The Elves and the Shoemaker

The shoemaker put the leather on his table. The next morning, he found two fancy pairs of shoes!
"Wow! I will sell these at the market," he said. And so he did.

This is a very easy retelling of the traditional story The Elves and the Shoemaker. A shoemaker and his wife are very poor, and the shoemaker is down to his last piece of leather. But when he wakes up in the morning, a fancy pair of shoes is already made. He sells them, uses the money to buy more leather, and then the next morning he finds two more pairs of shoes.

This continues for some time, and the shoemaker becomes rich. Eventually, they discover that a pair of elves have been making the shoes. They make some clothes for the elves, and the elves stop coming.

Unlike many traditional stories, there doesn't seem to be any big lesson to be learned from this story. The shoemaker and his wife appear to be honest people, but they don't do anything special to earn the favour of the elves. When they do something to repay the elves, the elves stop coming. But it is a very pleasant story throughout.

Findley, Violet. (2006). The elves and the shoemaker. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Vocabulary

tattered: ぼろぼろ

[208 words]