The next morning the shoemaker’s wife said to her husband, “The little men have made us rich and we should show our gratitude by doing something for them. Then they arranged the shoes in neat little rows on the bench and scampered away, as quickly and as silently as mice. They never stopped for a moment until everything was finished. They sat down at the shoemaker’s bench, took up all the work that was cut out, and soon their tiny fingers began to stitch and sew and hammer so quickly that the shoemaker’s eye opened wide in wonderment. “Let us stay up tonight to see who it is that helps us in this fine way.” The wife agreed readily and so, leaving a dim light burning, they hid in a corner of the room, behind a curtain.Īt the stroke of midnight, two little elves came in. One evening, just before Christmas, when he had cut out some shoes, as usual, the shoemaker said to his wife, Soon the shoemaker and his wife were not poor anymore. Whatever was cut out in the evening was worked up by daybreak, and customers came in eagerly to buy the shoes. The next morning, four pairs of neatly finished shoes were ready as the shoemaker entered his shop. Now the shoemaker had money enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes, which, of course, he did. “What fine stitches!” they exclaimed, and, “How well they are made!” Soon after, two customers came in and bought both pairs of shoes. Imagine his joy and surprise next morning to discover that he was saved all the trouble. That evening, he cut out the shoes and laid them out neatly so that he could begin afresh the next day. The poor shoemaker promptly went out to buy more leather, which, as turned out, was enough to make two more pairs of shoes. “They are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn!” he exclaimed, and so pleased was he with the good looks that he gladly paid more than the usual price for them. Sometime later, a man came into the shop and tried on the shoes. The shoemaker called to his wife excitedly and she hurried in to marvel, also at the excellent workmanship, though she could not explain how it had come about. There was not one false stitch in the whole job all was so neat and true that it could only have been done by a master workman.
Rising early next morning, he hurried to his workbench and found, to his amazement, that the shoes were already made and finished! He took them in hand and examined them closely. He cut the shoes out before he went to bed that night, thinking that he would finish them the next day.
There was once, a long time ago, an honest and hard-working shoemaker who, through no fault of his own, grew so poor that he had nothing left in the world but enough leather to make only one pair of shoes.
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