t think it's anybody's business just where a
story happened--in a country a long way off--perhaps that country never
existed except in somebody's head, who knows? Besides, a country that is
in your head is just as good as one that is on the map. At least it's as
good for a story. Well, in this country there was a village known as the
village of shoemakers, because nearly all the people made shoes. Peg,
peg, peg, could be heard from one end of it to the other, from morning
till night. It was a perfect shower of hammers. Into this town came one
day a peasant lad of twelve years of age, with a blue blouse and a queer
red flannel cap. He had travelled many a weary mile, and he asked at
every shop that he might learn the shoemakers' trade. At last he was
taken into the shop of a hard master, who was accustomed to beat his boys
severely. But when the master went out, the new boy in the red flannel
cap did not throw bits of leather about as the rest did, but attended to
his work and said nothing, even when the leather was thrown at his own
red cap. And somehow he always got more work done than the rest. And the
master never beat Hugo, the boy in the red flannel cap. The other boys
said it was because of the charm that he wore round his neck. For Hugo
wore an old copper coin suspended like a school-boy's medal. The master
paid a little something for extra work, and for some reason, the boys
said on account of his charm, Hugo always had more than the rest. He did
not spend it, but once a year a man with a red flannel cap like Hugo's
appeared and received all the boy's pay for overwork, and then went away.
The boys made up their minds that Hugo had some sort of witchcraft in his
copper coin. After some years his apprenticeship expired, and Hugo became
a journeyman, working in the same quiet way and doing more work than any
other man in the village, though he did not work any faster. Meantime
several of his brothers, each with the same quiet way, had appeared, and
sat down to work in the same shop. Each of them wore the red flannel cap
with a tassel, and each of them had a copper coin about his neck. Hugo
had disappeared for a few days once, and had brought back a wife. His
brothers lived in his house. Soon he set up a shop. As the other
shoemakers were afraid of his charm, he had neither apprentice nor
journeyman except his brothers. Fortunately there were no less than ten
of them, all with red flannel caps and blue blouses, and wea