

Every night Johnny and his friend went into the dark streets of Coralio and dropped some burrs.

Every morning the people of Coralio went to Mr. Hemstetter's shop and bought some shoes.

In two weeks Mr. Hemstetter sold most of his shoes and Johnny ran out of his burrs. Then Johnny sent another telegram to America and asked his friend to send him some more burrs.

That evening Johnny told Rosine everything. She was not angry with him but she said,

“You are like a little boy. You like jokes but you never think what may come out of your jokes. You must tell my father everything.”

“All is well that ends well,” said Mr. Hemstetter, “but I still have some shoes in my shop. Do you have any plans how to sell them?”

“Oh, yes,” answered Johnny, “I have already sent a telegram to America and asked for some more burrs. When I get them, I shall take your shoes to another town, and I think I shall sell them out very quickly.”

By the end of the month Johnny sold all Mr. Hems-tetter's shoes, and went back to America together with his young wife, Rosine.

As for Coralio, there is a new American Consul there. His name is Billy Keogh.