Behind these buildings, finally, is the
garden which is lacking to none of the better houses of Gschaid, and
from which the villagers obtain their vegetables, their fruit, and the
flowers necessary for festive occasions. And, as quite commonly in the
mountains, apiculture is pursued also in the gardens of Gschaid.
The small exception alluded to, and the only competitor of the shoemaker
is a man of the same trade, old Tobias, who is not a real rival, though,
because he only cobbles and is kept quite busy with that. Nor would he
ever think of competing with the gentleman shoemaker of the township,
especially as the latter frequently provides him gratuitously with
leather-cuttings, sole strips, and the like. In summertime, old Tobias
sits under a clump of elder-bushes at the end of the village and works
away. All about him are shoes and lace-boots, all of them, however,
gray, muddy, and torn. There are no high boots because these are not
worn in the village and its surroundings; only two personages own such
boots, the priest and the schoolteacher, both of whom have their new
work and repairing done by the shoemaker. In winter, old Tobias sits in
his cot behind the elder-bushes and has it comfortably warm, because
wood is not dear in Gschaid.
Before entering into possession of his house, the shoemaker had been a
chamois-poacher--in fact, had not exactly been a model in youth, so the
people of Gschaid said.
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