And so it went on. The shoemaker cut out the leather in the evening and in the morning the shoes were finished and ready to wear. There were always customers to buy the shoes and they always paid a good price for them. Soon the shoemaker and his wife were no longer poor. In fact, they were really quite rich.
The shoemaker decided he wanted to find out who was doing the work. “I wonder who is helping us,” he said to his wife. “It’s a bit late to think of that now.” she replied. But he insisted “I want to find out who is doing the work. I want to stay up tonight and watch. I want to find out who is helping us. I want to thank them. I think we ought to thank them,” he said. His wife agreed. “Yes, there’s something in that. Let’s hide ourselves and stay up and watch.”
So that night the shoemaker and his wife hid themselves in the room and waited. And at midnight two little men dressed in rags came into the room. They sat down at the table and at once began to work on the leather that was lying there. They began to stitch and hammer. They worked very fast. The little men soon finished the work and ran off. The shoemaker and his wife were amazed by what they had seen. Then the shoemaker’s wife had an idea. “These little men have helped us, and now we want to thank them, don’t we?” she asked. “Yes we do,” he replied. “But how can we thank them?” Now, the shoemaker’s wife had noticed that the little men were dressed in rags so she decided she would make them some new clothes and that her husband would make a pair of shoes for each of them. “Yes, that’s a very good idea,” said the shoemaker. “They’ve made shoes for me, and now I’ll make shoes for them.”
So the shoemaker and his wife worked hard all day making clothes and shoes. Then they laid them out ready for the little men and hid themselves to see what happened. At midnight the two little men came in and when they saw the clothes and shoes, they were delighted. They put them on a danced around the room. “No more shoemaking for us! Hurrah!”, they cried and they ran out of the door.
The shoemaker and his wife were pleased that the little men had liked their new clothes and their new shoes. The wife didn’t think that the little men would come back. “Oh well, we’ve been very lucky,” said the shoemaker. “They’ve worked very hard and now they deserve a rest.”
And, indeed, the little men never did come back. The shoemaker and his wife never saw them again. But the shoemaker’s business continued to do well and he and his wife lived happily every after.
4. THE STORY OF THE LITTLE WEAVER (PART I)
This story is about a weaver. He was a rather small man and everyone called him “the little weaver”. The little weaver worked very hard making cloth. then he sold the cloth to be made into clothes.
One morning the little weaver got up and started work as usual. He was busy working when his kind neighbour brought in a cup of tea and a piece of bread and jam. The little weaver was very pleased. The neighbour advised him to: “Eat it quickly or the flies will eat it.” The little weaver wanted to finish his work first, so he kept on working. but the flies came and buzzed around the bread and jam. The little weaver told them to go away but they didn’t. So, he hit out at the flies. He said: “I’ve killed all the flies with one blow.” There were a lot of flies. The little weaver counted them all.. There were seventy flies. The little weaver was very pleased with himself. He said: “I’ve killed three score and ten with one blow.” Three score and ten - that’s seventy and the little weaver was so pleased with himself that he decided to do something different. He said “I’m not going to be a weaver any more. I’m going to do something different. But what? The little weaver decided to go and see the King. He said: “I’m going to work for the King. I’m going to make my fortune.”
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