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!"