Publisher's Synopsis
A shoemaker named Simon, who had neither house nor landof his own, lived with his wife and children in a peasant's hut, and earned his living by his work. Work was cheap, but breadwas dear, and what he earned he spent for food. The man andhis wife had but one sheepskin coat between them for winterwear, and even that was torn to tatters, and this was the secondyear he had been wanting to buy sheep-skins for a new coat.Before winter Simon saved up a little money: a three-roublenote lay hidden in his wife's box, and five roubles and twentykopeks were owed him by customers in the village
