1.   My father used to mend our shoes.

2.   Because he had he used to have a big open fire there and all the kids would be sitting round it keeping warm while he was mending the shoes.

3.   He was the son of an Iowa preacher in the days when preachers made enough to live, but no more, and he mended his shoes with cardboard.

4.   Hotels sprang up to lodge them and cobblers flourished mending their shoes.

5.   In Celtic folk tales, leprechauns were cranky little men who mended shoes and were known to use trickery to protect their fabled treasure.

6.   It is Christmas Eve and the poor cobbler must leave his three young sons to mend shoes for the soldiers so he can have money to feed his brood.