The Shoemaker

This little 15 minute short tells us that we must be tolerant of people who are different from us and that God created us all!! Davey has a paper route. While he and Goliath are delivering papers, they notice that the store on the corner is now occupied. They decide to go to the new owner and see if they can get a new subscriber to their newspaper service. Davey and Goliath go into the new shoe store of Mr. Pierre. Davey introduces himself to Mr. Pierre but there is a little communication problem between Mr. Pierre and Davey. Mr. Pierre has a sick wife and was concerned about her, so when Davey and Goliath come to the store, his attention is on his wife’s health problem. Mr. Pierre goes into a room with a curtain where Mrs. Pierre is resting. While Mr. Pierre is in the room speaking with his wife, who reminds him that he must speak English to all of his customers, Davey and Goliath go into the room where Mr. Pierre repairs all of the shoes of his customers. There is a very dangerous machine that is in the room. Davey and Goliath see the shoe machine and decide to turn it on to see what will happens. Mr. Pierre hears the machine running and comes into the room where Davey and Goliath are playing. Mr. Pierre raises his hands and frightens Davey. Mr. Pierre begins to speak in French to Davey that he must be careful, but Davey and Goliath run off and thinks that Mr. Pierre is a mean man, but actually, Mr. Pierre likes Davey and was so afraid that Davey and Goliath would hurt themselves. Davey then tells Sally about that mean man at the shoe store. Sally doesn’t believe Davey, so they decide to go back to the shoe store. This time, Sally wants to know who is behind the curtain that Davey was telling her about; as she comes into the store they see Mr. Pierre. Mr. Pierre tries to introduce himself to them again. Mrs. Pierre reminds her husband that he must speak English when he speaks to the customers. Mr. Pierre has forgotten his wife’s warning and reached to “pat” Sally on the head. Davey and Sally think that Mr. Pierre is trying to “hit” Sally, when actually; Mr. Pierre thinks that Sally is a cute little girl. This huge misunderstanding circulates to Davey’s friends. Davey tells his friends how Mr. Pierre “hit” Sally. The boys all decide to throw snowballs at Mr. Pierre’s shoe shop. Mr. Pierre runs out to speak to the boys and the boys all run away but Mr. Pierre recognizes Davey and Goliath. After this little escapade, Davey and Goliath comes back home to find that Sally hasn’t returned home. Mother asked Davey if he had seen Sally, automatically, Davey suspects that Mr. Pierre has hurt Sally and tells his Mother so. His mother explains to Davey that he must not say cruel things about his new neighbor, Mr. Pierre. Davey tells his mother that he will go and look for Sally. As Davey and Goliath prepare to go back to the shoe repair store to look for Sally, Dad comes home. Davey tells Dad about “that mean man” Mr. Pierre. Dad tells Davey that he shouldn’t say mean things about the Shoemaker. Davey tells Dad how Mr. Pierre “hit” Sally when they went to the shoe store and about someone that is behind the curtain in Mr. Pierre’s shoe store. Dad tells Davey to stay at home and he would go and look for Sally. When Dad travels to see the Shoemaker, Sally returns home to see Davey and Mother concerned about her whereabouts. Dad is unaware that Sally has returned home and goes inside the shoe store. It is late, so Mr. Pierre is about to close the store when Dad arrives. Mr. Pierre comes to the door to place his “closed” sign on the door and Dad comes into the store. Since Mr. Pierre has a difficult time speaking English, Dad misunderstands Mr. Pierre’s intentions when Dad inquires about Sally. At that moment, Mrs. Pierre calls to her husband from behind the curtain. Mr. Pierre runs to his wife. Mrs. Pierre explains to Dad that her husband speaks French and that he is still trying to learn English. Dad also learns that Davey, Goliath and the boys “snowballed” Mr. Pierre’s store. Dad returns home to confront Davey about his actions against the Shoemaker. Dad tells Davey about the passage in the Bible that says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16) Dad tells Davey that he sinned against his new neighbor by not trying to understand Mr. Pierre and how the entire situation “snowballed” out of control because of Davey’s actions. Davey now understands what he has done wrong and tells his friends of his mistake about Mr. Pierre. The story ends with the boys coming to Mr. Pierre with all of their shoes (as an apology) for repair which makes Mr. Pierre very happy.