She danced, and was obliged to go on dancing through the dark night. The shoes
bore her away over thorns and stumps till she was all torn and bleeding; she
danced away over the heath to a lonely little house. Here, she knew, lived the
executioner; and she tapped with her finger at the window and said:
"Come out, come out! I cannot come in, for I must dance."
And the executioner said: "I don't suppose you know who I am. I strike off
the heads of the wicked, and I notice that my axe is tingling to do so."
"Don't cut off my head!" said Karen, "for then I could not
repent of my sin. But cut off my feet with the red shoes."
And then she confessed all her sin, and the executioner struck off her feet
with the red shoes; but the shoes danced away with the little feet across the
field into the deep forest.
And he carved her a pair of wooden feet and some crutches, and taught her a
psalm which is always sung by sinners; she kissed the hand that guided the axe,
and went away over the heath.
"Now, I have suffered enough for the red shoes," she said; "I
will go to church, so that people can see me." And she went quickly up to
the church-door; but when she came there, the red shoes were dancing before
her, and she was frightened, and turned back.
During the whole week she was sad and wept many bitter tears, but when Sunday
came again she said: "Now I have suffered and striven enough. I believe I
am quite as good as many of those who sit in church and give themselves
airs." And so she went boldly on; but she had not got farther than the
churchyard gate when she saw the red shoes dancing along before her. Then she
became terrified, and turned back and repented right heartily of her sin.
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