Poor Fred must have some new shoes; I couldn't let him go to Mrs.
Bond's yesterday because his toes were peeping out, dear child! and I can't let him walk anywhere except in the garden.

He must have a pair before Sunday.

Really, boots and shoes are the greatest trouble of my life.

Everything else one can turn and turn about, and make old look like new; but there's no coaxing boots and shoes to look better than they are.' Mrs.Barton was playfully undervaluing her skill in metamorphosing boots and shoes.

She had at that moment on her feet a pair of slippers which had long ago lived through the prunella phase of their existence, and were now running a respectable career as black silk slippers, having been neatly covered with that material by Mrs.Barton's own neat fingers.
Wonderful fingers those! they were never empty; for if she went to spend a few hours with a friendly parishioner, out came her thimble and a piece of calico or muslin, which, before she left, had become a mysterious little garment with all sorts of hemmed ins and outs.