The Old Woman who Lived in the Shoe had heard them.  She remained perched in her place, glaring severely about the yard below.

Nor was this all.  Other individuals inside the shoe had evidently heard the voice of Everychild.  And now they began to peep out in the most extraordinary fashion.  Three pairs of eyes appeared at the broken toe of the shoe.  And up the double row of eye-holes, all the way up the front of the shoe, startled faces were to be seen.  You could see excited eyes with hair hanging down before them.

All this proved too much for the little black dog, who had gone forward from Tom’s side to inspect the shoe.  Now he began barking excitedly at the half-hidden faces.

Everychild stood in his place, wide-eyed and with beating heart.

The Old Woman arose more fully into view.  She stared down at Everychild.  She flung the hair back from her face.

“Humph!” she said.

CHAPTER XVI

AN ELABORATION OF ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST SUCCINCT CHAPTERS

Everychild’s companions drew back behind the shelter of a convenient bush.  The Old Woman’s countenance really did seem, for the moment, quite ferocious.  But Everychild did not move.

The Old Woman arose still higher and stepped out of the top of the shoe to the top rung of the ladder.  She carried a steaming pot in one hand, and thus handicapped she descended the ladder.

She placed the steaming pot on the table and then turned her attention to Everychild.  She exclaimed dubiously:  “You’re not one o’ mine!”

He shook his head.  “No, ma’am,” he replied.

She sat down deliberately, drawing a long breath, but without taking her eyes from Everychild.  “Just an idler,” she said, “like all the rest of the young ones.  I don’t know what’s the matter with them these days—­children.  When I was young I had to work.  I expected nothing less.  And I tell mine what was good enough for me is good enough for them.”

She made this statement as if she hadn’t left a single thing to be said.

It seemed rather obscure to Everychild.  He tried to think of a more agreeable subject.  He looked the Old Woman’s house over, up and down.  “It’s rather a funny house, isn’t it?” he remarked.

The Old Woman’s manner became more sullen than ever.  She seized upon a ladle and began stirring the steaming pot.  “It does very well,” she declared.  “Houses are funny or otherwise according to what goes on in them.  When you’ve got your hands full of children who don’t want to work you can’t say that your house is exactly funny.  Its being an old shoe—­if that’s what you mean . . . that’s a matter of taste.  I prefer it, for my part.  I’d never have been able to settle down anywhere else.  You see, I had to be on my feet mostly all the time from little on, and now it comes natural, being in a shoe.  I can imagine I’m on the go, even if I never get out from one week’s end to another.”