The Works of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 1

[Foma Grigorievich] told him how a schoolboy, who had been learning reading and writing from some deacon, returned to his father and became such a Latinizer that he even forgot our Orthodox language; he twisted every word to his own liking: a shovel original: "лопата" became a shovel-us original: "лопатусъ" for him; a woman original: "баба" became a woman-us original: "бабусъ". Well, it so happened once that he and his father went out into the field together. The Latinizer saw a rake and asked his father: "How, father, is this called in your tongue?" and, mouth agape, stepped right onto the prongs. The father did not have time to come up with an answer before the handle, swinging up, caught him on the forehead. "Accursed rake!" shouted the schoolboy, clutching his forehead and leaping a yard into the air, "How it hits, the devil take the father of it!" There you have it! He remembered the name all right, the dear boy! This little anecdote did not sit well with our fastidious storyteller. Without saying a word, he stood up, planted his legs in the middle of the room, bent his head slightly forward, thrust his hand into the back pocket of his pea-green coat, and pulled out a round, lacquered snuff-