Page:The shoemaker's apron (1920).djvu/299

 While you were alive you sold your soul to the ruler of the other place and now you must go there.”

With that St. Peter shut the golden gate and locked it.

The little shoemaker sighed and said to himself:

“Well, I suppose I must go where St. Peter says.”

So he put on a bold front and tramped down to hell. When the devil who knew him saw him coming, he shouted out to his fellow devils:

“Brothers, on guard! Here comes that terrible little shoemaker! Lock every gate! Don’t let him in or he’ll drive us all out of hell!”

The devils in great fright scurried about and locked and barred all the gates, and the little shoemaker when he arrived could not get in.

He knocked and knocked but no one would answer.

“They don’t seem to want me here,” he said to himself. “I suppose I’ll have to try heaven again.”

So he trudged back to St. Peter and explained to him that hell was locked up tight.

“No matter,” St. Peter said. “As I told you before heaven is no place for you.”

The little shoemaker, tired and dejected, went back to hell but again the devils, when they saw him coming, locked every gate and kept him out.