Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchApril 15.And so, my dear friend, I am setting off on Wednesday or Thursdayat latest. Good-bye till December. Good luck in my absence. Ireceived the money, thank you very much, though fifteen hundredroubles is a great deal; I don’t know where to put it …. I feel asthough I were preparing for the battlefield, though I see no dangersbefore me but toothache, which I am sure to have on the journey.As I am provided with nothing in the way of papers but a passport,I may have unpleasant encounters with the authorities, but that is apassing trouble. If they refuse to show me something, I shall simplywrite in my book that they wouldn’t show it me, and that’s all, andI won’t worry. In case I am drowned or anything of that sort, youmight keep it in mind that all I have or may have in the futurebelongs to my sister; she will pay my debts.I am taking my mother with me and putting her down at theTroitsky Monastery; I am taking my sister too, and leaving her atKostroma. I am telling them I shall be back in September.I shall go over the university in Tomsk. As the only faculty there ismedicine I shall not show myself an ignoramus.I have bought myself a fur coat, an officer’s waterproof leathercoat, big boots, and a big knife for cutting sausage and huntingtigers. I am equipped from head to foot.136