VI
DAY by day and week by week the year went round. Michael lived and worked with Simon. His fame spread till people said that no one sewed boots so neatly and strongly as Simon’s workman, Michael; and from all the district round people came to Simon for their boots, and he began to be well off.
One winter day, as Simon and Michael sat working, a carriage on sledge-runners, with three horses and with bells, drove up to the hut. They looked out of the window; the carriage stopped at their door, a fine servant jumped down from the box and opened the door. A gentleman in a fur coat got out and walked up to Simon’s hut. Up jumped Matryóna and opened the door wide. The gentleman stooped to enter the hut, and when he drew himself up again his head nearly reached the ceiling, and he seemed quite to fill his end of the room.
Simon rose, bowed, and looked at the gentleman with astonishment. He had never seen anyone like him. Simon himself was lean, Michael was thin, and Matryóna was dry as a bone, but this man was like someone from another world: red-faced, burly, with a neck like a bull’s, and looking altogether as if he were cast in iron.
The gentleman puffed, threw off his fur coat, sat down on the bench, and said, ‘Which of you is the master bootmaker?’
‘I am, your Excellency,’ said Simon, coming forward.
Then the gentleman shouted to his lad, ‘Hey, Fédka, bring the leather!’
The servant ran in, bringing a parcel. The gentleman took the parcel and put it on the table.
‘Untie it,’ said he. The lad untied it.
The gentleman pointed to the leather.
‘Look here, shoemaker,’ said he, ‘do you see this leather?’
‘Yes, your honour.’
‘But do you know what sort of leather it is?’
Simon felt the leather and said, ‘It is good leather.’
‘Good, indeed! Why, you fool, you never saw such leather before in your life. It’s German, and cost twenty rubles.’
Simon was frightened, and said, ‘Where should I ever see leather like that?’
‘Just so! Now, can you make it into boots for me?’
‘Yes, your Excellency, I can.’
Then the gentleman shouted at him: ‘You can, can you? Well, remember whom you are to make them for, and what the leather is. You must make me boots that will wear for a year, neither losing shape nor coming unsewn. If you can do it, take the leather and cut it up; but if you can’t, say so. I warn you now, if your boots come unsewn or lose shape within a year, I will have you put in prison. If they don’t burst or lose shape for a year, I will pay you ten rubles for your work.’
Simon was frightened, and did not know what to say. He glanced at Michael and nudging him with his elbow, whispered: ‘Shall I take the work?’
Michael nodded his head as if to say, ‘Yes, take it.’
Simon did as Michael advised, and undertook to make boots that would not lose shape or split for a whole year.
Calling his servant, the gentleman told him to pull the boot off his left leg, which he stretched out.
‘Take my measure!’ said he.
Simon stitched a paper measure seventeen inches long, smoothed it out, knelt down, wiped his hands well on his apron so as not to soil the gentleman’s sock, and began to measure. He measured the sole, and round the instep, and began to measure the calf of the leg, but the paper was too short. The calf of the leg was as thick as a beam.
‘Mind you don’t make it too tight in the leg.’
Simon stitched on another strip of paper. The gentleman twitched his toes about in his sock, looking round at those in the hut, and as he did so he noticed Michael.
‘Whom have you there?’ asked he.
‘That is my workman. He will sew the boots.’
‘Mind,’ said the gentleman to Michael, ‘remember to make them so that they will last me a year.’
Simon also looked at Michael, and saw that Michael was not looking at the gentleman, but was gazing into the corner behind the gentleman, as if he saw someone there. Michael looked and looked, and suddenly he smiled, and his face became brighter.
‘What are you grinning at, you fool?’ thundered the gentleman. ‘You had better look to it that the boots are ready in time.’
‘They shall be ready in good time,’ said Michael.
‘Mind it is so,’ said the gentleman, and he put on his boots and his fur coat, wrapped the latter round him, and went to the door. But he forgot to stoop, and struck his head against the lintel.
He swore and rubbed his head. Then he took his seat in the carriage and drove away.
When he had gone, Simon said: ‘There’s a figure of a man for you! You could not kill him with a mallet. He almost knocked out the lintel, but little harm it did him.’
And Matryóna said: ‘Living as he does, how should he not grow strong? Death itself can’t touch such a rock as that.’
VII
THEN Simon said to Michaeclass="underline" ‘Well, we have taken the work, but we must see we don’t get into trouble over it. The leather is dear, and the gentleman hot-tempered. We must make no mistakes. Come, your eye is truer and your hands have become nimbler than mine, so you take this measure and cut out the boots. I will finish off the sewing of the vamps.’
Michael did as he was told. He took the leather, spread it out on the table, folded it in two, took a knife and began to cut out.
Matryóna came and watched him cutting, and was surprised to see how he was doing it. Matryóna was accustomed to seeing boots made, and she looked and saw that Michael was not cutting the leather for boots, but was cutting it round.
She wished to say something, but she thought to herself: ‘Perhaps I do not understand how gentlemen’s boots should be made. I suppose Michael knows more about it – and I won’t interfere.’
When Michael had cut up the leather, he took a thread and began to sew not with two ends, as boots are sewn, but with a single end, as for soft slippers.
Again Matryóna wondered, but again she did not interfere. Michael sewed on steadily till noon. Then Simon rose for dinner, looked around, and saw that Michael had made slippers out of the gentleman’s leather.
‘Ah!’ groaned Simon, and he thought, ‘How is it that Michael, who has been with me a whole year and never made a mistake before, should do such a dreadful thing? The gentleman ordered high boots, welted, with whole fronts, and Michael has made soft slippers with single soles, and has wasted the leather. What am I to say to the gentleman? I can never replace leather such as this.’
And he said to Michael, ‘What are you doing, friend? You have ruined me! You know the gentleman ordered high boots, but see what you have made!’
Hardly had he begun to rebuke Michael, when ‘rat-tat’ went the iron ring that hung at the door. Someone was knocking. They looked out of the window; a man had come on horseback, and was fastening his horse. They opened the door, and the servant who had been with the gentleman came in.
‘Good day,’ said he.
‘Good day,’ replied Simon. ‘What can we do for you?’
‘My mistress has sent me about the boots.’
‘What about the boots?’
‘Why, my master no longer needs them. He is dead.’
‘Is it possible?’
‘He did not live to get home after leaving you, but died in the carriage. When we reached home and the servants came to help him alight, he rolled over like a sack. He was dead already, and so stiff that he could hardly be got out of the carriage. My mistress sent me here, saying: “Tell the bootmaker that the gentleman who ordered boots of him and left the leather for them no longer needs the boots, but that he must quickly make soft slippers for the corpse. Wait till they are ready, and bring them back with you.” That is why I have come.’