The Night Before Christmas by Nikolái Gógol Read Free Book Online

crop and slapped Vakula three times across the shoulders. “Here, remember to respect your elders. Now let’s forget everything that’s passed between us. Tell me what you want.”
    â€œLet me marry Oksana!”
    Chub sighed, glanced at the superb hat and sash, remembered Solokha’s betrayal, and said decisively, “So be it. Send the matchmakers.”
    Oksana walked into the room and gasped with joy and amazement.
    â€œLook what shoes I brought you—the empress herself wore them.”
    â€œNo, no, I don’t need any shoes . . .” and she blushed deeply.
    The blacksmith walked up to her, took her by the hand, and gently kissed her. The beauty lowered her blushing face—never had she looked lovelier.
    *   *   *
    W hen the late bishop, may he rest in peace, passed through Dikanka, he praised the beauty of its landscape and then stopped in front of a new house. A beautiful young woman holding a baby bowed to him from the porch. “Whose is this painting of a house?” the archbishop exclaimed.
    â€œVakula the blacksmith’s,” replied Oksana, for it was she.
    â€œFine work, very fine,” the bishop said approvingly, examining Vakula’s art. And there was plenty to examine: all the windows had scarlet borders, and on the doors Vakula had depicted Cossacks on horseback with pipes in their teeth. The bishop was even more impressed to learn that Vakula had fulfilled his vow and painted the entire left choir of the church with red flowers on a green background. But that wasn’t all. Beside the church door he had drawn a portrait of the devil in hell, so unspeakably ugly thateveryone spat at it as they walked in. If a mother wanted to distract a fussy baby, she’d bring it closer to the painting, saying, “Here, look, what a
yaka kaka
,” and the fascinated child would hold back its tears, clutching at its mother’sbreast.

* Parents and godparents of a child call each other
kum
(pronounced “koom”), or
kuma
, if she is a woman. The word indicates that they have become family through the ritual of baptism, without being related by blood.