eginning that he
wouldn't help Farmer Green with his harvesting. Then he would never have
started on his long journey to the oat field and worn out his shoes. And
if he hadn't worn out his shoes, of course he would never have visited
Jimmy Rabbit's shoe shop and got himself into such terrible trouble.

He soon saw that he might call for help until his voice was cracked
worse than ever without its doing him the least bit of good. So he
stopped shouting and began to climb out of the pile of shoes that
surrounded him. And he was very glad, then, that he had eight long legs
to help him. But when he found himself free of the shoes he seemed but
little better off than before. There he was, a prisoner in the shoe
shop! And the daylight was fast fading.

If Daddy Longlegs had been half as wise as his neighbors believed him he
wouldn't have stayed in his prison two minutes. But after trying the
door and the two windows and finding that he couldn't open them he made
up his mind that there was nothing for him to do except to wait until
Jimmy Rabbit came back the following day.

And there was the chimney all the time! Daddy Longlegs could have
crawled up it just as easily as Santa Claus could have crept down it!
But because he had never left anybody's house or shop by way of the
chimney, Daddy Longlegs never once thought of doing such a thing.

And his thinking that Jimmy Rabbit wouldn't come back until the next
morning shows that Daddy knew very little about the ways of his
neighbors. Almost anybody else would have been sure that Jimmy Rabbit
would keep his shoe shop open at night, because he was always wider
awake after dark. And many others of the field-people were exactly like
him in that respect.

Daddy Longlegs had been sleeping soundly for some time--inside the toe
of a shoe--when the sound of voices awakened him. At first he kept very
still. Being naturally a timid person he did not want to show himself
until he was sure he was safe from harm.

And then, before he realized what was happening, he felt himself picked
up--shoe and all--and he heard Jimmy Rabbit say, "Try on this shoe,
Peter Mink!"

Since there was no doubt--the next instant--that Peter Mink was
thrusting his foot into Daddy's hiding-place, there was only one thing
for Daddy to do. Knowing that he was in great danger of being crushed,
he withdrew into the very tip of the shoe. And luckily for him, Peter
Mink's toes did not quite reach him.

After that