Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
< < < . VI .
. VIII . > > >
VII.
And Semén said to Mikháyla:
“To be sure, we have undertaken to do the work, if only we do not get into trouble! The material is costly, and the gentleman is cross. I hope we shall not make a blunder. Your eyes are sharper, and your hands are nimbler than mine, so take this measure! Cut the material, and I will put on the last stitches.”
Mikháyla did not disobey him, but took the gentleman’s material, spread it out on the table, doubled it, took the scissors, and began to cut.
Matréna came up and saw Mikháyla cutting, and was wondering at what he was doing. Matréna had become used to the shoemaker’s trade, and she looked, and saw that Mikháyla was not cutting the material in shoemaker fashion, but in a round shape.
Matréna wanted to say something, but thought: “Perhaps I do not understand how boots have to be made for a gentleman; no doubt Mikháyla knows better, and I will not interfere.”
Mikháyla cut the pair, and picked up the end, and began to sew, not in shoemaker fashion, with the two ends meeting, but with one end, like soft shoes.
Again Matréna marvelled, but did not interfere. And Mikháyla kept sewing and sewing. They began to eat their dinner, and Semén saw that Mikháyla had made a pair of soft shoes from the gentleman’s material.
Semén heaved a sigh. “How is this?” he thought. “Mikháyla has lived with me a whole year, and has never made a mistake, and now he has made such trouble for me. The gentleman ordered boots with long boot-legs, and he has made soft shoes, without soles, and has spoiled the material. How shall I now straighten it out with the master? No such material can be found.”
And he said to Mikháyla:
“What is this, dear man, that you have done? You have ruined me. The master has ordered boots, and see what you have made!”
He had just begun to scold Mikháyla, when there was a rattle at the door ring,—some one was knocking. They looked through the window: there was there a man on horseback, and he was tying up his horse. They opened the door: in came the same lad of that gentleman.
“Good day!”
“Good day, what do you wish?”
“The lady has sent me about the boots.”
“What about the boots?”
“What about the boots? Our master does not need them. Our master has bid us live long.”
“You don’t say!”
“He had not yet reached home, when he died in his carriage. The carriage drove up to the house, and the servants came to help him out, but he lay as heavy as a bag, and was stiff and dead, and they had a hard time taking him out from the carriage. So the lady has sent me, saying: ‘Tell the shoemaker that a gentleman came to see him, and ordered a pair of boots, and left the material for them; well, tell him that the boots are not wanted, but that he should use the leather at once for a pair of soft shoes. Wait until they make them, and bring them with you.’ And so that is why I have come.”
Mikháyla took the remnants of the material from the table, rolled them up, and took the soft shoes which he had made, and clapped them against each other, and wiped them off with his apron, and gave them to the lad. The lad took the soft shoes.
“Good-bye, masters, good luck to you!”
Russian Literature – Children Books – Russian Poetry – Leo Tolstoy – What Men Live By – Contents
Copyright holders – Public Domain Book
| If you liked this site, subscribe , put likes, write comments! Share on social networks Check out Our Latest Posts |
© 2023 Akirill.com – All Rights Reserved
AKirill, Learn, apprenez, translation, traduction, livres bilingues, bilingual books 