Grimms' Fairy Tales

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One evening, about Christmas-time, as he and his wife were sitting over
the fire chatting together, he said to her, 'I should like to sit up and
watch tonight, that we may see who it is that comes and does my work for
me.' The wife liked the thought; so they left a light burning, and hid
themselves in a corner of the room, behind a curtain that was hung up
there, and watched what would happen.

As soon as it was midnight, there came in two little naked dwarfs; and
they sat themselves upon the shoemaker's bench, took up all the work
that was cut out, and began to ply with their little fingers, stitching
and rapping and tapping away at such a rate, that the shoemaker was all
wonder, and could not take his eyes off them. And on they went, till the
job was quite done, and the shoes stood ready for use upon the table.
This was long before daybreak; and then they bustled away as quick as
lightning.

The next day the wife said to the shoemaker. 'These little wights have