Parker Hoysted Fillmore

“ My poor shoulders!” the devil moaned. “If ever I get loose from this cursed pear-tree I’ll never come back here! I swear I won’t!”
The shoemaker, when he heard this, laughed in his sleeve and let the devil go.
The devil was true to his word. He never again returned. So the shoemaker lived, untroubled, to a ripe old age.
Just before he died he asked that his cobbler’s apron be buried with him and his sons carried out his wish.
As soon as he died the little shoemaker trudged up to heaven and knocked timidly at the golden gate. St. Peter opened the gate a little crack and peeped out. ”

“ THE STORY OF THE MAN WHO SITS NEAR THE GOLDEN GATE
THE SHOEMAKER’S APRON
THERE was once a shoemaker who made so little at his trade that his wife suffered and his children went hungry. In desperation he offered to sell his soul to a devil.
“How much do you want for your soul?” the devil asked him.
“I want work enough to give me a good livelihood,” the shoemaker said, “so that my wife won’t suffer nor my children starve.”
The devil agreed to this and the shoemaker put his mark on the contract. After that trade improved and soon the little shoemaker was happy and prosperous. ”