He worked on a work called “The Night Before Christmas” in the period 1830-1832. In the center of the story, the reader sees developing love relationship between the main characters, and around them, rural life during a great holiday is humorously depicted.

Heroes of the work

• Blacksmith Vakula is the first guy in the village who has heroic power and has some painting skills. In love with the daughter of a rich Cossack. To achieve my goal, I am ready to go on a fantastic journey and defeat manifestations dark forces.
• Oksana is a capricious, wayward girl who likes the attention of the blacksmith. He considers himself the best of all, so he gives his future groom an almost impossible task.
• The devil is an antagonist who entered into a fight with a blacksmith, hoping for an easy victory, but lost and became a cab driver.
• Chub is a wealthy Cossack, the father of the beautiful Oksana, a widower.
• Solokha is by nature a middle-aged witch, who gave birth to and raised the blacksmith Vakula, a great temptress of men. She had many fans, but none of them knew about the existence of her rival.
• Other characters: head, Patsyuk, clerk, princess Ekaterina, godfather.

Gogol “The Night Before Christmas” - summary

The story begins with an episode, showing how a terrible witch rose into the sky on her broom and began to steal the stars. Another daring criminal turned out to be an ordinary devil, who, unnoticed by everyone, pocketed a month. Thus, the night before Christmas was completely devoid of any light.

Further, N.V. Gogol explains the motivation of the devil. The fact is that Vakula the blacksmith painted a picture of the Christian Last Judgment, where this dark creature was humiliated. The devil knew that the strong man and part painter intended to visit his beloved. By stealing the light in the sky, he hoped to ruin the plans young man.

Gogol "The Night Before Christmas" - Good drinking

Oksana's father together with godfather Panas intends to spend the evening with the clerk and get drunk, as befits the Cossacks. Going outside, the husbands notice that it is almost impossible to walk in the pitch darkness. After thinking a little, they still decide to go to the clerk blindly.

After her father Chub left, Oksana was left at home alone. She admires her reflection in the mirror. Vakula arrives and finds the girl doing this pleasant activity. The blacksmith tenderly addresses Oksana, pours out his soul, but in response he receives only grins and mocking witticisms. The good fellow falls into unusual sadness, deciding that the beauty does not love him at all. A knock is heard, Vakula hurries to open the door.

Complete confusion in the dark

It was getting colder outside. The devil and the witch Solokha returns through the chimney to the blacksmith's house. The hostess is waiting for Chub to visit her, whom she especially singles out among her fans. The devil, seeing that Oksana’s father is leaving his own house, creates a severe snowstorm in the hope of returning the noble Cossack to the hut.

Chub and godfather go in different directions. Oksana’s father knocks on the door and hears Vakula’s indignant exclamation. The blacksmith, without understanding pitch darkness, beats up Chub. The latter concludes that while Solokha’s son is not at home, he can visit her. At this time, the envious devil, flying from pipe to pipe, loses a month from his bag. At Christmas time it becomes clear, and the snowstorm completely subsides. Caroling girls appear on the streets.

Further, Gogol in his famous story “The Night Before Christmas” tells about cheerful pickers going to the house of the Cossack Chub. The beautiful Oksana sees lovely shoes on the feet of one of them and makes it clear to Vakula that she wants such a gift. The girl announces in a joking tone: “I want those slippers that the queen herself wears!” Bring them and I will marry you.” The blacksmith with all his soul promises to get this “treasure” to his beloved.

In the witch's house

Continuing with the summary, let's say that The devil himself hid in a bag near the stove. The witch soon begins to greet guests. The first to visit Solokha’s house was the head, who had just managed to drink a glass of vodka when the clerk came to the sorceress. The frightened fan hid in the second bale. After Chub arrived, the clergyman also had to climb inside the last bag.

Finally, the upset blacksmith returns. The Cossack hastily hides in the third bale, where the unlucky church minister is already sitting. When the mother leaves the house, Vakula decides to throw away all three full bags, not noticing the weight of frustration after the conversation with Oksana. On the street, the strongman meets carolers and his beloved, she again repeats a witty and impossible proposal. The angry blacksmith throws the bags on the ground, takes the lightest one and runs away.

Gogol's story “The Night Before Christmas” - the search for difficulties

Vakula comes to visit the local healer Patsyuk, who is famous for his mysticism. A young man asks to introduce him to the devil who can fulfill his wish. Patsyuk hints that evil spirits are behind Vakula’s shoulders. The devil is afraid of his position and wants to sign a contract for the foundation of blood. The blacksmith ignores his wishes, grabs the demon by the tail, saddles him like a horse, and orders him to fly to St. Petersburg to the royal court.

At the same time, the caroling girls decide to take away the abandoned bags and go to get the sleigh. The godfather, who was previously in the tavern, takes Chub and the clerk to his own house. While Panas and his wife are quarreling, Solokha’s would-be admirers crawl out of the bale and claim that they have decided to play a comedy. The remaining bag is taken to Oksana. Seeing the confused head inside, Chub is surprised by the cunning of the village witch.

Gogol's story “The Night Before Christmas” - straight to the capital and back

In St. Petersburg, Vakula meets the Cossacks and with damn help he persuades them to take themselves to an appointment with Catherine. The unclean one is hiding in the blacksmith's pocket. When the queen asks those who came about their request, the strongman in love simply asks to give him the same slippers as Catherine’s. She responds with courtesy and satisfies the request; the ruler likes to listen to the Cossacks who came.

Rumors are spreading in Dikanka that Vakula either hanged himself or drowned. Oksana is upset because she will no longer see the person who loves her. The blacksmith gets to his native village and drives the devil away from him. In the morning he goes with the little shoes to Chub’s hut. The father blesses the blacksmith's request to marry Oksana, who opens up completely, hinting that she loves Vakula without any gifts. To end "The Night Before Christmas" in short, let's say that after the wedding the groom paints his house, where he depicts the devil in the underworld.

Analysis of the summary

Note!

After studying the summary, it is strongly recommended to read the full work.

This story is part of the series “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, which became the first book of the great writer published under his own name. Of all that he created, “The Night Before Christmas,” the summary, or summary, which is given below, according to Pushkin, is the most striking example of real gaiety without affectation and stiffness.

Despite its relatively short length, The Night Before Christmas is extremely densely packed with characters, although not all of them are of equal importance to the development of the plot.

The heroes of the story can be divided into main and secondary.

Some go through the story from beginning to end, others appear in it only once, but they also add notes of good humor to this Christmas tale, filled with the flavor of Little Russia.

The list of main characters includes:

• Vakul is a strong man and a good fellow, a poor young blacksmith and an amateur artist who earns money by painting huts, fences, chests, dishes, and also decorates the Dikanka temple with icons and wall paintings for free.
• Oksana is the first beauty of Dikanka, confident in her own irresistibility, a proud and capricious girl, with whom Vakula is unrequitedly and hopelessly in love.
• The rich Cossack Chub - Oksana's father, a widower who does not like the poor, but proud and rebellious blacksmith, who dared to lay an eye on his only daughter.
• Solokha is Vakula’s mother, a forty-year-old woman in the prime of her life, a witch who enjoys great success with local respectable men. Solokha has designs on Chub and, wanting to prevent his son from marrying Oksana, deliberately quarrels Vakula with her father.
• The devil, who has “love affairs” with a witch and who fiercely hates her son Vakula for the icons and paintings he painted that shame evil spirits.
• Pot-bellied Patsyuk is a retired Zaporozhye Cossack who has been living in Dikanka for many years and is reputed to be an experienced healer, as well as a person familiar with dark forces.

Other characters: clerk, godfather Panas, godfather's wife, head (speaking modern language, head of the village administration) Dikanka, as well as the Cossacks, Tsarina Catherine II and others, serve as an addition to the group of main characters.

Together they create a fascinating storyline a story that young Gogol wrote almost 200 years ago.

Pay attention! The book was published in 1832, and since then has enjoyed constant success among readers. It is read and re-read with pleasure by Russians of all ages, from middle school to retirement.

Annotation

The book tells about what happened one day in the Poltava village of Dikanka. This semi-fairy tale story, which gives a vivid and lively description of the life and customs of the Ukrainian peasantry in the last third of the 18th century, opens the second book of “Evenings...”. It is more convenient to retell the story in chapters, briefly outlining their contents.

dark night

On a cold and clear night before Christmas, a witch on a broom flew up into the sky through the chimney of her hut. At the same time, the devil also happened to be there, and at dawn he had to return to hell, since on this holiday evil spirits are forbidden to walk around the world.

The devil planned to steal the month in order to prevent Chub from going with his godfather to the clerk for a housewarming and a festive evening meal. The devil knew that in this case the girl would be alone at home, and Vakula would come to her to declare his love.

But if her father does not go to the clerk, the blacksmith will not succeed. The idea was a success and, having stuffed the month into a bag hanging over his shoulder, the devil flew up to the witch and began to whisper pleasantries in her ear.

Chub and his godfather leave the house, and suddenly notice that there are neither stars nor a month in the sky. Godfather offers to return.

Chub, who was thinking about this himself, out of stubbornness decides to act contrary to the wise advice and get to the clerk at any cost.

Kum doesn’t care, he’s ready to go, and he and Chub set off in complete darkness.

Left alone, Oksana dresses up and talks to herself in front of the mirror. Flirting, the girl says that she is not at all as good as they say about her, but, after thinking, she decides that she is amazingly good.

The blacksmith watches her through the window of the hut, then enters. Vakula asks permission to sit on the bench next to her, then dares to ask for a kiss, but receives a sharp refusal.

Oksana is waiting for the girls and boys to come to her, and they will all go caroling together. The upset guy understands that Oksana doesn’t need him at all.

Cherevichki

A blizzard breaks out outside, Chub and godfather lose their way and decide to return. The godfather turns into a tavern, and Chub knocks on the door of his hut.

Vakula opens it for him, and Chub thinks that he was mistaken and ended up in the house of Levchenko, similar to his hut, who was also going to the clerk and who had a young wife left at home.

Chub comes to the conclusion that Vakula is visiting his wife while her husband is not at home. The Cossack changes his voice, pretending to be a caroler.

The blacksmith beats him and pushes him out of his hut. Chub realizes that since Levchenko has a blacksmith, Solokha is now alone, and decides to visit her.

When the devil and the witch, frozen, return to her house through the chimney, the month slips out of the bag and flies up into the sky. It immediately becomes light, and young people go out to carol. As she expected, a crowd of boys and girls comes to Oksana.

One of her friends, Odarka, is wearing new shoes and, continuing to flirt, says that Odarka is very lucky that someone gave her such wonderful shoes, but no one gives her, Oksana, such gifts.

Vakula promises to give his beloved the best slippers. The beauty declares that if the blacksmith brings her the queen’s slippers, she will marry him. Everyone laughs at the unlucky lover.

Bags

Solokha, confident that her gentlemen are now at the clerk’s party, is being nice to the devil and suddenly hears a knock on the door and the head’s voice. She goes to open it, and meanwhile the devil hides in one of the bags standing by the wall of the hut.

Before the head had time to accept a glass of vodka from the witch’s hands, there was a knock again - the clerk came to visit, having canceled his banquet due to darkness and a snowstorm. The head, not wanting to lose his authority by meeting the clerk in such a piquant situation, asks his mistress to hide him and climbs into the largest bag.

The clerk's pleasantries are interrupted by a knock and Chub's voice, and he also goes into the bag. But Chub is also unlucky - the upset Vakula returns after him. Frightened Chub hides in the bag where the clerk is already sitting. Entering the house, the guy notices the bags and decides to take them to the forge.

The bags are heavy, but the blacksmith thinks that it only seems to him and that it’s all because of the heaviness in his soul.

Going out into the street, the blacksmith sees a crowd of girls and boys, and among them Oksana, who, laughing, reminds him of her promise to become his wife if he gets the queen’s slippers.

Throwing large bags onto the snow, Vakula puts the bag with the devil on his back and goes, not knowing where.

Realizing that he cannot forget the cruel Oksana, he thinks that it is better to give up his life than to suffer like this.

In response to the question of the meeting friends where he is going, the lover bids them farewell. Hearing this, the idle gossip is going to tell the whole village that the blacksmith hanged himself.

After cooling down in the cold, the young man changes his mind. Vakula decides to call upon evil spirits for help and goes to Pot-bellied Patsyuk for advice. Opening the door of his hut, he sees the owner sitting on the floor with his legs crossed cross-legged.

There are two bowls in front of him, one with sour cream, the other with dumplings, and Patsyuk, without touching his hands, directs the dumplings into the sour cream with his eyes, then opens his mouth, where the dumplings fly in by themselves. In surprise, Vakula opens his mouth, and one of the dumplings falls into it.

Wiping his lips in fear, since the Nativity fast has not yet ended, when it is forbidden to eat meat and dairy dishes, the blacksmith asks Patsyuk how he can find his way to hell.

Patsyuk replies that those who have the devil behind their back do not need to go anywhere. The blacksmith does not understand that Patsyuk means the bag with which he came.

Not understanding anything, Vakula runs out of Patsyuk’s hut and lowers the bag to the ground.

The devil jumps out of the bag, sits on the blacksmith’s shoulders and begins to persuade him to sell his soul, promising in exchange to fulfill all his wishes.

The guy regains his composure, he pretends that he wants to reach into his pocket for a nail to prick his finger and sign a contract with blood. He himself, having contrived, grabs the devil by the tail, pulls it off his back and raises his hand to cross him. The frightened devil begs him not to do this, and Vakula agrees if the devil takes him to St. Petersburg and helps him see the queen.

Oksana and her friends find the bags left by Vakula, and think that they contain various goodies that he collected during carols. Realizing that they cannot carry such a weight, they go for the sled.

The godfather walking along the road also finds the bags and wants to take them to the tavern to exchange them for booze, but changes his mind, and together with the weaver he met along the way, he drags one of them, where Chub is sitting, to his home. There they are met by the godfather's wife and rushes at her husband and neighbor, intending to take the contents of the bag for herself.

During the fight, Chub gets out of there and pretends that he deliberately climbed into the bag in order to play a trick on the neighbors.

They climb into the bag, hoping to find a pig there, but they find a sexton. The amazed Chub understands that Solokha is not giving her favor to him alone.

The girls returning with the sled find only one bag on the road and take it to Chub’s house to share the treat that they believe is in it.

Hearing the hiccups of the head from the bag, they scream in fear and, rushing out of the door, stumble upon Chub entering. Having learned that the girls found a bag on the road with someone sitting in it, Chub comes up and sees a head coming out of the bag.

Confused Chub and Head, not knowing what to say, exchange phrases about the weather and how best to clean boots. The head goes away, and Chub is completely disappointed in Solokha.

Oksana

Vakula flies to St. Petersburg on horseback and joins a delegation of Cossacks who have an appointment with the Tsarina.

During the reception, Catherine asks the Cossacks what they want.

Without hesitation, Vakula decides to seize the moment and declares that he would like to get the slippers that the queen wears on her beautiful slender legs.

Amazed and touched by the simple-minded naivety of the compliment, the empress gives him a pair of shoes, and the blacksmith flies back.

Meanwhile, the residents of Dikanka, confident that the blacksmith committed suicide, argue about whether he hanged himself or drowned himself.

Oksana hears these conversations, she feels sorry for the guy, she repents of being so cold with him, and realizes that she loves him. On Christmas morning, a festive service is held in the church, everyone pays attention to the absence of Vakula and is finally convinced that he is no longer alive.

Returning from St. Petersburg, Vakula lets the devil go home, giving him three blows with a stick, and falls asleep. Waking up, he realizes that he overslept the church service.

Next week the blacksmith is going to confess his sins, but in the meantime, the smartly dressed one goes to Chub with gifts to woo Oksana, taking with him the slippers.

Chub makes peace with him and agrees to accept the matchmaking, and Oksana says that she doesn’t need little slippers - she already loves Vakula.

A few years later, a bishop passed through Dikanka, and, seeing a young woman standing with a child near a white hut painted with patterns and flowers, he asked whose house it was so elegant.

“Blacksmith Vakula!” – answered the young woman who was Oksana. This is how the story “The Night Before Christmas” ends happily, the summary of which was outlined above.

Variations "The Night Before Christmas"

Such a wonderful fairy-tale plot could not but serve as a source of inspiration for many authors working in various genres.

Works on the theme “Nights...” began to appear several years after the book was published, and the process continues to this day.

Here's what the list of these works looks like:

1. The opera “Blacksmith Vakula”, composed by P.I. Tchaikovsky in 1874, in the second edition (1887) called “Cherevichki”, under which it was preserved in history.
2. The opera “The Night Before Christmas”, written by N. Rimsky-Korsakov in 1887.
3. Silent film "The Night Before Christmas", produced in 1913 by director Vladislav Starevich.
4. 1951 animated film of the same name.
5. Film-opera "Cherevichki" 1944.
6. “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” 1961 - the most famous feature film, directed by Alexander Rowe.
7. Television musical “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” 2002.

Pay attention! This proves that even a small work written by a brilliant author can become a real masterpiece.

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Let's sum it up

“Evenings...” absolutely deservedly entered the golden list of works of Russian literature created in the century before last.

Cool! 5

announcement:

N.V. Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas” is one of the peaks early creativity author. Saturated with rich Ukrainian flavor, this story is not only filled with sparkling humor, but also whimsically combines humorous aspects with Christmas mysticism.

composition:

Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s story “The Night Before Christmas” is one of the author’s best early works devoted to Ukrainian themes. Brought up in a picturesque village near Poltava, Nikolai Vasilyevich absorbed the riches of Ukrainian folklore from childhood; mystical stories and incomparable Ukrainian humor were cleverly intertwined in his mind. In his story, part of the series of works “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” the writer paints a colorful portrait of a Ukrainian village celebrating Christmas. This snowy time has always been rich in people's memory not only with cheerful celebrations and amusements, but also with hidden sides when dark forces make themselves felt.

The main character of the story is the blacksmith Vakula, who not only forges iron, but is also known for his artistic talents. While painting the church, Vakula depicted a very ugly and evil devil, defeated after the Last Judgment. This greatly angered the devil flying over Dikanka these days, and from now on Vakula became an evil enemy for him. At the same time, shaming the devil, Vakula is not afraid to challenge him, fight him and subsequently subjugate him. In the history of the relationship between Vakula and the devil, the comic chance of their acquaintance is intertwined with a fatal predisposition. Most accurately, this state is captured by the cunning Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who hints to Vakula about “the devil behind his shoulders.” In the folklore of many countries, including Ukraine, blacksmiths have traditionally been considered people who know how to establish contact with “ evil spirits" Vakula’s predisposition to becoming acquainted with the devil is also determined by the fact that his mother is the witch Solokha, who flew with the devil across the sky and plucked stars from the sky.

Challenging the devil, Vakula eventually defeats him, forces the “devilishness” to work for himself and fulfill his cherished dream - to get the real slippers of the empress in “Petersburg” for his beloved Oksana. The treacherous and proud Oksana makes Vakula suffer, forces him to enter into an alliance with the “evil spirits”.

After his disappearance, Vakula seems to die for the village residents, who claim that the blacksmith either went crazy or hanged himself. Suddenly, the blacksmith, who flew on the devil to St. Petersburg, “resurrects” again, appearing with the slippers obtained from the queen herself. The blacksmith’s “new birth” is capable of melting any ice: the rich Chub remains pleased with his gifts, and his daughter Oksana also does not refuse Vakula to marry him. Severely frightened by the sudden disappearance of the blacksmith, rumors of his insanity and suicide, Oksana understands how important it is to appreciate loved ones. Now she is ready to marry Vakula just like that, and not at all because he managed to get such beautiful little slippers for her.

Even more essays on the topic: “The Night Before Christmas”:

“The Night Before Christmas” by N.V. Gogol is a funny and magical story. However, besides jokes and pre-holiday pranks, fantasy and Ukrainian folklore, true love works wonders here.

Seventeen-year-old Oksana, the daughter of the rich Cossack Chub, is famous throughout the area for her extraordinary beauty. However, this girl knows her worth very well. She is proud, flirtatious, a little capricious - in general, an ordinary beauty. The young blacksmith Vakula, who fell in love with her, is not like that. He is simple and honest, gentle and caring. What feats he is ready to perform for the sake of the mutual feeling of “wonderful, beloved Oksana”! But the frivolous girl only laughs at the blacksmith and jokes: if you bring me the royal booties, I will marry you.

How can poor Vakula get to the queen if St. Petersburg is thousands of kilometers from Dikanka?! And here magic comes to the aid of love: Vakula comes across the devil himself, who decides to laugh at the blacksmith on Christmas night. No matter how it is! The dexterous, strong, brave and resourceful Vakula saddled the evil one and drove him to the capital, to the royal palace. This is how the young blacksmith obtained Oksana’s dream, although it would seem that before that he had completely lost hope in the girl’s favor.

And while Vakula was traveling, no less miraculous transformations occurred with Oksana. Having heard rumors about the death of the blacksmith from hopeless love, she probably thought about the strength of his feelings, and then began to scold herself for being so harsh with the boy. Worried more and more, Oksana realized that she was madly in love with the blacksmith. She doesn’t even need the slippers anymore, as long as he can be found. And then Vakula turned around - he came to woo, bringing his beloved as a gift of amazingly beautiful little slippers, granted to him by the queen herself.

This is how love helped the most extraordinary miracles happen, which are only possible on the magical night before Christmas.

Source: www.allsoch.ru

Belongs to the great writer N.V. Gogol huge amount works, including The Night Before Christmas. Fiction and humor are intertwined in it and make the reader smile.

The beginning of the work is the meanness committed by the devil, who looks like a German, a pig, and a provincial attorney at the same time. The night before Christmas begins and the devil, seeing the majestic month in the sky, decides to steal it, which he succeeds in doing. Then the devil conceives another meanness - to pit the village blacksmith against the Cossack Chub, whose daughter the Cossack is courting.

At this time, the blacksmith goes to visit Chub’s daughter Oksana, knowing that her father has been invited to visit. But Chub, getting lost in the darkness, ends up with Solokha, the mother of the Blacksmith, who, despite her forty years, knew how to charm the most sedate Cossacks... And Solokha’s guest is the devil. Chub arrives and begins to court Solokha, but there is a knock on the door and Solokha hides Chub in a bag where the devil is already sitting.

There is another knock on the door - the clerk comes in. There is another knock - and the clerk ends up in the same bag where Chub is. A blacksmith enters the hut and, seeing strange bags, takes them to the forge. On the way, he thinks about his sad fate, about the fact that the proud and wayward Oksana agrees to be his wife only if he brings her the tsarina’s slippers.

Suddenly, Oksana herself and her friends meet on his way. The blacksmith tells her that she will not see him again. In reality, he goes to the Cossack Patsyuk, who knows all the devils. From Patsyuk the blacksmith learns that the devil is behind his back and is catching the devil. Vakula is afraid of the devil that he will begin to baptize him, and the devil, in fear, agrees to help Vakula get the royal slips.

At the same time, the beautiful Oksana is saddened by Vakula’s words. Now our heroine understands that she herself loves Vakula... The bags lying on the road were thrown by the blacksmith; farmers find it. They untie it and the evil Chub and the clerk fall out.

And what happens to our blacksmith? Having ridden the devil, he flies to St. Petersburg. Here he meets his fellow countrymen - the Cossacks, who are going to the palace on business. Vakula, with the help of the devil, persuades them, and they take him with them. In the palace, he asks the queen to give her little slippers, and, to everyone’s surprise, she agrees. Then the blacksmith returns to the farm. He goes to Oksana’s house, proposes to her and serves her little slippers. Oksana is very happy and says that she loves the blacksmith anyway.

At the conclusion of this work, N.V. Gogol reports further happy fate heroes; as a result of which the reader learns that the newlyweds were happy, and the blacksmith, in addition, repented in church for communicating with the devil.

Source: www.allsoch.ru

I recently read N.V. Gogol’s fairy tale “The Night Before Christmas.” Various magical events occur in this work.

Firstly, the story contains fairy-tale characters. This is the devil who stole the month, the witch Solokha, cutting the sky on her broom, and Patsyuk, who knew how to very quickly cure people from various ailments and ate dumplings in a very strange way.

Secondly, in the story there is a fabulous request from Oksana to Vakula. She wanted to have little slippers, like those of the queen herself. The reward for this would be that Oksana would marry Vakula. I think that Oksana was sure that Vakula would never be able to get these slippers.

There are also funny moments in the story. Men often came to visit Solokha, Vakula’s mother. And none of them suspected that there were several of them. And then this story happened. Solokha flew in with the Devil, but then the Head knocked on the door. The witch Solokha immediately hid the Devil in a bag lying on the floor. The clerk came for the Head, and Chub for the clerk, and in the end they all ended up in bags, and two people were sitting in one bag at once.

At first, the blacksmith Vakula wanted to drown himself because of his unrequited love for Oksana, but he ended up with the bag in which the Devil lay. The devil was very happy to be freed from the bag and wanted to use Vakula for his own purposes. The blacksmith Vakula forced him to fly to St. Petersburg to the queen herself. Vakula saddled the Devil, and they flew off. There the Devil turned into a horse. Vakula saw the Cossacks and decided to go with them to the queen. And the Devil shrunk and climbed into his pocket. Thanks to his quick wits and courage, Vakula got the slippers.

Like all fairy tales, this tale has a happy ending. Vakula flew home and married Oksana. They lived happily ever after. And then Vakula stood it church repentance, painted the left choir of the church for free, and painted a devil inside for the church. And this devil was so terrible that people came to church and spat at his image.

The magical moments in the story are not accidental. After all, everything happened on Christmas night, on which absolutely anything can happen.

The last day before Christmas has passed. A clear winter night has arrived. The stars looked out. The month majestically rose into the sky to shine on good people and the whole world, so that everyone would have fun caroling and praising Christ. It was freezing more than in the morning; but it was so quiet that the crunch of frost under a boot could be heard half a mile away. Not a single crowd of boys had ever appeared under the windows of the huts; for a month he only glanced at them furtively, as if calling the girls who were dressing up to run out quickly into the crunchy snow. Then smoke fell in clouds through the chimney of one hut and spread like a cloud across the sky, and along with the smoke a witch rose riding on a broom. If at that time the Sorochinsky assessor was passing by on a trio of philistine horses, in a hat with a lambswool band, made in the manner of the Uhlans, in a blue sheepskin coat lined with black smushkas, with a devilishly woven whip, with which he is in the habit of urging his coachman on, then he would probably , noticed her, because not a single witch in the world can escape from the Sorochinsky assessor. He knows firsthand how many piglets each woman has, and how much linen is in her chest, and what exactly from his clothes and household goods a good man will pawn in the tavern on Sunday. But the Sorochinsky assessor did not pass through, and what does he care about strangers, he has his own volost. Meanwhile, the witch rose so high that she was only a black speck flashing above. But wherever the speck appeared, there the stars, one after another, disappeared from the sky. Soon the witch had a full sleeve of them. Three or four were still shining. Suddenly, on the opposite side, another speck appeared, grew larger, began to stretch, and was no longer a speck. A short-sighted person, even if he put the wheels from the Komissarov chaise on his nose instead of glasses, he would not recognize what it was. In front it was completely German: a narrow muzzle, constantly twirling and sniffing whatever came its way, ending, like our pigs, in a round snout, the legs were so thin that if Yareskovsky had such a head, he would have broken them in the first Cossack. But behind him he was a real provincial attorney in uniform, because he had a tail hanging, so sharp and long, like today’s uniform coattails; only by the goat beard under his muzzle, by the small horns sticking out on his head, and by the fact that he was no whiter than a chimney sweep, one could guess that he was neither a German nor a provincial attorney, but simply a devil who last night I was left to wander around the world and teach good people the sins. Tomorrow, with the first bells for matins, he will run without looking back, tail between his legs, to his den. Meanwhile, the devil was creeping slowly towards the month and was about to reach out his hand to grab it, but suddenly he pulled it back, as if he had been burned, sucked his fingers, swung his leg and ran on the other side, and again jumped back and pulled his hand away. However, despite all the failures, the cunning devil did not abandon his mischief. Running up, he suddenly grabbed the month with both hands, grimacing and blowing, throwing it from one hand to the other, like a man getting fire for his cradle with his bare hands; Finally, he hastily put it in his pocket and, as if nothing had happened, ran on. In Dikanka, no one heard how the devil stole the month. True, the volost clerk, leaving the tavern on all fours, saw that he had been dancing in the sky for no reason at all for a month, and assured the whole village of this to God; but the laymen shook their heads and even laughed at him. But what was the reason for the devil to decide on such a lawless deed? And here's what: he knew that the rich Cossack Chub had been invited by the clerk to the kutya, where they would be: the head; a relative of the clerk in a blue frock coat who came from the bishop's choir and played the lowest bass; Cossack Sverbyguz and some others; where, in addition to kutya, there will be varenukha, saffron-distilled vodka and a lot of other edibles. Meanwhile, his daughter, the beauty of the whole village, will remain at home, and a blacksmith, a strong man and a fellow anywhere, who was the devil more disgusting than the sermons of Father Kondrat, will probably come to his daughter. In his spare time from work, the blacksmith was engaged in painting and was known as the best painter in the entire area. The centurion L...ko himself, who was still in good health at that time, deliberately called him to Poltava to paint the board fence near his house. All the bowls from which the Dikan Cossacks drank borscht were painted by a blacksmith. The blacksmith was a God-fearing man and often painted images of saints: and now you can still find his evangelist Luke in the T... church. But the triumph of his art was one painting painted on the church wall in the right vestibule, in which he depicted St. Peter on the day of the Last Judgment, with keys in his hands, expelling an evil spirit from hell; the frightened devil rushed in all directions, anticipating his death, and the previously imprisoned sinners beat and chased him with whips, logs and anything else they could find. While the painter was working on this picture and painting it on a large wooden board, the devil tried with all his might to disturb him: he pushed him invisibly under his arm, lifted ash from the furnace in the forge and sprinkled it on the picture; but, despite everything, the work was finished, the board was brought into the church and embedded in the wall of the vestibule, and from that time on the devil swore to take revenge on the blacksmith. There was only one night left for him to wander around in this world; but even that night he was looking for something to take out his anger on the blacksmith. And for this purpose he decided to steal a month, in the hope that old Chub was lazy and not easy-going, but the clerk was not so close to the hut: the road went behind the village, past the mills, past the cemetery, and went around a ravine. Even on a month-long night, boiled milk and vodka infused with saffron could have lured Chub, but in such darkness it is unlikely that anyone would have been able to pull him off the stove and call him out of the hut. And the blacksmith, who had long been at odds with him, would never dare to go to his daughter in his presence, despite his strength. Thus, as soon as the devil hid his month in his pocket, suddenly it became so dark all over the world that not everyone could find the way to the tavern, not only to the clerk. The witch, suddenly seeing herself in the darkness, screamed. Then the devil, coming up like a little demon, grabbed her by the arm and started whispering in her ear the same thing that people usually whisper to everyone. feminine. Wonderfully arranged in our world! Everything that lives in him tries to adopt and imitate one another. Previously, it used to be that in Mirgorod one judge and the mayor walked around in winter in cloth-covered sheepskin coats, and all the petty officials wore simply naked ones; now both the assessor and the sub-committee have polished themselves new fur coats from Reshetilovsky smushkas with a cloth cover. The clerk and the volost clerk took a blue Chinese coin for the third year for six hryvnia arshins. The sexton made himself nankeen trousers for the summer and a vest from striped garus. In a word, everything gets into people! When will these people not be fussy! You can bet that many will find it surprising to see the devil who has set himself free in the same place. The most annoying thing is that he probably imagines himself handsome, while his figure is ashamed to look at. Erysipelas, as Foma Grigorievich says, is an abomination, an abomination, but he, too, makes love hens! But it became so dark in the sky and under the sky that it was no longer possible to see anything that happened between them. - So, godfather, you haven’t been to the clerk in the new house yet? - said the Cossack Chub, leaving the door of his hut, to a lean, tall man in a short sheepskin coat with a bushy beard, showing that a piece of a scythe, with which men usually shave their beards for lack of a razor, had not touched it for more than two weeks. - Now there will be a good drinking party! - Chub continued, grinning his face. - As long as we don’t be late. At the same time, Chub straightened his belt, which tightly intercepted his sheepskin coat, pulled his hat tighter, clutched the whip in his hand - the fear and threat of annoying dogs; but, looking up, he stopped... - What a devil! Look! look, Panas!.. - What? - said the godfather and raised his head up. - Like what? no month! - What an abyss! There really is no month. “Well, no,” Chub said with some annoyance at his godfather’s constant indifference. - You probably don’t need it. - What should I do! “It was necessary,” Chub continued, wiping his mustache with his sleeve, “some devil, so that he wouldn’t have a chance to drink a glass of vodka in the morning, a dog!.. Really, as if for a laugh... On purpose, sitting in the hut, I looked out the window: the night is a miracle! It’s light, the snow shines in the month. Everything was as visible as day. I didn’t have time to go out the door - and now, at least gouge out my eyes! Chub grumbled and scolded for a long time, and meanwhile at the same time he was thinking about what to decide on. He was dying to croak about all this nonsense at the clerk's, where, without any doubt, the head, the visiting bass, and the tar Mikita were already sitting, who went every two weeks to Poltava for auctions and made such jokes that all the laymen grabbed their stomachs with laughter. Chub already mentally saw the boiled milk standing on the table. It was all tempting, really; but the darkness of the night reminded him of that laziness that is so dear to all Cossacks. How nice it would be now to lie with your legs tucked under you on a couch, quietly smoke a cradle and listen through your delightful drowsiness to carols and songs of cheerful boys and girls crowding in heaps under the windows. Without any doubt, he would have decided on the latter if he had been alone, but now both of them are not so bored and scared to walk in the dark at night, and they didn’t want to appear lazy or cowardly in front of others. Having finished the scolding, he turned again to his godfather: - So no, godfather, a month?- No. - Wonderful, really! Let me smell some tobacco. You, godfather, have nice tobacco! Where do you get it? - What the hell, nice one! - answered the godfather, closing the birch tavlina, pockmarked with patterns. - The old hen doesn't sneeze! “I remember,” Chub continued in the same way, “the late tavern owner Zozulya once brought me tobacco from Nezhin.” Oh, there was tobacco! it was good tobacco! So, godfather, what should we do? It's dark outside. “Then, perhaps, we’ll stay at home,” said the godfather, grabbing the door handle. If his godfather had not said this, then Chub would probably have decided to stay, but now it was as if something was pulling him to go against it. - No, godfather, let's go! You can't, you have to go! Having said this, he was already annoyed with himself for what he said. It was very unpleasant for him to trudge on such a night; but he was consoled by the fact that he himself deliberately wanted this and did not do it as he was advised. The godfather, without expressing the slightest movement of annoyance on his face, like a man who absolutely does not care whether he sits at home or drags himself out of the house, looked around, scratched his shoulders with a batog stick, and the two godfathers set off on the road. Now let's see what the beautiful daughter does when left alone. Oksana was not yet seventeen years old, and in almost the entire world, both on the other side of Dikanka and on this side of Dikanka, there was nothing but talk about her. The boys proclaimed in droves that there had never been and never would be a better girl in the village. Oksana knew and heard everything that was said about her, and she was capricious, like a beauty. If she had walked around not in a scaffold and a spare tire, but in some kind of hood, she would have scattered all her girls. The boys chased her in crowds, but, having lost patience, they left little by little and turned to others, who were not so spoiled. Only the blacksmith was stubborn and did not give up his red tape, despite the fact that he was treated no better than others. After her father left, she spent a long time dressing up and pretending in front of a small mirror in tin frames and could not stop admiring herself. “Why do people want to tell people that I’m good? - she said, as if absentmindedly, just to chat with herself about something. “People lie, I’m not good at all.” But the fresh face that flashed in the mirror, alive in childhood, with sparkling black eyes and an inexpressibly pleasant smile that burned through the soul, suddenly proved the opposite. “Are my black eyebrows and eyes,” the beauty continued, without letting go of the mirror, “so good that they have no equal in the world? What's so good about that upturned nose? and in the cheeks? and on the lips? As if my black braids are good? Wow! You can be scared of them in the evening: they, like long snakes, twisted and wrapped around my head. I see now that I am not good at all! — and, moving the mirror a little further away from herself, she cried out: “No, I’m good!” Oh, how good! Miracle! What joy will I bring to the one I will marry! How my husband will admire me! He won't remember himself. He will kiss me to death." - Wonderful girl! - whispered the blacksmith who entered quietly, - and she has little boasting! He stands for an hour, looking in the mirror, and can’t get enough of it, and still praises himself out loud! “Yes, boys, am I a match for you? “Look at me,” continued the pretty coquette, “how smoothly I perform; My shirt is made of red silk. And what ribbons on the head! You will never see richer braid in your life! My father bought me all this so that the best guy in the world could marry me!” And, grinning, she turned in the other direction and saw the blacksmith... She screamed and stopped sternly in front of him. The blacksmith dropped his hands. It is difficult to tell what the dark-skinned face of the wonderful girl expressed: the severity was visible in it, and through the severity there was some kind of mockery of the embarrassed blacksmith, and a barely noticeable color of annoyance spread subtly across her face; and it was all so mixed up and so indescribably good that kissing her a million times was all the best that could be done then. - Why did you come here? - Oksana began to say this. “Do you really want to be kicked out the door with a shovel?” You are all masters at approaching us. You'll know in no time when your fathers aren't home. Oh, I know you! So, is my chest ready? - He will be ready, my dear, after the holiday he will be ready. If you only knew how much you fussed around him: he didn’t leave the forge for two nights; but not a single priest will have such a chest. He put the kind of iron on the forge that he didn’t put on the centurion’s tarataika when he went to work in Poltava. And how it will be scheduled! Even if you go out all the way around with your little white legs, you won’t find anything like this! Red and blue flowers. It will burn like heat. Don't be angry with me! Let me at least talk, at least look at you! - Who forbids you, speak and see! Then she sat down on the bench and looked in the mirror again and began to straighten her braids on her head. She looked at her neck, at the new shirt, embroidered with silk, and a subtle feeling of self-satisfaction was expressed on her lips, on her fresh cheeks, and shone in her eyes. - Let me sit next to you! - said the blacksmith. “Sit down,” Oksana said, keeping the same feeling in her lips and satisfied eyes. - Wonderful, beloved Oksana, let me kiss you! - said the encouraged blacksmith and pressed her to him, intending to grab a kiss; but Oksana turned her cheeks, which were already at an imperceptible distance from the blacksmith’s lips, and pushed him away. What else do you want? When he needs honey, he needs a spoon! Go away, your hands are tougher than iron. And you yourself smell of smoke. I think I got soot all over me. Then she brought up the mirror and again began to preen herself in front of it. “She doesn’t love me,” the blacksmith thought to himself, hanging his head. - All her toys; and I stand in front of her like a fool and don’t take my eyes off her. And he would still stand in front of her, and never take his eyes off her! Wonderful girl! What I wouldn’t give to know what’s in her heart, who she loves! But no, she doesn’t need anyone. She admires herself; torments me, poor thing; but I don’t see the light behind the sadness; and I love her as no other person in the world has ever loved or will ever love.” - Is it true that your mother is a witch? - Oksana said and laughed; and the blacksmith felt that everything inside him was laughing. This laughter seemed to resonate at once in his heart and in his quietly trembling veins, and with all this vexation sank into his soul that he was not in the power to kiss the face that laughed so pleasantly. - What do I care about my mother? you are my mother, and my father, and everything that is dear in the world. If the king called me and said: “Blacksmith Vakula, ask me for everything that is best in my kingdom, I will give it all to you. I will order you to make a gold forge, and you will forge with silver hammers.” “I don’t want,” I would say to the king, “neither expensive stones, nor a gold forge, nor your entire kingdom: better give me my Oksana!” - See what you are like! Only my father himself is not a mistake. You’ll see when he doesn’t marry your mother,” Oksana said with a sly grin. - However, the girls don’t come... What does that mean? It's high time to start caroling. I'm getting bored. - God be with them, my beauty! - No matter how it is! The boys will probably come with them. This is where the balls begin. I can imagine the funny stories they will tell! - So are you having fun with them? - Yes, it’s more fun than with you. A! someone knocked; That's right, girls with boys. “What more should I wait for? - the blacksmith spoke to himself. - She's making fun of me. I am as dear to her as a rusty horseshoe. But if that’s the case, at least someone else won’t get to laugh at me. Let me just notice who she likes more than me; I'll wean..." There was a knock on the door and a voice that sounded sharply in the cold: “Open!” - interrupted his thoughts. “Wait, I’ll open it myself,” said the blacksmith and went out into the hallway, intending to break off the sides of the first person he came across out of frustration. The frost increased, and it became so cold above that the devil jumped from one hoof to another and blew into his fist, wanting to somehow warm up his frozen hands. It is not surprising, however, that someone who hustled from morning to morning in hell would freeze to death, where, as you know, it is not as cold as here in winter, and where, putting on a cap and standing in front of the fire, as if he were really a cook, he was roasting he treats sinners with the same pleasure with which a woman usually fries sausage at Christmas. The witch herself felt that it was cold, despite the fact that she was warmly dressed; and therefore, raising her hands up, she put her foot down and, having brought herself into such a position as a man flying on skates, without moving a single joint, she descended through the air, as if along an icy sloping mountain, and straight into the chimney. The devil followed her in the same order. But since this animal is more agile than any dandy in stockings, it is not surprising that at the very entrance to the chimney he ran over the neck of his mistress, and both found themselves in a spacious stove between the pots. The traveler slowly pulled back the flap to see if her son Vakula had called her guests into the hut, but when she saw that there was no one there, except for the bags that lay in the middle of the hut, she crawled out of the stove, threw off the warm casing, recovered, and no one could find out that she was riding a broom a minute ago. The mother of the blacksmith Vakula was no more than forty years old. She was neither good-looking nor bad-looking. It’s hard to be good in such years. However, she was so able to charm the most sedate Cossacks (who, by the way, it doesn’t hurt to note, had little need for beauty) that both the head and the clerk Osip Nikiforovich came to her (of course, if the clerk was not at home), and the Cossack Korniy Chub, and the Cossack Kasyan Sverbyguz. And, to her credit, she knew how to skillfully deal with them. It never occurred to any of them that he had a rival. Whether a pious man, or a nobleman, as the Cossacks call themselves, dressed in a kobenyak with a visloga, went to church on Sunday or, if the weather was bad, to a tavern, how could he not go to Solokha, eat fatty dumplings with sour cream and chat in a warm a hut with a talkative and obsequious mistress. And the nobleman deliberately made a big detour for this purpose before reaching the tavern, and called it “coming along the road.” And if Solokha would go to church on a holiday, putting on a bright coat with a Chinese spare tire, and on top of it a blue skirt, on which a golden mustache was sewn at the back, and would stand right next to the right wing, then the clerk would surely cough and squint involuntarily at that side of the eye; The head stroked his mustache, wrapped the Oseledets behind his ear and said to his neighbor standing next to him: “Eh, good woman! damn it!" Solokha bowed to everyone, and everyone thought that she was bowing to him alone. But anyone who wanted to interfere in other people's affairs would have immediately noticed that Solokha was most friendly with the Cossack Chub. Chub was a widow; eight stacks of bread always stood in front of his hut. Every time two pairs of stalwart oxen poked their heads out of the wicker barn into the street and mooed when they envied the walking godfather - a cow, or their uncle - a fat bull. The bearded goat climbed to the very roof and rattled from there in a sharp voice, like a mayor, teasing the turkeys performing in the yard and turning around when he envied his enemies, the boys, who mocked his beard. In Chub's chests there was a lot of linen, zhupans and old kuntushas with gold braid: his late wife was a dandy. In the garden, in addition to poppy seeds, cabbage, and sunflowers, two fields of tobacco were sown every year. Solokha found it useful to add all this to her household, thinking in advance about what kind of order it would take when it passed into her hands, and she doubled her favor towards old Chub. And so that somehow her son Vakula would not drive up to his daughter and not have time to take everything for himself, and then probably would not allow her to interfere in anything, she resorted to the usual means of all forty-year-old gossips: to quarrel between Chuba and the blacksmith as often as possible. Perhaps these very cunning and cleverness of hers were the reason that here and there old women began to say, especially when they were drinking too much at a merry gathering somewhere, that Solokha was definitely a witch; that the boy Kizyakolupenko saw her tail from behind, no larger than a woman’s spindle; that the Thursday before last she crossed the road like a black cat; that a pig once ran up to the priest, crowed like a rooster, put Father Kondrat’s hat on his head and ran back. It happened that while the old women were talking about this, some cow shepherd, Tymish Korostyavy, came. He did not fail to tell how in the summer, just before Petrovka, when he went to sleep in the barn, having put straw under his head, he saw with his own eyes that a witch, with a loose braid, in only a shirt, began to milk the cows, but he could not move, so was bewitched; After milking the cows, she came to him and smeared something so disgusting on his lips that he spat all day after that. But all this is somewhat doubtful, because only the Sorochinsky assessor can see the witch. And that’s why all the eminent Cossacks waved their hands when they heard such speeches. “Women are lying bitches!” - was their usual answer. Having crawled out of the stove and recovered, Solokha, like a good housewife, began to clean up and put everything in its place, but did not touch the bags: “Vakula brought this, let him take it out himself!” The devil, meanwhile, when he was still flying into the chimney, somehow accidentally turned around and saw Chub hand in hand with his godfather, already far from the hut. He instantly flew out of the stove, ran across their path and began tearing up piles of frozen snow from all sides. A snowstorm arose. The air turned white. The snow rushed back and forth like a net and threatened to cover the eyes, mouths and ears of pedestrians. And the devil flew away again into the chimney, in the firm belief that Chub would return back with his godfather, find the blacksmith and reprimand him so that for a long time he would not be able to pick up a brush and paint offensive caricatures. In fact, as soon as the blizzard arose and the wind began to cut straight into his eyes, Chub already expressed repentance and, pulling his caps deeper onto his head, treated himself, the devil and his godfather to scoldings. However, this annoyance was feigned. Chub was very happy about the blizzard. There was still eight times more distance to reach the clerk than the distance they had covered. The travelers turned back. The wind was blowing at the back of my head; but nothing was visible through the blowing snow. - Stop, godfather! “It seems we’re going the wrong way,” Chub said, moving away a little, “I don’t see a single hut.” Oh, what a snowstorm! Turn a little to the side, godfather, and see if you can find the road; In the meantime, I'll look here. The evil spirit will force you to trudge through such a blizzard! Don't forget to scream when you find your way. Eh, what a pile of snow Satan has thrown into his eyes! The road, however, was not visible. The godfather, stepping aside, wandered back and forth in long boots and finally came straight to a tavern. This find delighted him so much that he forgot everything and, shaking off the snow, entered the hallway, not in the least worrying about his godfather who remained on the street. It seemed to Chub that he had found the way; stopping, he began to shout at the top of his lungs, but, seeing that his godfather was not there, he decided to go himself. After walking a little, he saw his hut. Drifts of snow lay near her and on the roof. Flapping his hands, frozen in the cold, he began knocking on the door and shouting commandingly for his daughter to unlock it. -What do you want here? - the blacksmith came out and shouted sternly. Chub, recognizing the blacksmith's voice, stepped back a little. “Eh, no, this is not my hut,” he said to himself, “a blacksmith will not wander into my hut. Again, if you look closely, it’s not Kuznetsov. Whose house would this be? Here you go! didn't recognize it! This is the lame Levchenko, who recently married a young wife. Only his house is similar to mine. That’s why it seemed to me and at first a little strange that I came home so soon. However, Levchenko is now sitting with the clerk, I know that; why a blacksmith?.. E-ge-ge! he goes to see his young wife. That's how! ok!.. now I understand everything.” - Who are you and why are you hanging around under doors? - the blacksmith said more sternly than before and came closer. “No, I won’t tell him who I am,” thought Chub, “what good, he’ll still beat him up, the damned degenerate!” - and, changing his voice, answered: - It’s me, good man! I came for your amusement to sing a little carol under your windows. - Get to hell with your carols! - Vakula shouted angrily. - Why are you standing there? Do you hear me, get out this instant! Chub himself already had this prudent intention; but it seemed to him annoyingly that he was forced to obey the blacksmith’s orders. It seemed as if some evil spirit was pushing his arm and forcing him to say something in defiance. - Why did you really shout like that? - he said in the same voice, - I want to carol, and that’s enough! - Hey! Yes, you won’t get tired of words!.. - Following these words, Chub felt a painful blow to his shoulder. - Yes, as I see it, you are already starting to fight! - he said, stepping back a little. - Let's go, let's go! - the blacksmith shouted, rewarding Chub with another push. - What are you doing! - Chub said in a voice that portrayed pain, annoyance, and timidity. “I see you’re not fighting in earnest, and you’re still fighting painfully!” - Let's go, let's go! - the blacksmith shouted and slammed the door. - Look how brave you are! - said Chub, left alone on the street. - Try to come over! look what! what a big deal! Do you think I won’t find a case against you? No, my dear, I'll go and go straight to the commissar. You will know from me! I won't see that you are a blacksmith and a painter. However, look at the back and shoulders: I think there are blue spots. That must have been a painful beating, you son of the enemy! It’s a pity that it’s cold and I don’t want to take off the cover! Wait, you demonic blacksmith, so that the devil beats both you and your forge, you will dance with me! Look, damned Shibenik! However, now he is not at home. Solokha, I think, is sitting alone. Hm... it's not far from here; I wish I could go! The time is now such that no one will catch us. Maybe even that one will be possible... Look how painfully the damned blacksmith beat him! Here Chub, scratching his back, went in the other direction. The pleasure that awaited him ahead during his meeting with Solokha lessened the pain a little and made insensitive even the frost that crackled through all the streets, not drowned out by the whistling of the blizzard. From time to time, on his face, whose beard and mustache the blizzard lathered with snow more quickly than any barber, tyrannically grabbing his victim by the nose, a semi-sweet mine appeared. But if, however, the snow had not crossed everything back and forth before our eyes, then for a long time one would have seen how Chub stopped, scratched his back, and said: “The damned blacksmith beat him painfully!” - and set off again. While the nimble dandy with a tail and a goat's beard was flying out of the chimney and then back into the chimney, the little bag hanging from a sling at his side, in which he hid the stolen month, somehow accidentally got caught in the stove, and the month, using In this case, he flew out through the chimney of Solokhina's hut and smoothly rose through the sky. Everything lit up. The snowstorm was gone. The snow lit up in a wide silver field and was sprinkled with crystal stars. The frost seemed to have warmed up. Crowds of boys and girls showed up with bags. The songs began to ring, and under the rare hut there were no crowds of carolers. The month shines wonderfully! It’s hard to tell how good it is to hang around on such a night between a bunch of laughing and singing girls and between boys, ready for all the jokes and inventions that a cheerfully laughing night can inspire. It's warm under the thick casing; the frost makes your cheeks burn even more vividly; and in a prank, the evil one himself pushes from behind. Heaps of girls with bags broke into Chub’s hut and surrounded Oksana. The scream, laughter, and stories deafened the blacksmith. Everyone vying with each other was in a hurry to tell the beauty something new, unloaded bags and showed off the palyanitsa, sausages, dumplings, which they had already collected quite a lot for their carols. Oksana seemed to be in complete pleasure and joy, chatting first with one and then with the other and laughing incessantly. The blacksmith looked with some annoyance and envy at such gaiety and this time cursed the carols, although he himself was crazy about them. - Eh, Odarka! - said the cheerful beauty, turning to one of the girls, - you have new booties! Oh, how good they are! and with gold! It’s good for you, Odarka, you have a person who buys everything for you; and I have no one to get such nice boots. - Don’t worry, my beloved Oksana! - the blacksmith picked up, - I’ll get you the kind of booties that a rare lady wears. - You? - Oksana said, quickly and arrogantly looking at him. “I’ll see where you can get boots that I could put on my leg.” Will you bring the same ones that the queen wears? - See which ones you wanted! - the crowd of girls shouted with laughter. “Yes,” the beauty continued proudly, “all of you be witnesses: if the blacksmith Vakula brings those same booties that the queen wears, then this is my word that I will marry him right away.” The girls took the capricious beauty with them. - Laugh, laugh! - said the blacksmith, going out after them. - I laugh at myself! I think, and I can’t figure out where my mind went. She doesn't love me - well, God be with her! as if there is only one Oksana in the whole world. Thank God, there are many good girls in the village even without her. What about Oksana? she will never be a good housewife; She's just a master of dressing up. No, that's enough, it's time to stop fooling around. But at the very time when the blacksmith was preparing to be decisive, some evil spirit carried before him the laughing image of Oksana, who said mockingly: “Get, blacksmith, the Tsarina’s booties, I will marry you!” Everything in him was worried, and he thought only about Oksana. Crowds of carolers, boys especially, girls especially, hurried from one street to another. But the blacksmith walked and saw nothing and did not participate in the fun that he once loved more than anyone else. Meanwhile, the devil had seriously softened up with Solokha: he kissed her hand with such antics as an assessor at the priest’s office, grabbed her heart, groaned and said bluntly that if she did not agree to satisfy his passions and, as usual, reward him, then he was ready to everything: he will throw himself into the water, and send his soul straight into the inferno. Solokha was not so cruel, and besides, the devil, as you know, acted in concert with her. She still loved to see the crowd trailing behind her and was rarely without company; This evening, however, I thought I would spend alone, because all the eminent inhabitants of the village were invited to the clerk’s kutya. But everything went differently: the devil had just presented his demand, when suddenly the voice of the hefty head was heard. Solokha ran to open the door, and the nimble devil climbed into the lying bag. The head, shaking off the snow from his drops and drinking a glass of vodka from Solokha’s hands, said that he did not go to the clerk because a snowstorm had arisen; and seeing the light in her hut, he turned to her, intending to spend the evening with her. Before the head had time to say this, a knock and the clerk’s voice were heard at the door. “Hide me somewhere,” the head whispered. “I don’t want to meet the clerk now.” Solokha thought for a long time about where to hide such a dense guest; finally she chose the largest bag of coal; coal was poured into a tub, and the hefty head, with mustache, head and caplets, climbed into the bag. The clerk came in, grunting and rubbing his hands, and said that he had no one and that he was heartily glad of this opportunity take a walk she had a little and was not afraid of the blizzard. Then he came closer to her, coughed, grinned, touched her bare, plump hand with his long fingers and said with an expression that showed both slyness and self-satisfaction: - What do you have, magnificent Solokha? - And having said this, he jumped back a little. - Like what? Hand, Osip Nikiforovich! - Solokha answered. - Hm! hand! heh! heh! heh! - said the clerk, heartily pleased with his start, and walked around the room. - What do you have, dearest Solokha? - he said with the same look, approaching her again and grabbing her lightly by the neck with his hand, and jumping back in the same manner. - As if you don’t see, Osip Nikiforovich! - Solokha answered. - Neck, and on the neck there is a monisto. - Hm! Monisto on the neck! heh! heh! heh! - And the clerk again walked around the room, rubbing his hands. “And what do you have, incomparable Solokha?” It is not known what the clerk would now touch with his long fingers, when suddenly there was a knock on the door and the voice of the Cossack Chub. - Oh, my God, a third party! - the clerk shouted in fright. - What now if they find a person of my rank?.. It will reach Father Kondrat!.. But the clerk’s fears were of a different kind: he was afraid, moreover, that his half would not recognize him, who, with their already terrible hand, had made the narrowest of his thick braids. “For God’s sake, virtuous Solokha,” he said, trembling all over. - Your kindness, as Luke’s scripture says, the head of the trin... trin... They are knocking, by God, they are knocking! Oh, hide me somewhere! Solokha poured coal into a tub from another bag, and the sexton, who was not too bulky in body, climbed into it and sat down at the very bottom, so that another half a bag of coal could be poured on top of it. - Hello, Solokha! - said Chub, entering the hut. “Perhaps you weren’t expecting me, huh?” I really didn't expect it? maybe I got in the way?..” Chub continued, showing a cheerful and significant expression on his face, which made it clear in advance that his clumsy head was working and preparing to let out some caustic and intricate joke. “Maybe you were having fun with someone here?.. maybe you’ve already hidden someone, huh?” - And, delighted with this remark of his, Chub laughed, internally triumphant that he alone enjoyed Solokha’s favor. - Well, Solokha, let me drink some vodka now. I think my throat is frozen from the damn cold. God sent such a night before Christmas! How I grabbed it, do you hear, Solokha, how I grabbed it... my hands are numb: I can’t unfasten the casing! how the blizzard hit... - Open it! - a voice was heard from the street, accompanied by a push on the door. “Someone is knocking,” said Chub, who stopped. - Open it! - they shouted louder than before. - It's a blacksmith! - said Chub, grabbing his cape. - Do you hear, Solokha, take me wherever you want; I wouldn’t want for anything in the world to show myself to this damned degenerate, so that he, the devil’s son, would have a bubble the size of a shock under both eyes! Solokha, frightened herself, rushed about like mad and, having forgotten herself, gave a sign to Chub to climb into the very bag in which the clerk was already sitting. The poor clerk did not even dare to cough and grunt in pain when a heavy man sat almost on his head and placed his boots, frozen in the cold, on both sides of his temples. The blacksmith entered without saying a word, without taking off his hat, and almost fell onto the bench. It was noticeable that he was quite out of sorts. Just as Solokha was closing the door behind him, someone knocked again. It was the Cossack Sverbyguz. This could no longer be hidden in a bag, because such a bag could not be found. He was heavier in body than his head and taller than Chubov's godfather. And so Solokha took him out into the garden to hear from him everything that he wanted to tell her. The blacksmith absentmindedly looked around the corners of his hut, listening from time to time to the distant songs of carolers; Finally his eyes focused on the bags: “Why are these bags lying here? It’s time to remove them from here long ago. This stupid love has made me completely stupid. Tomorrow is a holiday, and all sorts of rubbish is still lying in the house. Take them to the forge!” Here the blacksmith sat down to the huge bags, tied them up tightly and was preparing to put them on his shoulders. But it was noticeable that his thoughts were wandering God knows where, otherwise he would have heard Chub hiss when the hair on his head was tied by the rope that tied the bag, and the hefty head began to hiccup quite clearly. “Won’t this worthless Oksana really get out of my mind?” - said the blacksmith, - I don’t want to think about her; but everyone thinks, and, as if on purpose, about her alone. Why is it so that thoughts creep into your head against your will? What the hell, the bags seem to be heavier than before! There must be something else here besides coal. I'm a fool! I forgot that now everything seems harder to me. Previously, it happened that I could bend and straighten a copper coin and a horse's shoe in one hand; and now I won’t lift bags of coal. Soon I will fall from the wind. No,” he cried, after a pause and became emboldened, “what kind of woman am I!” I won't let anyone laugh at me! At least ten of these bags, I’ll lift them all. - And he cheerfully heaved bags onto his shoulders that two hefty men could not have carried. “Take this one too,” he continued, picking up the small one, at the bottom of which lay the devil curled up. “I think I put my instrument here.” - Having said this, he left the hut, whistling a song:

I don’t mess with the woman.

Songs and screams were heard louder and louder through the streets. The crowds of jostling people were increased by those who came from neighboring villages. The boys were naughty and crazy to their heart's content. Often, between the carols, some cheerful song was heard, which one of the young Cossacks immediately managed to compose. Then suddenly one of the crowd, instead of a carol, let out a shchedrovka and roared at the top of his lungs:

Shchedrik, bucket!
Give me a dumpling,
A breast of porridge,
Kilce cowboys!

Laughter rewarded the entertainer. Small windows rose, and the lean hand of the old woman, who alone remained in the huts with their sedate fathers, stuck out of the window with a sausage in her hands or a piece of pie. Boys and girls vied with each other to set up their bags and catch their prey. In one place, the lads, having entered from all sides, surrounded a crowd of girls: noise, screaming, one threw a lump of snow, another snatched a bag with all sorts of things. In another place, the girls caught a boy, put their foot on him, and he flew headlong to the ground along with the bag. It seemed like they were ready to party all night long. And the night, as if on purpose, glowed so luxuriously! and the light of the month seemed even whiter from the shine of the snow. The blacksmith stopped with his bags. He thought he heard Oksana’s voice and thin laugh in the crowd of girls. All the veins in him trembled: throwing the bags on the ground so that the clerk who was at the bottom groaned from the bruise and his head hiccupped at the top of his lungs, he wandered with a small bag on his shoulders along with a crowd of boys walking behind the crowd of girls, among whom he heard a voice Oksana. “So, it’s her! she stands like a queen and her black eyes sparkle! A prominent young man is telling her something; That's right, funny because she laughs. But she always laughs." As if involuntarily, without understanding how, the blacksmith pushed through the crowd and stood near it. - Oh, Vakula, you’re here! Hello! - said the beauty with the same grin that almost drove Vakula crazy. - Well, have you caroled a lot? Eh, what a small bag! Did you get the booties that the queen wears? get some boots, I'll get married! - And, laughing, she ran away with the crowd. The blacksmith stood rooted to the spot in one place. “No, I can’t; “I have no strength anymore...” he finally said. - But my God, why is she so damn good? Her look, and her speech, and everything, well, it burns, it burns... No, I can no longer overcome myself! It’s time to put an end to everything: lose your soul, I’ll go drown myself in a hole, and remember my name!” Then he walked forward with a decisive step, caught up with the crowd, caught up with Oksana and said in a firm voice: - Goodbye, Oksana! Look for the kind of groom you want, fool whoever you want; and you will never see me again in this world. The beauty seemed surprised and wanted to say something, but the blacksmith waved his hand and ran away. - Where to, Vakula? - the boys shouted, seeing the blacksmith running. - Goodbye, brothers! - the blacksmith shouted in response. - God willing, we’ll see you in the next world; and now we can no longer walk together. Farewell, do not remember badly! Tell Father Kondrat to perform a memorial service for my sinful soul. Candles for the icons of the Wonderworker and the Mother of God, a sinner, did not detract from worldly affairs. All the good that is in my hiding place goes to the church! Farewell! Having said this, the blacksmith began to run again with the bag on his back. - He's hurt! - the boys said. - Lost soul! - muttered an old woman passing by piously. - Go tell me how the blacksmith hanged himself! Meanwhile, Vakula, having run through several streets, stopped to catch his breath. “Where am I really running? - he thought, - as if everything was already lost. I’ll try another remedy: I’ll go to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk. He, they say, knows all the devils and will do whatever he wants. I’ll go, because my soul will still have to disappear!” At this, the devil, who had been lying for a long time without any movement, jumped in the sack for joy; but the blacksmith, thinking that he had somehow caught the bag with his hand and made this movement himself, hit the bag with a strong fist and, shaking it on his shoulders, went to Pot-bellied Patsyuk. This Pot-bellied Patsyuk was definitely once a Cossack; but whether he was kicked out or he himself ran away from Zaporozhye, no one knew. It’s been a long time, ten years, maybe even fifteen, since he lived in Dikanka. At first he lived like a real Cossack: he worked nothing, slept three-quarters of the day, ate for six mowers and drank almost a whole bucket at a time; however, there was room to fit in, because Patsyuk, despite his small stature, was quite heavy in width. Moreover, the trousers he wore were so wide that no matter how big a step he took, his legs were completely unnoticeable, and it seemed as if the distillery was moving down the street. Maybe this is what gave rise to calling him Pot-bellied. Within a few days of his arrival in the village, everyone already knew that he was a healer. If anyone was sick with anything, he immediately called Patsyuk; and Patsyuk only had to whisper a few words, and the illness seemed to go away with his hand. Did it happen that a hungry nobleman choked on a fish bone? Patsyuk knew how to punch him in the back so skillfully that the bone went where it should without causing any harm to the nobleman’s throat. IN lately he was rarely seen anywhere. The reason for this was, perhaps, laziness, or perhaps also the fact that getting through doors was becoming more difficult for him every year. Then the laity had to go to him themselves if they needed him. The blacksmith, not without timidity, opened the door and saw Patsyuk sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of a small tub on which stood a bowl of dumplings. This bowl stood, as if on purpose, level with his mouth. Without moving a single finger, he tilted his head slightly towards the bowl and slurped the liquid, occasionally grabbing dumplings with his teeth. “No, this one,” Vakula thought to himself, “is even lazier than Chub: he, at least, eats with a spoon, but this one doesn’t even want to raise his hands!” Patsyuk must have been very busy making dumplings, because he seemed not to notice at all the arrival of the blacksmith, who, as soon as he stepped on the threshold, gave him a low bow. “I have come to your mercy, Patsyuk!” - Vakula said, bowing again. Fat Patsyuk raised his head and began slurping dumplings again. “They say, don’t say it out of anger...” the blacksmith said, gathering his courage, “I’m not talking about this to cause you any offense, you’re a little like the devil.” Having uttered these words, Vakula was frightened, thinking that he had still expressed himself bluntly and had little softened his strong words, and, expecting that Patsyuk, having grabbed the tub and bowl, would send it straight to his head, he moved away a little and covered himself with his sleeve so that the hot liquid from the dumplings didn't splash his face. But Patsyuk looked and began slurping dumplings again. Encouraged, the blacksmith decided to continue: - I came to you, Patsyuk, God grant you everything, all good things in abundance, bread in proportion! “The blacksmith sometimes knew how to spin a fashionable word; He became proficient in this when he was still in Poltava, when he painted the centurion’s plank fence. “I, the sinner, have to perish!” nothing helps in the world! What will happen will happen, you have to ask the devil himself for help. Well, Patsyuk? - said the blacksmith, seeing his constant silence, - what should I do? - When you need the devil, then go to hell! - Patsyuk answered, without raising his eyes to him and continuing to remove the dumplings. “That’s why I came to you,” answered the blacksmith, bowing, “besides you, I think no one in the world knows the way to him.” Patsyuk didn’t say a word and finished the rest of the dumplings. - Do me a favor, good man, don’t refuse! - the blacksmith advanced, - whether pork, sausages, buckwheat flour, well, linen, millet or other things, if necessary... as is usually the case among good people... we will not be stingy. Tell me, roughly, how to get on his way? “He who has the devil behind him doesn’t have to go far,” Patsyuk said indifferently, without changing his position. Vakula fixed his eyes on him, as if the explanation of these words were written on his forehead. "What is he saying?" - Mina silently asked him; and the half-open mouth was preparing to swallow the first word like a dumpling. But Patsyuk was silent. Then Vakula noticed that there were neither dumplings nor a tub in front of him; but instead there were two wooden bowls on the floor: one was filled with dumplings, the other with sour cream. His thoughts and eyes involuntarily turned to these dishes. “Let’s see,” he said to himself, “how Patsyuk will eat dumplings. He probably won’t want to bend over to slurp it like dumplings, but he can’t: you need to dip the dumplings in sour cream first.” As soon as he had time to think this, Patsyuk opened his mouth, looked at the dumplings and opened his mouth even more. At this time, the dumpling splashed out of the bowl, plopped into the sour cream, turned over to the other side, jumped up and just landed in his mouth. Patsyuk ate it and opened his mouth again, and the dumpling went out again in the same order. He only took upon himself the labor of chewing and swallowing. “Look, what a miracle!” - thought the blacksmith, his mouth open in surprise, and at the same time he noticed that the dumpling was creeping into his mouth, and he had already smeared his lips with sour cream. Having pushed away the dumpling and wiped his lips, the blacksmith began to think about what miracles there are in the world and what wisdom evil spirits bring a person to, noting that only Patsyuk could help him. “I’ll bow to him again, let him explain it thoroughly... But what the hell! because today hungry kutya, and he eats dumplings, tasty dumplings! What a fool I really am, standing here and getting into trouble! Back!" And the devout blacksmith ran headlong out of the hut. However, the devil, who was sitting in the sack and already rejoicing in advance, could not bear to see such a glorious booty leave his hands. As soon as the blacksmith lowered the bag, he jumped out of it and sat astride his neck. The frost hit the blacksmith's skin; frightened and pale, he did not know what to do; already wanted to cross himself... But the devil, tilting his dog’s snout towards his right ear, said: - It’s me, your friend, I’ll do anything for my comrade and friend! I’ll give you as much money as you want,” he squeaked in his left ear. “Oksana will be ours today,” he whispered, turning his muzzle back to his right ear. The blacksmith stood thinking. “If you please,” he finally said, “for such a price I’m ready to be yours!” The devil clasped his hands and began to gallop with joy on the blacksmith’s neck. “Now we’ve got a blacksmith! - he thought to himself, - now I’ll take it out on you, my dear, all your pictures and fables, raised against the devils! What will my comrades say now when they find out that the most pious man in the entire village is in my hands?” Here the devil laughed with joy, remembering how he would tease the entire tailed tribe in hell, how the lame devil, who was considered the first among them to come up with inventions, would rage. - Well, Vakula! - the devil squeaked, still not getting off his neck, as if afraid that he would run away, - you know that they don’t do anything without a contract. - I'm ready! - said the blacksmith. “I heard that you sign with blood; wait, I’ll get a nail in my pocket! “Here he put his hand back and grabbed the devil by the tail.” - Look, what a joker! - the devil shouted, laughing. - Well, that's enough, enough of this naughtiness! - Wait, my dear! - shouted the blacksmith, - but how does this seem to you? - At this word he created a cross, and the devil became as quiet as a lamb. “Wait,” he said, pulling him to the ground by the tail, “you will learn from me to teach good people and honest Christians to commit sins!” “Then the blacksmith, without letting go of his tail, jumped astride him and raised his hand to make the sign of the cross. - Have mercy, Vakula! - the devil moaned pitifully, - I’ll do everything you need, just let your soul go to repentance: don’t put a terrible cross on me! - Oh, that’s the voice he sang in, the damned German! Now I know what to do. Carry me this very hour, do you hear, carry me like a bird! - Where? - said the sad devil. - To Petersburg, straight to the queen! And the blacksmith was stupefied with fear, feeling himself rising into the air. Oksana stood for a long time, thinking about the strange speeches of the blacksmith. Something inside her already said that she had treated him too cruelly. What if he actually decides to do something terrible? “What good! Maybe out of grief he will decide to fall in love with another and out of annoyance will begin to call her the first beauty in the village? But no, he loves me. I'm so good! He won't change me for anything; he's playing pranks, pretending. In less than ten minutes he will probably come to look at me. I'm really harsh. You need to let him kiss you, as if reluctantly. That’s why he’ll be happy!” And the flighty beauty was already joking with her friends. “Wait,” said one of them, “the blacksmith forgot his bags; look how scary these bags are! He did not carol like us: I think they threw a whole quarter of a ram here; and the sausages and breads are truly endless! Luxury! You can overeat all holidays. — Are these Kuznetsov’s bags? - Oksana picked up. “Let’s quickly drag them to my house and take a good look at what he put here.” Everyone laughed and approved of this proposal. “But we won’t raise them!” - the whole crowd suddenly shouted, trying to move the bags. “Wait,” said Oksana, “let’s quickly run for the sled and take it on the sled!” And the crowd ran for the sled. The prisoners were very bored sitting in the bags, despite the fact that the clerk poked a sizeable hole for himself with his finger. If there were still no people there, then perhaps he would have found a way to get out; but to get out of the bag in front of everyone, to expose himself to laughter... this held him back, and he decided to wait, only grunting slightly under Chub’s impolite boots. Chub himself no less desired freedom, feeling that beneath him lay something that was awkward to sit on. But as soon as he heard his daughter’s decision, he calmed down and did not want to get out, reasoning that he needed to walk at least a hundred steps to his hut, and maybe another. Having got out, you need to recover, fasten the casing, tie your belt - so much work! and the droplets remained with Solokha. It’s better to let the girls take you on a sled. But it didn’t happen at all as Chub expected. While the girls ran to get the sled, the thin godfather came out of the tavern, upset and out of sorts. Shinkarka did not in any way dare to trust him in debt; he wanted to wait, perhaps some pious nobleman would come and treat him; but, as if on purpose, all the nobles stayed at home and, like honest Christians, ate kutya in the midst of their household. Thinking about the corruption of morals and the wooden heart of a Jewish woman selling wine, the godfather came across the bags and stopped in amazement. - Look, what bags someone threw on the road! - he said, looking around, - there must be pork here too. Someone was lucky enough to carol about so many things! What scary bags! Let's assume that they are filled with buckwheat and shortbread, and then good. At least there were only scorch marks here, and even then in shmak: The Jewish woman gives an octagon of vodka for each palyanitsa. Drag away quickly so that no one sees. “Here he shouldered the sack with Chub and the clerk, but felt that it was too heavy. “No, it will be hard to carry alone,” he said, “but here, as if on purpose, comes the weaver Shapuvalenko.” Hello, Ostap! “Hello,” said the weaver, stopping.-Where are you going? - And so, I go where my legs go. - Help me, good man, take down the bags! someone was caroling and threw it in the middle of the road. Let's split in half. - Bags? What are the bags with, knishes or palyanits? - Yes, I think there is everything. Then they quickly pulled the sticks out of the fence, put a sack on them and carried them on their shoulders. -Where are we going to take him? to the tavern? - asked the dear weaver. “I would have thought so, too, to go to the tavern; but the damned Jew won’t believe it, she’ll also think that it was stolen somewhere; besides, I just came from a tavern. We'll take it to my house. No one will disturb us: Zhinka is not at home. - Are you sure you’re not at home? - asked the cautious weaver. “Thank God, we’re not completely crazy yet,” said the godfather, “the devil would bring me to where she is.” She, I think, will trudge with the women until daylight. -Who's there? - the godfather's wife shouted, hearing the noise in the entryway made by the arrival of two friends with a bag, and opening the door. The godfather was dumbfounded. - Here you go! - said the weaver, hands down. The godfather's wife was such a treasure, of which there are many in this world. Like her husband, she almost never sat at home and groveled almost all day with gossips and wealthy old women, praised and ate with great appetite, and fought only in the morning with her husband, because at that time she only saw him sometimes. Their hut was twice as old as the volost clerk's trousers, the roof in some places was without straw. Only the remains of the fence were visible, because everyone who left the house never took a stick for the dogs, in the hope that he would pass by the godfather's garden and pull out any of his fence. The stove was not lit for three days. Whatever the gentle wife asked from kind people, she hid as far as possible from her husband and often arbitrarily took away his spoils if he did not have time to drink it in a tavern. The godfather, despite his usual composure, did not like to give in to her and therefore almost always left the house with lanterns under both eyes, and his dear half, groaning, trudged off to tell the old women about the outrages of her husband and about the beatings she had suffered from him. Now you can imagine how puzzled the weaver and godfather were by such an unexpected phenomenon. Having lowered the bag, they stepped over it and covered it with the floors; but it was already too late; Although the godfather’s wife saw poorly with her old eyes, she nevertheless noticed the bag. - This is good! - she said with an expression in which the joy of a hawk was noticeable. - It’s good that you caroled so much! This is how they always do it good people; But no, I think they picked it up somewhere. Show me now, do you hear, show me your bag this very hour! “The bald devil will show you, not us,” said the godfather, becoming poised. - What do you care? - said the weaver, - we caroled, not you. - No, you show me, you worthless drunkard! - the wife cried, hitting the tall godfather in the chin with her fist and making her way to the bag. But the weaver and godfather bravely defended the bag and forced her to retreat back. Before they had time to recover, the wife ran out into the hallway with a poker in her hands. She quickly grabbed her husband's hands with the poker and the weaver's back and was already standing near the sack. - Why did we let her in? - said the weaver, waking up. - Eh, what did we do! why did you allow it? - said the godfather coolly. - Your poker is apparently made of iron! - said the weaver after a short silence, scratching his back. “My wife bought a poker at the fair last year, gave her some beer, and it didn’t hurt... it didn’t hurt.” Meanwhile, the triumphant wife, having placed the kagan on the floor, untied the bag and looked into it. But, it’s true, her old eyes, which saw the bag so well, were deceived this time. - Eh, there’s a whole boar lying here! - she screamed, clapping her hands with joy. - Boar! Do you hear, a whole boar! - the weaver pushed the godfather. - It’s all your fault! - What to do! - said the godfather, shrugging his shoulders. - Like what? what are we worth? Let's take the bag! Well, get started! - Go away! let's go! this is our boar! - the weaver shouted, speaking. - Go, go, damn woman! This is not your good! - said the godfather, approaching. The wife began to work on the poker again, but at that time Chub climbed out of the bag and stood in the middle of the hallway, stretching, like a man who had just awakened from a long sleep. The godfather's wife screamed, hitting the floor with her hands, and everyone involuntarily opened their mouths. - Well, she, a fool, says: boar! This is not a boar! - said the godfather, bulging his eyes. - Look, what a man was thrown into a bag! - said the weaver, backing away in fear. “Say whatever you want, say whatever you want, but it won’t happen without evil spirits.” After all, he won’t fit through the window! - This is godfather! - the godfather cried out, looking closely. - Who did you think? - Chub said, grinning. - What, did I pull a nice trick on you? And you probably wanted to eat me instead of pork? Wait, I’ll please you: there’s something else in the bag - if not a wild boar, then probably a pig or other living creature. Something was constantly moving under me. The weaver and godfather rushed to the sack, the mistress of the house clung to the opposite side, and the fight would have resumed again if the clerk, now seeing that he had nowhere to hide, had not climbed out of the sack. The godfather's wife, dumbfounded, let go of her leg, by which she began to pull the clerk out of the bag. - Here's another one! - the weaver cried out in fear, - the devil knows how things have become in the world... my head is spinning... not sausages and not scorched eggs, but people being thrown into sacks! - This is the clerk! - said Chub, who was more amazed than anyone else. - Here you go! oh yeah Solokha! put her in a sack... Well, I see she has a hut full of sacks... Now I know everything: she had two people in each sack. And I thought that she was just for me... So much for Solokha! The girls were a little surprised not to find one bag. “There’s nothing to do, we’ll have enough of this,” Oksana babbled. Everyone began to grab the bag and put it on the sled. The head decided to remain silent, reasoning: if he screamed to be let out and to untie the bag, the stupid girls would run away, think that the devil was sitting in the bag, and he would remain on the street, perhaps until tomorrow. Meanwhile, the girls, holding hands together, flew like a whirlwind, with a sled through the crunchy snow. Many people sat on the sleds, fooling around; others climbed onto the head itself. The head decided to demolish everything. Finally they arrived, opened wide the doors to the hallway and the hut, and with laughter they dragged in the bag. “Let’s see, there’s something lying here,” everyone shouted, rushing to untie it. Then the hiccups, which never ceased to torment his head the entire time he was sitting in the bag, became so intense that he began to hiccup and cough at the top of his lungs. - Oh, someone is sitting here! - everyone shouted and rushed out of the door in fright. - What the hell! where are you rushing about like crazy? - said Chub, entering the door. - Oh, dad! - said Oksana, - someone is sitting in the bag! - In the bag? where did you get this bag? “The blacksmith threw it in the middle of the road,” they all said suddenly. “Well, didn’t I say?...” Chub thought to himself. - Why are you afraid? We'll see. Come on, man, please don’t be angry that we don’t call you by name and country, get out of the bag! The head came out. - Ah! - the girls screamed. “And the head fit right in,” Chub said to himself in bewilderment, measuring him from head to toe, “see how!.. Eh!..” he couldn’t say anything more. The head himself was no less confused and did not know what to start. — It must be cold outside? - he said, turning to Chub. “There is frost,” answered Chub. - Let me ask you what you lubricate your boots with, lard or tar? He didn’t want to say something, he wanted to ask: “How did you, head, get into this bag?” - but he didn’t understand how he said something completely different. - Tar is better! - said the head. - Well, goodbye, Chub! - And, having pulled his caps down, he left the hut. “Why did I foolishly ask what he uses to coat his boots?” - said Chub, looking at the doors through which the head came out. - Oh yes Solokha! put this kind of person in a bag!.. See, damn woman! And I'm a fool... but where is that damn bag? “I threw it into the corner, there’s nothing else there,” Oksana said. - I know these things, there’s nothing! bring him here: there’s another one sitting there! shake it well... What, no? Look, damned woman! And to look at her, it’s like a saint, as if she’d never even taken a small meal into her mouth. But let’s leave Chub to vent his frustration at his leisure and return to the blacksmith, because it’s probably already nine o’clock in the yard. At first it seemed scary to Vakula when he rose from the ground to such a height that he could no longer see anything below, and flew like a fly right under the moon so that if he had not bent over a little, he would have caught it with his hat. However, a little later he became emboldened and began to make fun of the devil. He was extremely amused by the way the devil sneezed and coughed when he took the cypress cross from his neck and brought it to him. He deliberately raised his hand to scratch his head, and the devil, thinking that they were going to baptize him, flew even faster. Everything was light above. The air was transparent in a light silver fog. Everything was visible, and one could even notice how the sorcerer, sitting in a pot, rushed past them like a whirlwind; how the stars, gathered in a heap, played blind man's buff; how a whole swarm of spirits swirled to the side like a cloud; how the devil dancing during the moon took off his hat when he saw a blacksmith galloping on horseback; how the broom flew back, on which, apparently, the witch had just gone where she needed to go... they met a lot of other rubbish. Everything, seeing the blacksmith, stopped for a minute to look at him and then rushed on again and continued its course; the blacksmith kept flying; and suddenly Petersburg shone before him, all on fire. (Then there was illumination for some occasion.) The devil, having flown over the barrier, turned into a horse, and the blacksmith saw himself on a dashing runner in the middle of the street. My God! knock, thunder, shine; four-story walls are piled on both sides; the clatter of the horse's hooves, the sound of the wheel echoed with thunder and reverberated from four sides; the houses grew and seemed to rise from the ground at every step; the bridges trembled; the carriages flew; the cabbies and postilions shouted; the snow whistled under a thousand sleighs flying from all sides; pedestrians huddled and crowded under houses studded with bowls, and their huge shadows flashed along the walls, their heads reaching pipes and roofs. The blacksmith looked around in amazement in all directions. It seemed to him that all the houses fixed their countless fiery eyes on him and looked. He saw so many gentlemen in cloth-covered fur coats that he did not know whose hat to take off. “My God, how much mischief is here! - thought the blacksmith. “I think that everyone who walks down the street in a fur coat is either an assessor or an assessor!” and those who ride in such wonderful britzkas with glass are, when they are not mayors, then, most likely, commissars, and maybe even more.” His words were interrupted by the devil’s question: “Should I go straight to the queen?” “No, it’s scary,” thought the blacksmith. “Here, somewhere, I don’t know, the Cossacks stopped, who passed through Dikanka in the fall. They were traveling from Sich with papers to the queen; I would still like to consult with them.” - Hey, Satan, reach into my pocket and lead me to the Cossacks! The devil lost weight in one minute and became so small that he easily fit into his pocket. And Vakula did not have time to look back when he found himself in front of a large house, entered, without knowing how, onto the stairs, opened the door and leaned back a little from the brilliance, seeing the decorated room; but he was a little encouraged when he recognized those very Cossacks who were passing through Dikanka, sitting on silk sofas, tucking their tarred boots under them, and smoking the strongest tobacco, usually called roots. - Hello, gentleman! God help you! that's where we met! - said the blacksmith, coming close and bowing to the ground. - What kind of person is there? - the one sitting in front of the blacksmith asked the other one sitting further away. - And you didn’t know? - said the blacksmith, - it’s me, Vakula, the blacksmith! When we passed through Dikanka in the fall, we stayed, God grant you all health and longevity, for almost two days. And then I put a new tire on the front wheel of your cart! - A! - said the same Cossack, - this is the same blacksmith who paints importantly. Hello, fellow countryman, why did God bring you? - Well, I wanted to take a look, they say... “Well, fellow countryman,” said the Zaporozhian, drawing himself up and wanting to show that he could speak Russian, “what’s a great city?” The blacksmith did not want to disgrace himself and seem like a novice, moreover, as we had the opportunity to see above, he himself knew a literate language. - Noble province! - he answered indifferently. “There’s nothing to say: the houses are chattering, the paintings are hanging all over the place. Many houses are covered with gold leaf letters to the extreme. Needless to say, wonderful proportion! The Cossacks, hearing the blacksmith express himself so freely, came to a conclusion that was very favorable to him. “Afterwards we’ll talk with you, fellow countryman, more; now we are going to the queen now. - To the queen? And be kind, gentleman, take me with you too! - You? - said the Zaporozhian with the look with which an uncle speaks to his four-year-old pupil, asking to be put on a real, big horse. - What will you do there? No, it's not possible. - At the same time, a significant mine expressed itself on his face. “Brother, the queen and I will talk about our own things.” - Take it! - the blacksmith insisted. - Ask! - he whispered quietly to the devil, hitting his pocket with his fist. Before he had time to say this, another Cossack said: - Let's take him, brothers! - I guess we'll take it! - said others. - Put on a dress like ours. The blacksmith started to pull on his green jacket, when suddenly the door opened and a man came in with braids and said that it was time to go. It seemed wonderful to the blacksmith again when he rushed along in a huge carriage, swinging on the springs, when four-story houses ran past him on both sides and the pavement, rattling, seemed to be rolling under the feet of the horses. “My God, what light! - the blacksmith thought to himself. “It’s never so bright here during the day.” The carriages stopped in front of the palace. The Cossacks came out, entered the magnificent vestibule and began to climb the brilliantly illuminated staircase. - What a staircase! - the blacksmith whispered to himself, - it’s a pity to trample underfoot. What decorations! Well, they say fairy tales lie! Why the hell are they lying! My God, what a railing! what a job! here one piece of iron is worth fifty rubles! Having already climbed the stairs, the Cossacks walked through the first hall. The blacksmith timidly followed them, fearing at every step he would slip on the parquet floor. Three halls passed, the blacksmith still did not cease to be surprised. Entering the fourth, he involuntarily approached the picture hanging on the wall. It was the Most Pure Virgin with the Baby in her arms. “What a picture! what a wonderful painting! - he reasoned, - it seems he’s talking! seems to be alive! and the Holy Child! and my hands were pressed! and grins, poor thing! and the colors! My God, what colors! here the vokhas, I think, weren’t even worth a penny, it’s all fire and cormorant: and the blue one is still burning! important work! the soil must have been caused by bleivas. As surprising as these paintings are, however, this copper handle,” he continued, going up to the door and feeling the lock, “is even more worthy of surprise.” Wow, what a clean job! All this, I think, was done by German blacksmiths for the most expensive prices...” Perhaps the blacksmith would have been arguing for a long time if the footman with the braid had not pushed him under the arm and reminded him not to lag behind the others. The Cossacks walked through two more halls and stopped. Here they were told to wait. The hall was crowded with several generals in gold-embroidered uniforms. The Cossacks bowed in all directions and stood in a group. A minute later, a rather stout man in a hetman's uniform and yellow boots entered, accompanied by a whole retinue of majestic stature. His hair was disheveled, one eye was slightly crooked, his face depicted some kind of arrogant majesty, and in all his movements the habit of command was visible. All the generals, who were walking rather arrogantly in golden uniforms, began to fuss and with low bows, seemed to catch his every word and even the slightest movement in order to now fly to carry it out. But the hetman did not even pay attention, barely nodded his head and approached the Cossacks. The Cossacks bowed to their feet. -Are you all here? - he asked drawlingly, pronouncing the words slightly through his nose. — That's all, dad! - answered the Cossacks, bowing again. - Will you remember to speak as I taught you? - No, dad, we won’t forget. - Is this the king? - the blacksmith asked one of the Cossacks. - Where are you going with the king? “It’s Potemkin himself,” he answered. Voices were heard in another room, and the blacksmith did not know where to turn his eyes from the multitude of ladies who entered in satin dresses with long tails and courtiers in caftans embroidered with gold and with buns at the back. He only saw one shine and nothing more. The Cossacks suddenly all fell to the ground and shouted in one voice: - Have mercy, mom! have mercy! The blacksmith, not seeing anything, stretched himself out with all his zeal on the floor. “Stand up,” a commanding and at the same time pleasant voice sounded above them. Some of the courtiers began to fuss and push the Cossacks. - We won’t get up, mom! we won't get up! We will die and not rise! - the Cossacks shouted. Potemkin bit his lips, finally came up himself and whispered imperiously to one of the Cossacks. The Cossacks rose. Then the blacksmith dared to raise his head and saw a short woman standing in front of him, somewhat portly, powdered, with blue eyes and at the same time with that majestically smiling appearance, which was so able to conquer everything and could only belong to one reigning woman. “His Serene Highness promised to introduce me today to my people, whom I have not yet seen,” said the lady with blue eyes, looking at the Cossacks with curiosity. —Are you well kept here? - she continued, coming closer. — Thank you, mom! They provide good food, although the sheep here are not at all like what we have in Zaporozhye - why not live somehow?.. Potemkin winced, seeing that the Cossacks were saying something completely different from what he had taught them... One of the Cossacks, poised, stepped forward: - Have mercy, mom! Why are you destroying faithful people? what made you angry? Have we ever held the hand of a filthy Tatar? Did you agree with Turchin on anything? Have they betrayed you in deed or thought? Why disfavor? We heard before that you are ordering us to build fortresses everywhere; after hearing what you want turn into carabinieri; Now we hear new misfortunes. What is the Zaporozhye army to blame for? Is it the fact that he transferred your army through Perekop and helped your generals cut down the Crimeans?.. Potemkin was silent and casually cleaned his diamonds with a small brush, which were studded on his hands. - What do you want? - Ekaterina asked carefully. The Cossacks looked at each other significantly. “Now it's time! The queen asks what you want!” - the blacksmith said to himself and suddenly fell to the ground. - Your Royal Majesty, do not order execution, order mercy! What, if it were not said out of anger to your royal grace, are the slippers that are on your feet made? I think not a single Swedish person in any country in the world will be able to do this. My God, what if my little girl wore boots like these! The Empress laughed. The courtiers laughed too. Potemkin frowned and smiled at the same time. The Cossacks began to push the blacksmith's arm, wondering if he had gone crazy. - Get up! - the empress said affectionately. - If you really want to have such shoes, then it’s not difficult to do. Bring him the most expensive shoes, with gold, this very hour! Really, I really like this simplicity! Here you are,” the empress continued, fixing her eyes on a middle-aged man standing further away from the others with a plump but somewhat pale face, whose modest caftan with large mother-of-pearl buttons showed that he was not one of the courtiers, “an object worthy of your witty pen!” “You, Your Imperial Majesty, are too merciful.” At least Lafontaine is needed here! - answered the man with mother-of-pearl buttons, bowing. - To be honest, I’ll tell you: I’m still crazy about your “Brigadier.” You are an amazingly good reader! However,” the empress continued, turning again to the Cossacks, “I heard that you will never marry in the Sich.” — Yes, mom! after all, a man, you know, cannot live without a woman,” answered the same Cossack who was talking to the blacksmith, and the blacksmith was surprised to hear that this Cossack, knowing the literate language so well, spoke to the queen, as if on purpose, in the most rude manner, as usual called peasant dialect. “Cunning people! — he thought to himself, “it’s true, it’s not for nothing that he does this.” “We are not monks,” continued the Cossack, “but sinful people.” Fall, like all honest Christianity, to the point of modesty. We have quite a few who have wives, but do not live with them in the Sich. There are those who have wives in Poland; there are those who have wives in Ukraine; There are those who have wives in the Tureshchina. At this time, shoes were brought to the blacksmith. - My God, what a decoration! - he cried joyfully, grabbing his shoes. - Your Royal Majesty! Well, when the shoes are on your feet, and you feel good about them, your honor, go on the ice forge, what kind of legs should the legs be? I think at least from pure sugar. The Empress, who certainly had the most slender and charming legs, could not help but smile, hearing such a compliment from the lips of the simple-minded blacksmith, who in his Zaporozhye dress could be considered handsome, despite his dark face. Delighted by such favorable attention, the blacksmith already wanted to ask the queen thoroughly about everything: is it true that kings eat only honey and lard, and the like; but, feeling that the Cossacks were pushing him in the sides, he decided to remain silent; and when the empress, turning to the old people, began to ask how they lived in the Sich, what customs there were, he, moving back, bent down to his pocket, said quietly: “Take me out of here quickly!” — and suddenly found himself behind the barrier. - Drowned! By God, he drowned! so that I don’t leave this place if I don’t drown! - the fat weaver babbled, standing among a bunch of Dikan women in the middle of the street. - Well, am I some kind of liar? did I steal someone's cow? Have I jinxed anyone who doesn’t have faith in me? - shouted a woman in a Cossack scroll, with a purple nose, waving her arms. “So that I wouldn’t want to drink water if old Pereperchikha didn’t see with her own eyes how the blacksmith hanged himself!” — Did the blacksmith hang himself? here you go! - said the head coming out from Chub, stopped and pushed closer to those talking. “Better tell me so you don’t want to drink vodka, you old drunkard!” - answered the weaver, - you have to be as crazy as you to hang yourself! He drowned! drowned in a hole! I know this as well as the fact that you were just now at the tavern. - Disgraceful! See, why did you start reproaching me? — the woman with the purple nose objected angrily. - Be silent, you scoundrel! Don’t I know that the clerk comes to see you every evening? The weaver flushed. - What is it, clerk? to whom is the clerk? Why are you lying? - Deacon? - the sexton, in a sheepskin coat made of hare fur, covered with a blue china, sang, crowding towards those arguing. - I'll let the clerk know! Who says this - the clerk? - But who does the clerk go to! - said the woman with the purple nose, pointing to the weaver. “So it’s you, bitch,” said the sexton, approaching the weaver, “so it’s you, the witch, who’s fogging him up and feeding him an unclean potion so that he’ll come to you?” - Get off me, Satan! - said the weaver, backing away. “See, damned witch, don’t wait to see your children, you wretch!” Ugh!.. - Here the sexton spat right in the weaver’s eyes. The weaver wanted to do the same to herself, but instead she spat in the unshaven beard of the head, which, in order to hear everything better, got close to those arguing. - Ah, bad woman! - shouted the head, wiping his face with the hollow and raising his whip. This movement caused everyone to scatter curses in different directions. - What an abomination! - he repeated, continuing to dry himself. - So the blacksmith drowned! My God, what an important painter he was! What strong knives, sickles, plows he knew how to forge! What a power that was! Yes,” he continued, thoughtfully, “there are few such people in our village.” That’s why I, while still sitting in the damned sack, noticed that the poor thing was in a bad mood. Here's a blacksmith for you! I was, and now I’m not! And I was about to shoe my speckled mare!.. And, being full of such Christian thoughts, the head quietly wandered into his hut. Oksana was embarrassed when such news reached her. She had little faith in the eyes of Pereperchikha and the rumors of the women; she knew that the blacksmith was pious enough to decide to destroy his soul. But what if he actually left with the intention of never returning to the village? And it’s unlikely that anywhere else you’ll find such a fine fellow as the blacksmith! He loved her so much! He endured her whims the longest! The beauty turned all night under her blanket from right to left, from left to right - and could not sleep. Then, scattered about in the enchanting nakedness that the darkness of the night hid even from herself, she almost aloud scolded herself; then, having calmed down, she decided not to think about anything - and kept thinking. And everything was burning; and by morning she fell head over heels in love with the blacksmith. Chub expressed neither joy nor sadness about Vakula’s fate. His thoughts were occupied with one thing: he could not forget Solokha’s treachery and, sleepy, did not stop scolding her. It's morning. The whole church was full of people even before the light. Elderly women in white mittens and white cloth scrolls devoutly crossed themselves at the very entrance of the church. Noblewomen in green and yellow jackets, and some even in blue kuntushas with golden back mustaches, stood in front of them. The girls, who had a whole shop of ribbons wrapped around their heads and monistas, crosses and ducats around their necks, tried to get even closer to the iconostasis. But ahead of everyone were nobles and simple men with mustaches, forelocks, thick necks and freshly shaved chins, most of them wearing kobenyaks, from under which a white scroll showed, and some had a blue scroll. Celebration was visible on all the faces, no matter where you looked. He licked his head, imagining how he would break his fast with sausage; the girls thought about how they would be hang out with the boys on ice; The old women whispered prayers more diligently than ever. Throughout the church one could hear the Cossack Sverbyguz bowing. Only Oksana stood as if not herself: she prayed and did not pray. There were so many different feelings crowded into her heart, one more annoying than the other, one sadder than the other, that her face expressed nothing but intense embarrassment; tears trembled in my eyes. The girls could not understand the reason for this and did not suspect that the blacksmith was to blame. However, Oksana was not the only one busy with the blacksmith. All the laity noticed that the holiday seemed to be not a holiday; that everything seems to be missing something. As luck would have it, the clerk, after traveling in the sack, became hoarse and rattled in a barely audible voice; True, the visiting singer played the bass nicely, but it would have been much better if there had been a blacksmith, who always used to, as soon as they sang “Our Father” or “Like the Cherubim,” climb onto the wing and lead out from there in the same tune as they sing and in Poltava. In addition, he alone corrected the position of church titar. Matins has already departed; after matins, mass departed... where, in fact, did the blacksmith disappear to? During the rest of the night the devil and the blacksmith rushed back even faster. And instantly Vakula found himself near his hut. At this time the rooster crowed. "Where? - he shouted, grabbing the tail of the devil who wanted to run away, - wait, buddy, that’s not all: I haven’t thanked you yet.” Here, grabbing a twig, he gave him three blows, and the poor devil began to run, like a man who had just been steamed by an assessor. So, instead of deceiving, seducing and fooling others, the enemy of the human race was himself fooled. After this, Vakula entered the hallway, buried himself in the hay and slept until lunch. Waking up, he was frightened when he saw that the sun was already high: “I slept through Matins and Mass!” Here the pious blacksmith fell into despondency, reasoning that it was probably God who had deliberately, as punishment for his sinful intention to destroy his soul, sent a dream that prevented even him from attending such a solemn holiday in the church. But, however, having calmed himself with the fact that next week he would confess to this priest and from today he would begin to bow fifty times throughout the year, he looked into the hut; but there was no one in it. Apparently, Solokha has not returned yet. He carefully took his shoes out of his bosom and was again amazed at the expensive work and the wonderful incident of the previous night; he washed, dressed as best as possible, put on the same dress that he got from the Cossacks, took out from the chest a new hat from Reshetilovsky smushkas with a blue top, which he had not worn even once since he bought it when he was in Poltava; He also took out a new belt of all colors; He put it all together with the whip in a handkerchief and went straight to Chub. Chub's eyes bulged when the blacksmith came to him, and did not know what to marvel at: whether the blacksmith had resurrected, or the fact that the blacksmith dared to come to him, or the fact that he had dressed himself up as such a dandy and a Cossack. But he was even more amazed when Vakula untied the scarf and put in front of him a brand new hat and a belt, which had not been seen in the entire village, and he fell at his feet and said in a pleading voice: - Have mercy, dad! don't be angry! here’s a whip for you: hit as much as your heart desires, I surrender myself; I repent of everything; Hit me, but don’t be angry! You once fraternized with your late dad, you ate bread and salt together and drank magarych. Chub, not without secret pleasure, saw how the blacksmith, who did not blow anyone’s nose in the village, bent nickels and horseshoes in his hand like buckwheat pancakes; that same blacksmith lay at his feet. In order not to fall further, Chub took the whip and hit him three times on the back. - Well, that's it for you, get up! Always listen to old people! Let's forget everything that happened between us! Well, now tell me, what do you want? - Give me Oksana for me, dad! Chub thought a little, looked at the hat and belt: the hat was wonderful, the belt was also not inferior to it; he remembered the treacherous Solokha and said decisively: — Good! send matchmakers! - Ay! - Oksana screamed, stepping over the threshold and seeing the blacksmith, and stared at him with amazement and joy. - Look at the boots I brought you! - said Vakula, - the same ones that the queen wears. - No! No! I don't need booties! “- she said, waving her hands and not taking her eyes off him, “I don’t even have booties...” She didn’t finish further and blushed. The blacksmith came closer and took her hand; The beauty lowered her eyes. She had never been so wonderfully beautiful. The delighted blacksmith kissed her quietly, and her face lit up even more, and she became even better. A bishop of blessed memory passed through Dikanka, praised the place on which the village stands, and, driving along the street, stopped in front of a new hut. -Whose painted house is this? - the Eminence asked the woman standing near the door beautiful woman with a child in her arms. “Blacksmith Vakula,” Oksana told him, bowing, because it was she. - Nice! nice job! - said the Eminence, looking at the doors and windows. And the windows were all surrounded with red paint; on the doors everywhere there were Cossacks on horses, with pipes in their teeth. But the Right Reverend praised Vakula even more when he learned that he had endured church repentance and painted the entire left wing with green paint with red flowers for free. This, however, is not all: on the side wall, as you enter the church, Vakula painted a devil in hell, so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by; and the women, as soon as the child began to cry in their arms, brought him to the picture and said: “He’s a bacha, yaka kaka painted!”- and the child, holding back his tears, glanced sideways at the picture and huddled close to his mother’s chest.

Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

"Christmas Eve"

The last day before Christmas is replaced by a clear, frosty night. The girls and boys had not yet come out to carol, and no one saw how smoke came out of the chimney of one hut and a witch rose on a broom. She flashes like a black speck in the sky, gathering stars into her sleeve, and the devil flies towards her, for whom “the last night was left to wander around the white world.” Having stolen the month, the devil hides it in his pocket, assuming that the coming darkness will keep the rich Cossack Chub, invited to the clerk for a feast, at home, and the blacksmith Vakula, hated by the devil (who painted a picture of the Last Judgment and the shamed devil on the church wall) will not dare to come to Chubova’s daughter Oksana . While the devil is building chickens for the witch, Chub and his godfather, who came out of the hut, do not decide whether to go to the sexton, where a pleasant company will gather over the varenukha, or, in view of such darkness, to return home - and they leave, leaving the beautiful Oksana in the house, who was dressing up in front of the mirror, for which and Vakula finds her. The stern beauty mocks him, not at all moved by his gentle speeches. The disgruntled blacksmith goes to unlock the door, on which Chub, who has lost his way and lost his godfather, knocks, having decided on the occasion of the blizzard raised by the devil to return home. However, the blacksmith’s voice makes him think that he was not in his own hut (but in a similar one, the lame Levchenko, to whose young wife the blacksmith probably came). Chub changes his voice, and the angry Vakula, jabbing him, kicks him out. The beaten Chub, having realized that the blacksmith has therefore left his own home, goes to his mother, Solokha. Solokha, who was a witch, returned from her journey, and the devil flew with her, dropping a month in the chimney.

It became light, the snowstorm subsided, and crowds of carolers poured into the streets. The girls come running to Oksana, and, noticing on one of them new slippers embroidered with gold, Oksana declares that she will marry Vakula if he brings her the slippers “that the queen wears.” Meanwhile, the devil, who had relaxed at Solokha’s, is scared away by his head, who did not go to the clerk for the feast. The devil quickly climbs into one of the bags left among the hut by the blacksmith, but soon his head has to climb into another, since the clerk is knocking on Solokha’s door. Praising the virtues of the incomparable Solokha, the clerk is forced to climb into the third bag, since Chub appears. However, Chub also climbs into the same place, avoiding meeting with the returning Vakula. While Solokha is talking in the garden with the Cossack Sverbyguz, who has come after him, Vakula takes away the bags thrown in the middle of the hut, and, saddened by the quarrel with Oksana, does not notice their weight. On the street he is surrounded by a crowd of carolers, and here Oksana repeats her mocking condition. Having thrown all but the smallest bags in the middle of the road, Vakula runs, and rumors are already creeping behind him that he was either mentally damaged or hanged himself.

Vakula comes to the Cossack Pot-bellied Patsyuk, who, as they say, is “a little like the devil.” Having caught the owner eating dumplings, and then dumplings, which themselves climbed into Patsyuk’s mouth, Vakula timidly asks the way to hell, relying on his help in his misfortune. Having received a vague answer that the devil is behind him, Vakula runs away from the savory dumplings falling into his mouth. Anticipating easy prey, the devil jumps out of the bag and, sitting on the blacksmith’s neck, promises him Oksana that same night. The cunning blacksmith, having grabbed the devil by the tail and crossed him, becomes the master of the situation and orders the devil to take himself “to Petemburg, straight to the queen.”

Having found Kuznetsov’s bags at that time, the girls want to take them to Oksana to see what Vakula caroled. They go for the sled, and Chubov’s godfather, calling a weaver to help, drags one of the sacks into his hut. There, a fight ensues with the godfather's wife over the unclear but tempting contents of the bag. Chub and the clerk find themselves in the bag. When Chub, returning home, finds a head in the second bag, his disposition towards Solokha greatly decreases.

The blacksmith, having galloped to St. Petersburg, appears to the Cossacks who were passing through Dikanka in the fall, and, holding the devil in his pocket, tries to be taken to an appointment with the queen. Marveling at the luxury of the palace and the wonderful paintings on the walls, the blacksmith finds himself in front of the queen, and when she asks the Cossacks, who came to ask for their Sich, “what do you want?”, the blacksmith asks her for her royal shoes. Touched by such innocence, Catherine draws attention to this passage of Fonvizin standing at a distance, and gives Vakula shoes, having received which he considers it a blessing to go home.

In the village at this time, the Dikan women in the middle of the street are arguing about exactly how Vakula committed suicide, and the rumors that have reached about this confuse Oksana, she does not sleep well at night, and not finding the devout blacksmith in the church in the morning, she is ready to cry. The blacksmith simply slept through matins and mass, and upon awakening, he takes a new hat and belt out of the chest and goes to Chub to woo him. Chub, wounded by Solokha’s treachery, but seduced by gifts, agrees. He is echoed by Oksana, who has entered and is ready to marry the blacksmith “without slippers.” Having started a family, Vakula painted his hut with paints, and painted a devil in the church, and “so disgusting that everyone spat when they passed by.”

Before Christmas, the weather becomes calm and clear, and a frosty night gradually falls on the ground. Smoke poured out of the chimney of one of the huts, when suddenly a witch on a broom rose behind the smoke and flew upward. Flashing in the sky, she collected stars and put them in her sleeve. The devil, who was also flying, stole the month and hid it in his pocket. He thought that the long night would keep the rich Cossack Chub, who had been invited to the clerk’s house for kutya, at home.

The devil is raising a blizzard outside, and Chub and his godfather are deciding who to go to for dumplings, or to stay at home because of the darkness, but they leave, leaving Oksana at home. And Oksana dresses up in front of the mirror, where Vakula finds her. Chub, who has lost his way and lost his godfather along the way, is knocking on the door. Not recognizing the blacksmith by the voice, he decided that he was in the wrong house. Vakula, offended, pushed Chub out the door. It was already brighter outside and the snowstorm had subsided. Chub went to Solokha, a former witch and Vakula’s mother, and she returned from a trip with the devil, dropping a month into the chimney.

The girls and boys went out to carol. Friends invite Oksana to go out with them. Meanwhile, Solokha is scared off by the devil, who did not go to the clerk, and the devil climbs into one of the bags left by the blacksmith. The head climbs into the other, as the clerk is knocking on the door. Chub is standing on the threshold, and at this time Vakula comes in, and Chub somehow fits into the clerk’s bag. Vakula carries away the bags, not noticing their weight.

On the street in the crowd, Oksana tells Vakula that she will marry him if he gets her the shoes that the queen herself wears. Vakula went to Patsyuk for advice on how to get to the devil, but received no answer, and the devil himself was behind him. Then Vakula caught the devil by the tail and ordered him to take him to the queen.

The blacksmith, having flown to St. Petersburg, goes to the Cossacks and asks to take them with him to an appointment with the queen. In the palace, he is surprised by the luxurious luxury around him and the wonderful fairy-tale paintings on the walls. The blacksmith asks the queen for the royal shoes, and she, touched by such innocence, gives them to Vakula.

In the village, rumors spread that the blacksmith had committed suicide. Oksanka, feeling guilty and not finding Vakula in the church, is ready to cry. The blacksmith, tired from the journey, slept through mass. Having woken up and gotten dressed, he goes to Chub to get married, and then Oksana comes in and says that she agrees to marry Vakula even without shoes. After the wedding, Vakula’s hut was beautifully painted.

Essays

Characteristics of the characters in Gogol's story “The Night Before Christmas”