"That is my master workman,--he will make those boots."

"Remember," said the gentleman to Mikhayla, "remember! Make them so that they will wear a year."

s.e.m.e.n, too, looked at Mikhayla, and he saw that Mikhayla was not looking at the gentleman, but gazed at the corner, as though he saw some one there. Mikhayla 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 Mikhayla 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, s.e.m.e.n 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 Matrena said:

"How can he help being smooth, with the life he leads? Even death will not touch such a sledge-hammer!"

VII.

And s.e.m.e.n said to Mikhayla:

"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 st.i.tches."

Mikhayla 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.

Matrena came up and saw Mikhayla cutting, and was wondering at what he was doing. Matrena had become used to the shoemaker's trade, and she looked, and saw that Mikhayla was not cutting the material in shoemaker fashion, but in a round shape.

Matrena wanted to say something, but thought: "Perhaps I do not understand how boots have to be made for a gentleman; no doubt Mikhayla knows better, and I will not interfere."

Mikhayla 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 Matrena marvelled, but did not interfere. And Mikhayla kept sewing and sewing. They began to eat their dinner, and s.e.m.e.n saw that Mikhayla had made a pair of soft shoes from the gentleman's material.

s.e.m.e.n heaved a sigh. "How is this?" he thought. "Mikhayla 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 Mikhayla:

"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 Mikhayla, 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."

Mikhayla 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 ap.r.o.n, and gave them to the lad.

The lad took the soft shoes.

"Good-bye, masters, good luck to you!"

VIII.

There pa.s.sed another year, and a third, and Mikhayla was now living the sixth year with s.e.m.e.n. He was living as before. He went nowhere, did not speak an unnecessary word, and all that time had smiled but twice: once, when they gave him the supper, and the second time when the gentleman came. s.e.m.e.n did not get tired admiring his workman. He no longer asked him where he came from; he was only afraid that Mikhayla might leave him.

One day they were sitting at home. The housewife was putting the iron pots into the oven, and the children were running on the benches, and looking out of the window. s.e.m.e.n was sharpening his knives at one window, and Mikhayla was heeling a shoe at the other.

One of the little boys ran up to Mikhayla on the bench, leaned against his shoulder, and looked out of the window.

"Uncle Mikhayla, look there: a merchant woman is coming to us with some little girls. One of the girls is lame."

When the boy said that, Mikhayla threw down his work, turned to the window, and looked out into the street.

And s.e.m.e.n marvelled. Mikhayla had never before looked into the street, and now he had rushed to the window, and was gazing at something. s.e.m.e.n, too, looked out of the window: he saw, indeed, a woman who was walking over to his yard. She was well dressed, and led two little girls in fur coats and shawls. The girls looked one like the other, so that it was hard to tell them apart, only one had a maimed left leg,--she walked with a limp.

The woman walked up the porch to the vestibule, felt for the entrance, pulled at the latch, and opened the door. First she let the two girls in, and then entered herself.

"Good day, people!"

"You are welcome! What do you wish?"

The woman seated herself at the table. The girls pressed close to her knees: they were timid before the people.

"I want you to make some leather boots for the girls for the spring."

"Well, that can be done. We have not made such small shoes, but we can do it. We can make sharp-edged shoes, or turnover shoes on linen.

Mikhayla is my master."

s.e.m.e.n looked around at Mikhayla, and he saw that Mikhayla had put away his work and was sitting and gazing at the girls.