The window allowed in a flow of breeze puffs. At which I realized I had not remembered to shut it before I settled down for the night. The dark was still in control of part of the window while daybreak was starting to swallow the rest. My face twisted in discontent as my eyes were still going through with a thorough search for my shoe. (来源：英语美食指南 http://food.englishcn.com)

‘How much will you charge for this pair of shoes? ’

I summoned back to memory the time I had bought it.

(来源：英语分类信息 http://fl.englishcn.com)

‘Which one do you mean?’ the salesman had inquired.

(来源：英语博客 http://space.englishcn.com)

That had been the first time I had ever haggled over any purchase, let alone a pair of shoes. He had reacted in irritation, considering it a shameful behavior on my part. I had read the signs of rags in his eyes.

(来源：英语问答中心 http://ask.englishcn.com)

Nevertheless, he had refrained from making any offensive utterance. (来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)

  His need for selling had overpowered the urge to kick me out of his store. The shoe I had pointed to in the showcase had stuck out its tongue in division of me. I had never seen such an insolent shoe before. (来源：英语博客 http://space.englishcn.com)

I had grabbed it from the hand of the salesman, who had given its front a clean wipe with his sleeve. It had shone brighter and stuck out its tongue longer and longer. ‘I wonder that tongue – I mean that shoe is joking with me. Soon when I’ve slipped my foot into it, I’ll tread it on the asphalted road and teach it that satirizing others isn’t always appropriate. What matters is the idea. But whoever can find the idea in that fog shrouding things and swinging over the people’s heads, moistening their hair. How could the idea be set free? How could it flare up and emerge?! (来源：英语资料下载 http://download.englishcn.com)

  The satirizing dangling tongue had addressed me in determination to be taken away with me whatever the cost.

‘How did they manage to trick you into leashing you with the lace?! ’ I taunted.

(来源：英语美食指南 http://food.englishcn.com)

‘Get out of my head and forget it, it replied repulsively. (来源：英语论坛 http://bbs.englishcn.com)

The devil tells us not to forget anything. It’d tempt us by swelling our dreams out of proportion. ’ (来源：英语麦当劳－英语杂志 www.EnglishCN.com)

 ‘I’m not a devil…. look.’ Its tongue had dangled further as I had been examining it with both my hands. Don’t look deep into me, you fool. Hope you won’t be deceived by the outer appearance of things. For a tongue is only what it really is. So is a shoe.’ (来源：英语电影下载 http://bt.englishcn.com)

 ‘What’s the relationship between the two of them? In other words,

(来源：英语资料下载 http://download.englishcn.com)

What’s your connection with a shoe? ’

‘Oh, you wish to know in what way I’m connected with a tongue. ’ (来源：英语图片 http://photo.englishcn.com)

 ‘I don’t see any difference. It’s only a shoe with a tongue.

‘No, you’re wrong. It’s rather a tongue wearing a shoe.’ (来源：英语聊天室 http://chat.EnglishCN.com)

‘Stop teasing me, will you. Just pay. Then I’ll explain.’ (来源：英语麦当劳－英语学习门户 EnglishCN.com)

One half of the window was gnawed off by night and the other by daybreak, whose gaping jaw proved to have not teeth but blood-stained fangs, which by the action of gnawing, had grown sharp enough to cut through flesh and iron. As daybreak was creeping upon them, people pulled on their clothes and shoes and set off with dangling tongues. My search for the shoe never ceases. Fatigue then had the best of me. The idea of searching was so wearisome.

(来源：英语图片 http://photo.englishcn.com)

 Had it not been for the shoe, I would by now have got fully dressed. I bawled out, barked, moiled, mewed and mumbled at times, but my search was doomed to failure. ‘Perseverance beats intelligence,’ they said in by-gone times. I would say, ‘A shoe beats every other thing.’ (来源：英语麦当劳－英语学习门户 EnglishCN.com)

Whoever of us is buried with a shoe? All those dead or killed part with their shoes. What an accursed thing shoes are. They had better be donated to paupers than buried with the dead.

   I had paid for the shoes, which the salesman had laid in a box enveloped in a tissue. I had hoped the rude shoe would have almost choked to death and its tongue stuck out further before I had got back home. It would serve it well. It had to learn god manners. Good manners in an age of fangs and gnawing are the whip with which the good mannered are flogged.

  The shoe insisted on degrading my dignity each time I bent down to tidy its tongue. I twisted the lace and the tighter I tied it, the further the tongue dangled. Then the shoe would free itself from my grip and vanish. And it would be too late before I found it again.

‘What on earth is the difference between a shoe and a tongue?’ I wondered. I had no idea: there was a lace between the tongue and the shoe. At such daybreak, however, which was no longer what it had ever been and at such a late hour, the frowning sun shone motionless and glared through the window in stubborn wildness. The search for the shoe wore me out and the shadow of the tongue in concert with the lace and the shoe joined in the procession. When eventually I came upon the shoe, I knocked it against the wall, scolding. (来源：专业英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

‘Stop knocking ideas against each other, ’it shouted at me wrathfully.

‘You’re talking nonsense. (来源：英语e问e答 http://ask.englishcn.com)

‘In fact, I feel shy of the road and of myself.’ (来源：英语问答中心 http://ask.englishcn.com)

‘Why should you?! What the devil have you got to do with the road? (来源：英语e问e答 http://ask.englishcn.com)

‘Have you ever seen a shoeless hand or a head with no shoe on top, or a belly wearing no shoe? ’

(来源：英语资料下载 http://download.englishcn.com)

‘What exactly is your point? ’

‘Listen. Once you’ve slipped in to a shoe, what difference would there be between you and any other person or thing? ’  (来源：英语交友 http://friends.englishcn.com)

‘Now I know how to teach you good manners.’

(来源：英语问答中心 http://ask.englishcn.com)

‘You know nothing of the sort. ’ (来源：英语麦当劳 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

‘I’m sure I do; I’ll take you to the shoemaker, who’ll sew up your tongue or slash it with a knife and then scrap it into a heap of garbage.’

(来源：英语麦当劳－英语杂志 EnglishCN.com)

  While the sun was still hanging through the window hollow and the tongue, in conjunction with the lace and the shoe, lay dangling, I conceived of a human skull with its content of motley thoughts before it had been devoured by maggots. And in the light of this conception I saw precisely the position of the tongue and the lace and what connection there was between them and the shoe.

My non-stop search for the shoe bore no fruit. ‘This is an unfortunate ominous day,’ I said in a soliloquy. ‘Either the shoe has converted in to the sun or vice versa. However, light will eventually bring every thing to light.’ Even my memory would not roll back to how much the shoe had cost me. (来源：英语交友 http://friends.englishcn.com)

   The sun, profusely pouring its rays through the window was grilling my face. Every thing seemed to be glittering at first sight. The glass of the showcase had been glittering too. The shoe still insisted on teasing and worrying me, and I, in turn, insisted on teaching it a lesson of good manners. So I made up my mind to keep it unlaced this time and let it dangle and mock me the way it wanted. (来源：英语e问e答 http://ask.englishcn.com)

   The road was long enough to drain off its breath and bring it to silence. (来源：专业英语学习网站 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

‘Mister.. mister.. ’’

‘What’s it you want, young man? ’ I asked, turning round.

(来源：英语博客 http://space.englishcn.com)

‘You’ve left the shoes behind. ’ (来源：英语学习门户网站EnglishCN.com)

‘What shoes? ’ (来源：英语麦当劳－英语学习门户 EnglishCN.com)

‘You’ve paid for them and forgotten them. ’

(来源：英语麦当劳www.EnglishCN.com)

‘Oh, sorry.’ (来源：英语麦当劳 http://www.EnglishCN.com)

‘Here they are,’   he had offered, handing them to me . (来源：英语博客 http://space.englishcn.com)

‘Thank you. You’re a nice young man.’

‘It seems you’re so worried that you’ve forgotten them.’ (来源：英语论坛 http://bbs.englishcn.com)

‘You’re right. Thanks.

‘Is that all? Don’t I deserve anything more than that? ’

(来源：英语图片 http://photo.englishcn.com)

‘Oh, yes. You do. Take this banknote and gnaw it. ’

(来源：英语问答中心 http://ask.englishcn.com)

‘You’ve got a great heart and busy mind ’

‘Perhaps, my son ’ (来源：EnglishCN英语问答中心[e问e答])

He had clasped the banknote jovially and turned away. Scarcely had he taken a few steps across the street when he was knocked down by a passing car and killed on the spot.

‘He was a nice boy. Why didn’t he pay more attention? ’

(来源：英语资料下载 http://download.englishcn.com)

My eyes rested on his feet. The tongue of his shoe was dangling in irony. The lace untied.

My long search ended in finding the shoe, and, as usual, I was late. I sank into silence and scurried down the stairs. (来源：英语麦当劳－英语学习门户 EnglishCN.com)