Page:Leo Tolstoi - Life Is Worth Living and Other Stories - tr. Adolphus Norraikow (1892).djvu/156



a certain town there lived a shoemaker named Martin Avdeitch. His shop was in the basement of the house, and had only one window, which looked out upon the street. Through this narrow opening he could see only the feet of the passers-by, but by their shoes he could nearly always recognize the wearers.

Martin's business had been long established, and he knew almost every one in the town. There was scarcely any one in the vicinity whose shoes he had not handled one or more times. On some of them he had put new soles, others he had patched in many places, while on many he had put new uppers.

Thus he was enabled many times each day to see his own handiwork through the window.