The Works of Nikolai Gogol, Vol. 1

Upon arriving in Dikanka, ask the first boy you meet, grazing geese in a soiled shirt: "And where does the beekeeper Rudy Panko live?" "Right over there!" he will say, pointing with his finger, and if you like, he will lead you to the very hamlet.

However, I ask you not to walk with your hands behind your backs or, as they say, to put on airs, because the roads to our hamlets are not as smooth as those in front of your mansions. Foma Grigorievich, three years ago, returning from Dikanka, managed to drive his new light carriage taratayka a simple, two-wheeled open cart and bay mare into a ditch, despite the fact that he was driving himself and, on top of his own eyes, occasionally put on store-bought ones.

But when you do honor us with a visit, I will serve such melons as perhaps you have never eaten in your lives; and as for honey, I swear, you will not find better in any hamlet: just imagine that as you bring in a honeycomb, a fragrance fills the entire room, one you cannot imagine: pure as a tear, or the precious crystal found in