ruck 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 Matryona 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 Michael: "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.

Matryona came and watched him cutting, and was surprised to see how
he was doing it. Matryona 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 gentleman'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 Matryona 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. Some one was knocking. They looked out of the
window; a man had come on horseback, and was fastening his horse. They
opened the door,