About the book: year / "Polina did everything as Aunt Valya taught her. The night before Christmas, she applied water to the bathhouse herself, as follows from the conditions of the divination. She also heated the bathhouse herself and at twelve o’clock at night she entered it undressed. She filled a basin with hot water, dipped a new birch broom into it and said: “My betrothed, the mummer, come to me!” And so three times, each time she took out the broom and dipped it into hot water again. The third time, everything in the bathhouse began to rustle and hum, and the basin of water began to shake, rattling and splashing boiling water, as if it was terribly angry about something. The broom rose up and began making various pretzels right up to the ceiling....»