"You are welcome! What do you wish?"
The woman seated herself at the table. The girls pressed close to her knees: they were timid before the people.
"I want you to make some leather boots for the girls for the spring."
"Well, that can be done. We have not made such small shoes, but we can do it. We can make sharp-edged shoes, or turnover shoes on linen. Mikháyla is my master."
Semén looked around at Mikháyla, and he saw that Mikháyla had put away his work and was sitting and gazing at the girls.
And Semén marvelled at Mikháyla. Indeed, the girls were pretty: black-eyed, chubby, ruddy-faced, and the fur coats and shawls which they had on were fine; but still Semén could not make out why he was gazing at them as though they were friends of his.
Semén marvelled, and began to talk with the woman and to bargain. They came to an agreement, and he took the measures. The woman took the lame girl on her knees, and said:
"For this girl take two measures: make one shoe for the lame foot, and three for the sound foot. They have the same size of feet, exactly alike. They are twins."
Semén took the measure, and he said about the lame girl:
"What has made her lame? She is such a pretty girl. Was she born this way?"