The man said: “I shall be very glad to do it.” One night, when everything was ready, they laid their presents altogether on the table instead of the cut out work. You can help too – make them two little pairs of shoes.” I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I will make them little shirts, coats, vests, and trousers, and knit both of them a pair of stockings. They run about so, but have nothing on, and must be cold. The next morning the woman said: “The little men have made us rich, and we really must show that we are grateful for it. They did not stop until all was done and stood finished on the table, and then they ran quickly away. They took all the work which was cut out before them and began to stitch, sew, and hammer so skillfully and so quickly with their little fingers that the shoemaker could not turn away his eyes for astonishment. When it was midnight, two little elves came into the room, both without any clothes on, and sat down by the shoemaker’s table. Then they hid themselves in a corner of the room behind some clothes which were hanging up there, and watched. The woman liked the idea, and lighted a candle. This time he said to his wife: “Let’s stay up tonight to see who it is that lends us this helping hand?” Now one evening, not long before Christmas, the man finished cutting out the leather as usual. Soon he was no longer poor, and he even became quite rich. 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. There was no shortage of customers who wanted the shoes, and the shoemaker soon had enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes. That night, he cut out the leather, and the next morning he was about to set to work with fresh hope for the future when he saw that the shoes were already made. Now the shoemaker had enough money to buy leather for two pairs of shoes. Soon after, a customer came in to the shop, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid more than the usual price. It was just as if they were intended as a masterpiece. He took the shoes in his hands to look at them more closely and he saw that they were so neatly made that there was not one bad stitch in them. He was astounded, and did not know what to make of it. In the morning, just as he was about to sit down to work, he saw the two shoes standing quite finished on his table. He lay down quietly in his bed, and before he fell asleep he asked God to help him. So in the evening, he cut the leather into the shape of the shoes, and he left his work on the table to finish in the morning. A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, became so poor that at last he had nothing left but enough leather for one pair of shoes.
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