would only pay twenty kopeks which he owed for a pair of boots Simon
had mended. Simon then tried to buy the sheep-skins on credit, but
the dealer would not trust him.

"Bring your money," said he, "then you may have your pick of the
skins. We know what debt-collecting is like." So all the business
the shoemaker did was to get the twenty kopeks for boots he had
mended, and to take a pair of felt boots a peasant gave him to sole
with leather.

Simon felt downhearted. He spent the twenty kopeks on vodka, and
started homewards without having bought any skins. In the morning
he had felt the frost; but now, after drinking the vodka, he felt
warm, even without a sheep-skin coat. He trudged along, striking
his stick on the frozen earth with one hand, swinging the felt boots
with the other, and talking to himself.


I

"I'm quite warm," said he, "though I have no sheep-skin coat. I've
had a drop, and it runs through all my veins. I need no sheep-
skins. I go along and don't worry about anything. That's the sort
of man I am! What do I care? I can live without sheep-skins. I
don't need them. My wife will fret, to be sure. And, true enough,
it is a shame; one works all day long, and then does not get paid.
Stop a bit! If you don't bring that money along, sure enough I'll
skin you, blessed if I don't. How's that? He pays twenty kopeks at
a time! What can I do with twenty kopeks? Drink it-that's all one
can do! Hard up, he says he is! So he may be--but what about me?