Great story!!! I was floored when I realized that the boots are exchanged, that someone else would become the blacksmith. There would have been lots and lots of boot tree supplicants with worse lives than the blacksmith's, and a good chance he would put on the boots of one of these. A terrible choice! Yet he is curiously not unhappy about it.

I can see all the work that goes into these posts. Thank you so much for doing it. This one will stay with me for a very long time.

I did overlook the snake. Thanks for bringing my attention to it.