obliged to use his energies to the utmost, otherwise he would not have wherewithal to pay his laborers,—and they insisted on working lazily and comfortably, in other words, as they had always done.
It was for his interests that every laborer should do his very best; above all, should strive not to break the winnowing-machines, the horse-rakes, the threshing-machines, so that he might accomplish what he was doing.
But the laborer wanted to do his work as easily as possible, with long breathing-spaces, with plenty of time for resting, and—what was more—without being bothered to think.
This year Levin had this experience at every step. He sent men to mow the clover-fields, selecting the poorer portions to be done first, where the intermixture of grass and wormwood made the crop unfit for seed; and they mowed his best fields,—those reserved for seed,—justifying themselves by saying that they had done what the overseer ordered, and trying to console him with the assurance that it would make splen- did fodder. But he knew that they did this because these fields were the easiest ones to mow.
He sent out the hay-making machine, but the muzhiks broke it on the first few rows because the driver, sitting on the box-seat, disliked having the arms of the machine waving over his head; and they tried to console him by saying:—
"Oh, it's all right; the women will do the work easy enough."
The new plows were condemned as good for nothing, because the muzhik did not think to raise the blade on turning a corner, but wrenched it round through the soil, thus tearing up the land and straining the horses. And here again they urged Levin to have patience with them.
The horses strayed into the wheat, for the reason that no one would act regularly as night watchman, the muzhiks, in spite of strict orders to the contrary, insisting on taking the duty in turns; and Vanka, who
