The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1895-02-08
Two Red Shoes.

been alive, you might have seen her and
talked with her, this little girl, who was
baby in those distant years of the Sew
entcenth century, when Milton was writ
ing those stately cantos of the "paradise
Lost" and King Philip and his Indians
were making so much trouble for our
great grandfatherS OH the New England
frontiers.
low curious she would look to us now
in her quaint, old-fashioncd dress, made
just like her mothers, so that she re-
sembled :, little old woman in miniature
Her jacket Of white linen was drawn
about her waist with black cord, and
met the blue WOODEN pctticoat that had
not Il tlouncc or Il rutllc on it.
She wore on her head, over her short
silky curlS, a small, stiff linen cap, for
bangs had not been invented then A
pair of rcd shoes completed the toilet of
this little Puritan maiden, except when
she went to church, and then she put on
\ hish-crowncd, stecple-shaped hat, and
threw long rcd cloak over her shout
ders.
Very much like this, excepting the hat
and cloak, looked like Sally Coleman
one September morning in 1917
She was only 4 5-year-old girl, and
those little red shoes were fresh and
new from the counter of small store in
Hatfield, on the Connecticut river, then a
small border town. Very proud was
Sally Of those little red shoes, and she
was busy, trying them on and thinking
she went with her father into the square
barn-likc wooden church to listen to one of
l'arson Tcnncy's long sermons. She had
just put them on and WAS walking III
and down the kitchen floor, when she
was startled by a loud war whoop, and i'm,
mcdiately several painted Indians, look.
ing very frightful with their wardress
tic lady, red shoes and all, and carried
her, screaming, away.
All i'll moment the happy child was
made very sad one. She saw her mother
and her little sisters killed by the red
men, and her home all in flames; and il,
company with many another captive, she
was marched into the wilderness.
10 Canada, all the way over the frozen
lakes and rivers, and the hard, rough
ground, desolate, tedious journey in the
cold autumn months, tramped the rcd
shoes. Often the little feet were weary
and often little Sally's heart must have
been despairing and ready to faint by the
wayside.
One of her savage captives took pity
OH her forlorn condition, and did what he
could to help her, carrying her on his
brawny shoulders when she could not walk
farther, making !: soft couch of hemlock
boughs for her comfort when they camped
ut night, and selecting for the homcsick
little girl the juiciest steaks from the
sides of bear and deer that he killed in
hunting.
So the red shoes did not wear out
though they had to be mendcd more than
once with stout deer's sincws.
And glad, you may be sure, was the
pioneer John Coleman when the faded
worn shoes crossed his threshold, one
bright May morning, having been to Can.
ada and back again. Some good friends
of the Colenans had influence enough
with the French and the Indians to ef
feet Sally's release, and Count Fronte.
nae, the French governor, ordered q
guard of soldiers to attend the child and
her companions back to Hatfield.
And the cunning little shoes, soled
with leather from England, bound with
silk from Paris, scwed with dccrs sinew>
from the Canadian forests. whose red
serge uppcrs were brought from Holland
by way of New Amsterdam, may still
be seen, soilcd and ragged, one of them
in the collection of the old South church
Memorial association of Deerfeld, Mass
Just think of it-a pair of shoes more
than 200 years old and with such a his
tory! Would you not like to see them
They arc much the oldest pair of shoes
in America, and think they ought to be
kept together.
Little Sally grew to be a woman and
had children of her own, and dare say
she often told them of the journey those
shoes had taken, and Of the bitter trials
she experienced as a captive among tho
Indians. Very likely, too, the children
thought the shoes quite as wonderful as
their mother did, and never tired of hear
ing their story. 1 can imagine them or
a Sunday night, when all was still ant
the snow lay white and silent around
the pioneers house, clambering upon
their mothers knees and whispering:
please tell us about the, little red
shoes that went to Canada and back"
The little girl that wore them has
but for those two little red shoes, it is
doubtful if Sally Coleman would be re
membered today. Certain it is, / should
not have had this story to tell, for
should not have thought of it but fol
seeing the interesting relics during re
cent vacation.-Fred Myron Colby III
Philadelphia Times.