The Lost Letter: A Tale Told by the Sexton of the N...Church

The Lost Letter (1831) is the fourth Ukrainian tale in the collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka by Nikolai Gogol. The story is told by an exhuberant narrator, the old sexton Foma, who will return with another story, A Bewitched Place, in the next volume. It was made into an animated film of the same name in 1945. The sexton humorously recounts the story about his grandfather's adventure in the Hell. Once, when his grandfather was given the task of delivering a letter to the Czarina (apparently Empress Elizabeth), he came upon a fair in Konotop where he met a Zaporozhian Cossack. They quickly become friends and drink each other's health. During their carousal, the Cossack reveals that he sold his soul to the devil and if he was any sort of true friend, he’d promise to stay up and watch over him during the current night in order for him to remain safe. The grandfather and his friends agree, riding on to a tavern. When they sit down to rest, the other Cossacks fall asleep,... full article at wikipedia