Once there was a kind old shoemaker who had grown so poor that he had enough leather to make one pair of shoes.

`Look, wife, he said, `I will cut these before we go to bed. In the morning I can finish them.’

After that he said his prayers and went to bed. In the morning he went to his work –bench, but what do you think? Instead of the leather there stood a neat pair of shoes.

`Wife!’ he called in surprise, and she came running.

They looked at the beautiful hoes. Who could have made them?

Soon a customer came in.

`What fine hoes!’ he said, and gave the shoemaker so much money that he could buy leather for two more pairs of shoes and still have some money left.

That evening he cut out the leather for two pairs of shoes went to bed feeling very happy. The next morning, as he went o is work bench, he stopped surprise. There stood two more neat pairs of shoes.

The shoemaker quickly sold those two pairs and bought leather for four more pairs and till had some money left. And so it went on. Each night he would cut out the leather and every morning he would find it all made up, ready to be sold. Soon he and his wife were not poor at all.

One evening the shoemaker said to his wife. `Let us stay up all night and see that it is that has been so kind to us.’

They hid in a corner and wanted. At the stroke of midnight, came in two little elves. They hopped on to the bench and set to work. Their little fingers just flew along, sewing and hammering and tapping. In no time, the finished shoes stood on the bench, ready for sale. Then the little elves skipped lightly out of the room and disappeared.

`The shoes have made us rich,’ said the shoemaker’s wife, `and yet the poor little things have no clothes to wear. We must do something for them’.

`Oh, yes,’ said the shoemaker. `I will make them a tiny pair of shoes each d you do the rest.’

Two days before Christmas everything was ready. That evening the shoemaker and his wife left no leather. Instead, they out the two tiny little pairs of shoes and the pretty little clothes on the bench. They then hid in a corner and watched.

At midnight the elves came happily in. when they saw the two tiny little pairs of shoes and the pretty little clothes, their eyes popped out with joy. Quickly, they slipped on the shoes and the clothes and skipped around the room, singing merrily.

`To-night we have no time to sew-we will wear these on and off we will go.’