Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral TalesTolstoy, Leo, graf
General
Fables for Children, Stories for Children, Natural Science Stories, Popular Education, Decembrists, Moral Tales
Tolstoy, Leo, graf
Russian literature -- Translations into English
Semén, too, looked at Mikháyla, and he saw that Mikháyla was not looking
at the gentleman, but gazed at the corner, as though he saw some one
there. Mikháyla looked and looked, suddenly smiled and shone bright.
"What makes you show your teeth, fool? You had better be sure and get
the boots in time."
And Mikháyla said:
"They will be done in time."
"Exactly."
The gentleman put on his boot and his fur coat, and wrapped himself up,
and went to the door. He forgot to bow down, and hit his head against
the lintel.
The gentleman cursed awhile, and rubbed his head, and seated himself in
the carriage, and drove away.
When the gentleman was gone, Semén said:
"He is mighty flinty! You can't kill him with a club. He has knocked out
the lintel, but he himself took little harm."
And Matréna said:
"How can he help being smooth, with the life he leads? Even death will
not touch such a sledge-hammer!"
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!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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