Picture graciously borrowed from hayan_champagne.

Once upon a time, long long ago, and far far away, there lived a poor woodcutter, in a little hanok, by a sweet little swift-running stream on the mountainside, with his two beloved children.  Though they were poor in possessions, they were rich in love, and lived happily enough, until one day, a great famine came upon the land.  They made out as best as they could, supplementing their rice and beans and barley with greens foraged from the side of the mountain, and wild game caught by the woodcutter’s precious son--Jongin--but soon a keun of rice or four nyang of meat was worth a day’s wages, and the game soon thinned as the surrounding town’s families took to hunting the same woods.  

So it came to pass that one day, the woodcutter--deciding that one fewer mouth to feed would go far in ensuring the survival of his little family-- announced that he would travel to the land of Junghwa, there ply his trade and then, once he had made enough money, return to his little brood, and they would live like kings.  Though Aeri and her orabeoni begged piteously for their beloved abeonim not to go, his mind was set, and despite his daughter’s tears raining hot on his , early one morning, before the mists had risen, he set off for the land in the north. 

The days passed, and things grew even leaner, as they entered the time of chogeun mokpi.  Finally one day, Jongin announced to his little sister that he too would travel--though not so far, only deeper into the forest--to find food for their little family.  Like she had for her father before him, Aeri fell upon her brother’s , and cried, but though he was moved and cried with his beloved sister, he was insistent that it was this, or starve.  But Aeri had spent every day of her life with her precious orabeoni, they were like two peas in a pod, and she was not about to risk their separation.  So, that night, as her brother slept, she wrought two hollow soles and cleverly fastened them to the bottoms of his mokwha.  Inside these false bottoms, she placed shining white sand, and after she had sewn them onto the soles of his boots, she carefully cut two thin slits on each heel.  That done, she quietly climbed onto her pallet beside his, closed her eyes, and fell into a deep, exhausted slumber.  

When she awoke, her brother was gone.