To A. A. Dolzhenko, 14 May 1891. Aleksin.

A brief household-errand letter of 14 May 1891, from Aleksin, to Alyosha (Alexey Alexeyevich Dolzhenko), the nephew already established as (per the parallel greeting in source/headnote, and the same addressee as). dateline, header date, mock-formal salutation, the money-and-provisions errand, a numbered list of five books to fetch from the library (split by two bound/unbound groupings with a one-line aside between items 2 and 3), travel instructions for Ivan’s train connection, a greeting to "the rich auntie" with a teasing aside, a valediction, and signature.

Chekhov, away in Aleksin, notes he has asked Lidia Stakhievna to pass Alyosha ten rubles for incidental errands, and instructs him to give Ivan money for fresh cucumbers and cabbage if in season. He then lists five books to be fetched from his library for Ivan to bring: Maximov’s "Siberia and the Penal Colony" and Nikolsky’s "Tambov District" dissertation (both bound, on the shelf), then Nikolsky’s "The Island of Sakhalin and Its Fauna," Andrievsky’s "Speeches," and Gryaznov’s "Cherepovets District" dissertation (all three unbound, in the bedroom trunk) – Alyosha is to locate the unbound ones if he has time and hand them to Ivan. Chekhov adds detailed train instructions: Ivan must buy his ticket to Aleksin on the Kursk line for the midnight train, changing at Tula for the Kaluga-bound train, and may bring sprats if he wishes. He closes with respects to "the rich auntie," a joking aside about raiding her trunk if he were in Moscow, and a valediction.