(Story) The Elves And The Shoemaker

The Elves and The Shoemaker

Once upon a time there was a Shoemaker who made very good shoes. But though he worked hard in his shop, times were difficult and he become poorer and poorer. One evening he cut out some shoes from his last bit of leather and laid the pieces out on his workbench to sew in the morning when the light was better. He put everything ready including the needles and thread.

"I may never make another pair of shoes," he sighed as he put the shutters over his shop window. "When I finish and sell this pair, I must buy food for my family. Then there will be nothing left over to buy leather to make more shoes."

The next morning when he went over to his workbench, the first thing he saw a beautiful pair of shoes. He examined them carefully and realized they were made from the leather he had cut out the night before. The stitches were exquisite, very tiny and neat, and he knew the shoes were far better than any he could have made. Quickly he took down his shutters and placed this fine pair of his shop window.

The shoemaker was still puzzling over who could have made the shoes when the door opened and in came a  grand gentleman. He asked to buy the shoes he had seen in the window and paid four times more than the shoemaker had ever asked before for a paid of shoes. With this money the shoemaker bought more leather and enough food to feed the family for several days.

That evening he sat at his workbench and cut out two pairs of shoes from his new leather. He left the pieces laid out as before, all ready to sew in the morning.

Then the shoemaker shut up the shop and went upstairs to join family. In the morning he could scarcely believe his eyes, for there on his workbench were two beautiful pairs of shoes.

"Who could sew such tiny stitches?" he wondered, "And who could work so fast?"

He placed the shoes in the shop window. Rich people who had never visited his shop before came in to bu then, and paid a lot of money for them. The shoemaker took their money gladly, bought more leather and cut out more shoes.

Each night for many weeks the same thing happened. Two pairs, sometimes four pairs, were made in a night. The shoemaker became well-known for the excellent shoes he sold.

He cut all sorts of shoes: men's shoes, ladies' shoes, party shoes, shoes with laces, shoes with straps, coloured shoes, little children's shoes, dancing shoes. Each week he took even more money in his shop and his family were happy and well fed at last.

One night his wife suggested they should peep around the door of the workroom to see if they could find out who their night visitors were. As the town clock struck midnight, there was a scuffling and a scurrying by the window, and two little men squeezed through a crack in the shutters and hurried over to the workbench. They took tiny tools from their workbags and began to work. For several hours they stitched and hammered, and before dawn a row of new shoes lay on the workbench. The shoemaker and his wife rubbed their eyes in belief, wondering if they were dreaming , for the little men were scarcely bigger than the shoemaker's needles. Then, their work finished, the elves left everything neat and tiny and vanished the way they had come.

As it was just before Christmas, the shoemaker's wife suggested that the next evening they should put out presents for the little men who had helped them so much during the year. All the next day she was busy making two little green jackets and trousers with green woollen hats to match while her husband stitched two tiny pairs of boots.

The shoemaker and his wife laid these gifts out on the workbench that evening together with two little glasses of wine and plates with little cakes and biscuits. They then kept watch again. They saw the elves scramble into the workshop and climb on to the workbench as they had done before. When they saw the little green jackets, trousers and hats and tiny boots the elves gave a shout of joy. Immediately they tried on the clothes and they were so delighted they danced around the workbench, waving their hats in the air. They sat down and ate all the food that had been left out and disappeared as before.

After Christmas the shoemaker still cut out shoes and lest the pieces on his workbench but the elves never returned. They knew the shoemaker and his wife must have spied them for their clothes were the exact size, and fairy people do not like to be seen by humans.

The shoemaker did not mind however, for his shop was now so well-known that he had plenty of customers. If the shoemaker's stitches were not as tiny and neat as the elves' stitches on one ever complained. Perhaps they never noticed. For many years he was known as the best shoemaker in town and he and his wife were never poor again. But they always remembered the elves and how they had been helped by them when times were hard.

The End.

The Elves and The Shoemaker
( Authors - Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm )