Short Fiction - Nikolai Gogol (best selling autobiographies TXT) 📗

for a comrade and a friend such as thou! I’ll give thee as much money as thou canst wish for!” squeaked he in his left ear. “No later than this very day Oxana shall be ours!” continued he, turning his muzzle once more to the right ear.

The blacksmith stood considering. “Well,” said he, at length, “on this condition I am ready to be thine.”

The devil clapped his hand and began to indulge his joy in springing about on the blacksmith’s neck. “Now, I’ve caught him!” thought he to himself, “Now, I’ll take my revenge upon thee, my dear fellow, for all thy paintings and all thy tales about devils! What will my fellows say when they come to know that the most pious man in the village is in my power?” and the devil laughed heartily at the thought of how he would tease all the long-tailed breed in hell, and how the lame devil, who was reputed the most cunning of them all for his tricks, would feel provoked.

“Well, Vakoola!” squeaked he, while he continued sitting on Vakoola’s neck, as if fearing the blacksmith should escape; “thou knowest well that nothing can be done without contract.”

“I am ready,” said the blacksmith. “I’ve heard that it is the custom with you to write it in blood; well, stop, let me take a nail out of my pocket”⁠—and putting his hand behind him, he suddenly seized the devil by his tail.

“Look, what fun!” cried the devil, laughing; “well, let me alone now, there’s enough of play!”

“Stop, my dear fellow!” cried the blacksmith, “what wilt thou say now?” and he made the sign of the cross. The devil grew as docile as a lamb. “Stop,” continued the blacksmith, drawing him by the tail down to the ground; “I will teach thee how to make good men and upright Christians sin;” and the blacksmith sprang on his back, and once more raised his hand to make the sign of the cross.

“Have mercy upon me, Vakoola!” groaned the devil in a lamentable voice; “I am ready to do whatever thou wilt, only do not make the dread, sign of the cross on me!”

“Ah! that is the strain thou singest now, cursed German that thou art! I know now what to do! Take me a ride on thy back directly, and harkee! a pretty ride must I have!”

“Whither?” gasped the mournful devil.

“To St. Petersburgh, straightway to the Czarina!” and the blacksmith thought he should faint with terror as he felt himself rising up in the air.

Oxana remained a long time pondering over the strange speech of the blacksmith. Something within her told her that she had behaved with too much cruelty towards him. “What if he should indeed resort to some frightful decision? May not such a thing be expected! He may, perhaps, fall in love with some other girl, and, out of spite, proclaim her to be the belle of the village! No, that he would not do, he is too much in love with me! I am so handsome! For none will he ever leave me. He is only joking; he only feigns. Ten minutes will not pass, ere he returns to look at me. I am indeed too harsh towards him. Why not let him have a kiss? just as if it were against my will; that, to a certainty would make him quite delighted!” and the flighty belle began once more to sport with her friends. “Stop,” said one of them, “the blacksmith has left his sacks behind; just see what enormous sacks too! His luck has been better than ours; methinks he has got whole quarters of mutton, and sausages, and loaves without number. Plenty indeed; one might feed upon the whole of next fortnight.”

“Are these the blacksmith’s sacks?” asked Oxana; “let us take them into my cottage just to see what he has got in them.” All laughingly agreed to her proposal.

“But we shall never be able to lift them!” cried the girls trying to move the sacks.

“Stay a bit,” said Oxana; “come with me to fetch a sledge, and we’ll drag them home on it.”

The whole party ran to fetch a sledge.

The prisoners were far from pleased at sitting in the sacks, notwithstanding that the clerk had succeeded in poking a great hole with his finger. Had there been nobody near, he would perhaps have found the means of making his escape; but he could not endure the thought of creeping out of the sack before a whole crowd, and of being laughed at by every one, so he resolved to await the event, giving only now and then a suppressed groan under the impolite boots of Choop. Choop had no less a desire to be set free, feeling that there was something lying under him, which was excessively inconvenient to sit upon. But on hearing his daughter’s decision he remained quiet and no longer felt inclined to creep out, considering that he would have certainly some hundred, or perhaps even two hundred steps to walk to get to his dwelling; that upon creeping out, he would have his sheepskin coat to button, his belt to buckle⁠—what a trouble! and last of all, that he had left his cap behind him at Solokha’s. So he thought it better to wait till the maidens drew him home on a sledge.

The event, however, proved to be quite contrary to his expectations; at the same time that the maidens ran to bring the sledge, Choop’s kinsman left the brandy shop, very cross and dejected. The mistress of the shop would on no account give him credit; he had resolved to wait until some kindhearted Cossack should step in and offer him a glass of brandy; but, as if purposely, all the Cossacks remained at home, and as became good Christians, ate kootia with their families. Thinking about the corruption of manners, and about the Jewish mistress of the shop having a wooden heart, the kinsman went straight to the sacks