To Ya. A. Korneyev, 21–23 April 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow around 21 or 23 April 1888 – the exact day is uncertain – to Ya. A. Korneev, evidently a boy in the family’s circle of young acquaintances, this is one of Chekhov’s briefest and most playful notes, timed to the Easter holidays and their round of church observances and children’s amusements.

2 Chekhov offers a holiday greeting – congratulating Korneev and the other communicants on having taken communion – and reports that he and others are organizing "Olympic games" in the courtyard over the break, including a round of babki, the traditional game played by throwing weighted animal knucklebones at a target set. The note ends with a practical, faintly comic question: where such bones can be had, and whether lead-weighted ones ("svinchatki") are sold anywhere in Moscow.