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something so vile on his lips that he spent the whole next day spitting.But all this was pretty doubtful, because no one but the Sorochintsy assessor could see a witch.And so all the notable Cossacks waved their hands on hearing this talk.“The bitches are lying!” was their usual response.
    Having climbed out of the oven and straightened her clothes, Solokha, like a good housekeeper, began tidying up and putting things in order, but she didn’t touch the sacks: “Vakula brought them in, let him take them out!” Meanwhile the devil, as he was flying into the chimney, had looked around somehow inadvertently and seen Choub arm in arm with his chum, already far from his cottage.He instantly flew out of the oven, crossed their path,and began scooping up drifts of frozen snow on all sides.A blizzard arose.The air turned white.A snowy net swirled back and forth, threatening to stop up the walkers’ eyes, mouths, and ears.Then the devil flew back down the chimney, firmly convinced that Choub and his chum would turn back, find the blacksmith, and give him such a hiding that it would be long before he was able to take his brush and paint any offensive caricatures.
    I N FACT, AS soon as the blizzard arose and the wind began cutting right into their eyes, Choub showed repentance and, pulling his ear-flapped hat further down on his head, treated himself, the devil, and the chum to abuse.However, this vexation was a pretense.Choub was very glad of the blizzard.The distance to the deacon’s was eight times longer than they had already gone.The travelers turned back.The wind was blowing from behind them; but they could see nothing through the sweeping snow.
    “Wait, chum!I don’t think this is the right way,” Choub said after a short while.“I don’t see any houses.Ah, what a blizzard!Go to that side a little, chum, maybe you’ll find the road, and meanwhile I’ll search over here.It was the evil one prompted us to drag around in such a storm!Don’t forget to holler if you find the road.Eh, what a heap of snow the devil’s thrown in my face!”
    The road, however, could not be seen.The chum went to one side and, wandering back and forth in his high boots, finally wandered right into the tavern.This find made him so happy that he forgot everything and, shaking off the snow, went into the front hall, not the least concerned about his chum who was left outside.Choub, meanwhile, thought he had found the road; he stopped and began shouting at the top of his lungs, but seeing that his chum didn’t appear, he decided to go on by himself.He walked a little and saw his own house.Drifts of snow lay around it and on the roof.Clapping his hands, frozen in the cold, he began knocking at the door and shouting commandingly for his daughter to open.
    “What do you want here?” the blacksmith cried sternly, coming out.
    Choub, recognizing the blacksmith’s voice, stepped back a little.“Ah, no, it’s not my house,” he said to himself, “the blacksmithwouldn’t come to my house.Again, on closer inspection, it’s not the blacksmith’s either.Whose house could it be?There now!I didn’t recognize it!It’s lame Levchenko’s, who recently married a young wife.He’s the only one who has a house like mine.That’s why it seemed a bit odd to me that I got home so soon.However, Levchenko is now sitting at the deacon’s, that I know.Why, then, the blacksmith?… Oh-ho-ho!he comes calling on the young wife.That’s it!Very well!… now I understand everything.”
    “Who are you and why are you hanging around the door?” the blacksmith, coming closer, said more sternly than before.
    “No, I won’t tell him who I am,” thought Choub.“He may give me a thrashing for all I know, the cursed bastard!” and, altering his voice, he replied:
    “It’s me, good man!I’ve come to your windows to sing some carols for your amusement.”
    “Go to the devil with your carols!” Vakula cried angrily.“Why are you standing there?Clear out