THE SHOEMAKER AND THE ELVES

Once upon a time, there was a shoemaker. He became so poor that he had leather only enough for one pair of shoes. One evening, he cut the last piece of the leather into the shape of the shoes, then felt tired and left his work on the table to finish the next morning. He went to bed and before he fell asleep, he wished for some help.

When he woke up next morning, he saw the two shoes standing finished on his table. He looked closely at the shoes. They had been made perfectly.

Soon after, a customer came and bought the shoes. Now the shoemaker had enough money to buy leather for more shoes.

That night, he cut out the leather he bought for two pairs of shoes. Next morning, he was about to start working when he saw that the shoes had already been made. They were immediately sold and this time the shoemaker had enough money to buy leather for four pairs of shoes.

The following morning, he found the four pairs were made, and so it went on; any leather that he cut out in the evening was finished by the morning. Soon, he was not poor any more, he even became rich.

One evening not long before Christmas, he decided to stay awake to see who it was that helped him. The shoemaker and his wife hid themselves in a corner of the room the shoemaker used to work and watched… watched… and watched...

Finally, at midnight, two little elves came into the room. They didn’t have any clothes on. They sat down, and started to stitch, sew, and hammer skillfully. They never stopped until they finished making all the shoes, and then they ran quickly away.

In the morning the woman said: “The little men have made us rich, but they have nothing on. They must be cold. I will make them little clothes. You can make them two little pairs of shoes”, and the shoemaker agreed.

One night, when everything was ready, they put the little clothes and the shoes on the table instead of the cut out leather. Then they hid themselves to see what the little men would do.

At midnight they came in to work again. However, they were at first puzzled, and then delighted to see the clothes and the shoes. They dressed themselves very quickly, putting the pretty clothes on, and singing,

“Now we are boys so fine to see, why should we longer cobblers be?”

From that night on, they never came again, but as long as the shoemaker lived, he felt grateful.