To N. A. Leikin, 14 December 1886. Moscow.

1 Written in Moscow on 14 December 1886 to Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, the publisher of the humor magazine "Oskolki" ("Splinters") and Chekhov’s principal editor of the mid-1880s. Chekhov reports sending a story and a short piece to meet his weekly deadline, passes along news of his brother Nikolai (a painter) and the landscape painter Isaac Levitan both working on illustrations for Leikin, mentions a visit to an unnamed acquaintance he calls "the pagan god," nudges Leikin about advertising his recently published book, and asks after a Christmas ("святочный") story Leikin may not need since another contributor, "Yusha," has already supplied one.

2 A characteristic specimen of the brisk, joking, business-mixed-with-banter correspondence Chekhov kept up with Leikin throughout his years writing for "Oskolki" and "Peterburgskaya Gazeta." The letter mixes trade talk (deadlines, illustrators, advertising for his book) with private jokes and nicknames whose full referents are now obscure, plus closing family greetings and a stray remark about breeding dogs – the everyday texture of a working freelance writer’s life in December 1886, on the eve of the period that would bring "Ivan Matveyich" and the mature stories of 1887.