To A. I. Smagin, 30 January 1892. Moscow.

A short, ten-section letter, dated 30 January 1892, from Moscow, to Alexander Ivanovich Smagin – the same Poltava-province landowner and family friend addressed throughout the companion run of letters from 1891-92, through whom the Chekhov family was pursuing purchase of a small country property (the "khutor") in the south. This letter follows closely on (26 January 1892, also to Smagin), a genuine companion letter rather than a duplicate.

Content: Chekhov instructs Smagin not to give Yatsenko the deposit, since the uncertain state of affairs Smagin has described may yet lead them to buy a khutor elsewhere; he vents comic fury at Yatsenko, wishing he could seize his khutor and marry him off to three witches. He promises to enclose certain papers Smagin has requested if he can find them. He is glad of Smagin’s promise to visit Moscow in spring and urges him to come. He reports a health note: having lost patience with some ailment, he applied a fly-blister (a Spanish-fly plaster) to his right shoulder blade the day before and is much improved, able to bend, write, and move his head again. He announces he is leaving in two days for Voronezh province on famine-relief business, a hundred versts of it by horse, and asks for Smagin’s blessing. He closes by noting that his brother Misha is about to leave for the station and will carry this letter, then signs off with a wish for Smagin’s health and a whimsical invocation of "Ukrainian fairies."

Tone: brisk, warm, and half-comic throughout – mock rage at Yatsenko, a businesslike note on papers, genuine pleasure at the prospect of Smagin’s visit, a matter-of-fact health update, brief practical travel notice, and a fond, whimsical sign-off, consistent with the light, businesslike-but-warm register of the rest of the Smagin correspondence.