To P. G. Rozanov, 2 April 1885. Moscow.

Written eleven days after his Easter letter of March 22, this short note continues Chekhov’s running correspondence with Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor-publisher of the Petersburg humor weekly Oskolki ("Splinters"). Rather than shop talk about copy and deadlines, this letter is pure badinage between the two men, addressed jokingly to "Doctor" – a nod to Chekhov’s medical degree. He needles Leikin about a dissertation by a certain Dr. Gryaznov, whom Leikin had once praised as having landed a chief physician’s post in Odessa, and encloses a newspaper clipping meant to puncture any illusion that Odessa outshines the provincial backwater of Cherepovets. He passes along a scrap of gossip – a mutual acquaintance, "Ikavits," has apparently gotten into trouble serious enough to be barred from leaving Tambov – and tosses off a wry twist on the old Russian saying that the grass is greener elsewhere, proposing instead that things are bad everywhere.

The letter closes with breezy society chatter: greetings to Leikin’s circle, a mock-formal bow to one Sergei Pavlovich, and a complaint about a tiresome acquaintance nicknamed "Hamburchikha." Slight as it is, the letter shows the easy, joking intimacy Chekhov had by 1885 established with his editor and patron, alongside the steady stream of small items – news, clippings, gossip – he kept feeding Leikin between formal submissions.