Publisher's Synopsis
Gogol writes about the students at Bratsky Monastery and their summer vacation. The disadvantaged students must find food and lodging on their long their journey home. They spy a farmstead, hoping its cottagers would provide for them.
A group of three, the kleptomaniacs, attracted by a false target of wheat fields suggesting a nearby village, must walk a longer distance before finally reaching the farm with two cottages, as night drew near. The old woman begrudgingly lodges the three travelers separately.
At night, the woman calls on Khoma, and begins grabbing at him. This is no amorous embrace; the flashy-eyed woman leaps on his back and the witch rides him like a horse. When she broom-whips him, his legs begin to motion beyond his control. He envisions himself galloping over the surface of a glass-mirror like sea: he sees his own reflection in it, and the grass grows deep underneath; he bears witness to a water-nymph.
By chanting prayers and exorcisms, he slows himself down, and his vision is back to seeing ordinary grass. He now throws off the witch, and rides on her back instead. He picks up a piece of log, and beats her. The woman collapses, and transforms into a beautiful girl with "long, pointy eyelashes".
Khoma wants to flee, but the rector is in league with the Cossack henchmen, who are already waiting with the kibitka wagon to transport him.
