Having uttered these words, Vakula became frightened, thinking he had expressed himself too directly and hadn't softened his strong words enough, and, expecting Patsiuk to seize the barrel with the bowl and send it straight at his head, he stepped aside a little and shielded himself with his sleeve, so that the hot liquid from the noodles wouldn't splash in his face.
But Patsiuk shot him a glance and again began slurping up noodles. The heartened blacksmith ventured to continue.
'I've come to you, Patsiuk, may God grant you all good things in abundance, and bread proportionately!' The blacksmith knew how to put in a fashionable word now and then; he had acquired the knack in Poltava, while he was painting the chief's wooden fence. 'My sinful self is bound to perish! nothing in the world helps! Come what may, I must ask for help from the devil himself. Well, Patsiuk?' said the blacksmith, seeing his invariable silence, 'what am I to do?'
'If it's the devil you need, then go to the devil!' replied Patsiuk, without raising his eyes and continuing to pack away the noodles.
'That's why I came to you,' replied the blacksmith, giving him a low bow. 'Apart from you, I don't think anybody in the world knows the way to him.'
Not a word from Patsiuk, who was finishing the last of the noodles.
'Do me a kindness, good man, don't refuse!' the blacksmith insisted. 'Some pork, or sausage, or buckwheat flour-well, or linen, millet, whatever there may be, if needed… as is customary among good people… we won't be stingy. Tell me at least, let's say, how to find the way to him?'
'He needn't go far who has the devil on his back,' Patsiuk pronounced indifferently, without changing his position.
Vakula fixed his eyes on him as if he had the explanation of these words written on his forehead. 'What is he saying?' his face inquired wordlessly; and his half-open mouth was ready to swallow the first word like a noodle. But Patsiuk kept silent.
Here Vakula noticed there were no longer either noodles or barrel before the man; instead, two wooden bowls stood on the floor, one filled with dumplings, the other with sour cream. His thoughts and eyes involuntarily turned to these dishes. 'Let's see how Patsiuk is going to eat those dumplings,' he said to himself. 'He surely won't want to lean over and slurp them up like noodles, and it's not the right way-a dumpling has to be dipped in sour cream first.'
No sooner had he thought it than Patsiuk opened his mouth wide, looked at the dumplings, and opened his mouth still wider. Just then a dumpling flipped out of the bowl, plopped into the sour cream, turned over on the other side, jumped up, and went straight into Patsiuk's mouth. Patsiuk ate it and again opened his mouth, and in went another dumpling in the same way. He was left only with the work of chewing and swallowing.
'See what a marvel!' thought the blacksmith, opening his mouth in surprise, and noticing straightaway that a dumpling was going into his mouth as well and had already smeared his lips with sour cream. Pushing the dumpling away and wiping his lips, the blacksmith began to reflect on what wonders happen in the world and what clever things a man could attain to by means of the unclean powers, observing at the same time that Patsiuk alone could help him. 'I'll bow to him again, and let him explain it to me… Though, what the devil! today is a hungry kutya, 6 and he eats dumplings, non-lenten dumplings! What a fool I am, really, standing here and heaping up sins! Retreat!…' And the pious blacksmith rushed headlong from the cottage.
However, the devil, who had been sitting in the sack and rejoicing in anticipation, couldn't stand to see such a fine prize slip through his fingers. As soon as the blacksmith put the sack down, he jumped out and sat astride his neck.
A chill crept over the blacksmith; frightened and pale, he did not know what to do; he was just about to cross himself… But the devil, leaning his doggy muzzle to his right ear, said:
'It's me, your friend-I'll do anything for a friend and comrade! I'll give you as much money as you like,' he squealed into his left ear. 'Oksana will be ours today,' he whispered, poking his muzzle toward his right ear again.
The blacksmith stood pondering.
'Very well,' he said finally, 'for that price I'm ready to be yours!'
The devil clasped his hands and began bouncing for joy on the blacksmith's neck. 'Now I've got you, blacksmith!' he thought to himself. 'Now I'll take revenge on you, my sweet fellow, for all your paintings and tall tales against devils! What will my comrades say now, when they find out that the most pious man in the whole village is in my hands?' Here the devil laughed with joy, thinking how he was going to mock all the tailed race in hell, and how furious, the lame devil would be, reputed the foremost contriver among them.
'Well, Vakula!' the devil squealed, still sitting on his neck, as if fearing he might run away, 'you know, nothing is done without a contract.'
'I'm ready!' said the blacksmith. 'With you, I've heard, one has to sign in blood; wait, I'll get a nail from my pocket!' Here he put his arm behind him and seized the devil by the tail.
'See what a joker!' the devil cried out, laughing. 'Well, enough now, enough of these pranks!'
'Wait, my sweet fellow!' cried the blacksmith, 'and how will you like this?' With these words he made the sign of the cross and the devil became as meek as a lamb. 'Just wait,' he said, dragging him down by the tail, 'I'll teach you to set good people and honest Christians to sinning!' Here the blacksmith, without letting go of the tail, jumped astride him and raised his hand to make the sign of the cross.
'Have mercy, Vakula!' the devil moaned pitifully. 'I'll do anything you want, anything, only leave my soul in peace-don't put the terrible cross on me!'
'Ah, so that's the tune you sing now, you cursed German! Now I know what to do. Take me on your back this minute, do you hear? Carry me like a bird!'
'Where to?' said the rueful devil.
'To Petersburg, straight to the tsaritsa!'
And the blacksmith went numb with fear, feeling himself rising into the air.
For a long time Oksana stood pondering the blacksmith's strange words. Something inside her was already
