This story begins with the complaints of Foma Grigoryevich to those listeners who try to elicit from him “a yaku insured Kazochka”, and then tremble under the covers all night. Then, however, he proceeds to the story of what happened to his grandfather, whom the noble hetman sent with some kind of letter to the queen. Grandfather, having said goodbye to his wife and small children, was already in the morning in Konotop, where a fair had happened about that time. Grandfather with a diploma sewn into a hat went to look for flint and tobacco, and met a Cossack little girl, and such a “binge started” between them that his grandfather soon forgot about his business. Bored soon by the fair, they went further along with another stoop who had pestered them.

Zaporozhets, having been treating friends with outlandish stories all evening, fell silent by night, froze and finally revealed that he had sold his soul to the unclean, and this night the term of reckoning. Grandfather promised not to sleep at night to help the Cossacks. Everything was shrouded in darkness, and travelers were forced to stop in the nearest bus, where everything was already asleep. Both grandfather's companions soon fell asleep, so he had to carry the guard alone. As he could, his grandfather struggled with a dream: he examined all the carts, and drove his horses, and lit a cradle - but nothing, and even the horns that seemed to him under a nearby cart, could cheer him up. He woke up late in the morning and didn’t find the Cossack, the horses disappeared, but, worst of all, the grandfather’s hat with the letter and money disappeared, which was exchanged yesterday by the grandfather and the Cossack for a while. And the devil scolded the grandfather, and asked for advice from the Chumaks who were in the shred - all to no avail. Thanks to the Shinkar, for five zloty he indicated to his grandfather where to find the devil in order to request his letter of return.

In the dead of night, my grandfather stepped into the forest and walked along the barely noticeable path indicated by the shinkar. As he warned, everything in the forest was knocking, for the gypsies, having come out of their burrows, forged iron. Having passed all the indicated signs, the grandfather went out to the fire, around which terrible faces sat. Sat and grandfather. They were silent for a long time, until my grandfather began at random to tell his own business. "Erysipelas and ears pointed, and paws extended." Grandfather threw all his money, the earth trembled, and he found himself almost in the heat. Witches, monsters, devils - all around danced "some damn trepak." Suddenly he found himself at a table choked with food, but all the pieces that he took fell into other people's mouths. An annoyed grandfather, forgetting fear, began to scold. Everyone laughed, and one of the witches invited him to play a fool three times: win - his hat, lose - and will not see the light of God. Both times he remained a bad grandfather, although in the second he himself handed over the cards and at first they were quite good. He guessed for the third time to slowly cross the cards under the table - and won. Having received a hat, his grandfather plundered and demanded his horse, threatening to cross the entire demonic assembly with the holy cross. Only horse bones thundered before him. His grandfather cried, but the devils gave him another horse that carried him through the dips and swamps, over the abysses and terrible steepness. Grandfather could not resist and broke, but woke up on the roof of his own hut, covered in blood, but whole. Frightened children rushed to him in the house, pointing to his mother that the sleeping woman was bouncing while sitting on a bench. Grandfather woke his wife, who dreamed sheer devilry, and, deciding to consecrate the hut soon, immediately went to the queen. There, having caught sight of wonders, he forgot for a while about the devil. Yes, it is evident, in revenge that he prevented the sanctuary from being consecrated, long after, “exactly every year, and at that very time,” his wife was dancing against her will.