Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/219



HERE was once a poor man named Martin. He was so very poor that when his wife gave birth to a little boy, he could find no one who would stand godmother to the child.

“No,” he told his wife, “there’s no one that I’ve asked who is willing to hold this infant at the christening.”

The poor mother wept and moaned and he tried to comfort her as best he could.

“Don’t be discouraged, my dear wife. I promise you your son will be christened. I’ll carry him to church myself and if I can find a godmother no other way I’ll ask some woman I meet on the road.”

So Martin bundled up the baby and carried him to church. On the way he met a woman whom he asked to be godmother. She took the baby in her arms at once and held it during the christening.

Now Martin supposed that she was just an ordinary woman like any other. But she wasn’t. She was Death who walks about among men and takes them when their time has come.

After the christening she invited Martin home with