The Shoemaker and the Elves
Once upon a time, a shoemaker and his wife lived in a small village.
They were kind and honest people who worked hard each day to make fine leather shoes,
from start to finish.
The shoemaker cut the leather into pieces and sewed them together to make each shoe.
Then his wife would place each pair in the shop window for sale.
Although they had once lived a comfortable life, they had recently
become poor.
They worried that they didn’t have enough food to eat.
The shoemaker had only enough leather left to make one pair of shoes.
The shoemaker desperately hoped he could sell his last pair of shoes.
He needed to make enough money to buy food for dinner.
So, the shoemaker began to cut the leather to make the shoes.
When he had finished, he set it down on the workbench.
It had gotten very late, so he decided to sew the shoes together in the morning.
He hugged his wife and went to bed.
Early the next morning, the shoemaker woke up.
He got ready to sew his last pair of shoes.
When he got to his workbench, his eyes fell upon the most beautiful pair of shoes he had
ever seen.
The shoemaker puzzled and puzzled over Who could have made these beautiful shoes.
Later that day, a customer came into the workshop and admired the beautiful shoes.
They fit his feet so perfectly that the customer paid double the money for them The shoemaker
smiled at his wife.
“We now have enough money to buy leather for two more pairs of shoes,” he said happily.
“There’s even a little money left over to buy some food for dinner.”
That evening, just as before, the shoemaker cut leather for two pairs of shoes and left
them on his workbench.
As he lay in bed, he thought of how he would sew both pairs of shoes the next morning.
The next morning, the shoemaker woke up and saw two beautifully crafted pairs of shoes
waiting on his workbench.
The shoemaker could hardly believe what he saw!
Before long, two customers came to his workshop and bought the shoes.
They too were so thrilled with the shoes that they paid a handsome price.
The shoemaker and his wife now had enough money to make four pairs of shoes and to buy
some delicious bread for dinner.
That night, after dinner, the shoemaker cut the leather for four pairs of shoes and left
it ready for the morning.
He went to bed and slept well.
Early the next morning, the shoemaker woke up and found four pairs of the most exquisite
shoes waiting on his workbench.
The shoemaker had sold all four pairs by lunchtime.
He now had enough money to make eight more pairs of shoes and to buy an apple pie for
supper.
And so it went on.
Night after night, the shoemaker cut the leather, and in the morning the shoes were ready to
be sold.
The shoemaker puzzled and puzzled over who was making the shoes, but he could not figure
it out.
One evening, a few days before Christmas, the shoemaker had an idea.
As he sat in front of the warm fire, he told his wife his idea.
“We should stay up late at night and try to discover who is making those beautiful
shoes,” he said as the firelight flickered across his face.
The shoemaker’s wife agreed, so they stayed awake and hid behind a curtain.
As the clock struck midnight, the shoemaker and his wife saw two tiny elves dressed in
tattered clothes enter the workshop.
In the blink of an eye, they had scampered up onto the workbench.
They picked up the cut leather and began to sew it together as if by magic.
Before the sun had risen, they were finished sewing the shoes.
They placed them carefully on the workbench, and then they disappeared as quickly as they
had come.
The elves ran out into the cold, dark night with only their ragged clothes to keep them
warm.
The shoemaker’s wife was worried about the elves.
“I would like to make them some nice, warm clothes,” she said to her husband as they
ate breakfast.
“Perhaps you could make them some tiny leather shoes to protect their feet from the cold?”
The shoemaker and his wife set to work cutting and sewing the tiny
clothes and shoes.
That evening, after her husband had laid out the shoe leather, the shoemaker’s wife placed
the gifts on the bench.
The tiny clothes and leather shoes looked beautiful in the lamplight.
Once again, the shoemaker and his wife hid behind the curtain.
At the stroke of midnight, the elves appeared.
They were just about to begin their work when they noticed the gifts spread out before them.
They put on their new clothes and shoes and admired each other.
Then, as quickly as they came, they were gone.
The elves never came back again, but it did not matter.
The shoemaker and his wife were no longer poor.
They lived happily together for the rest of their lives.
The End