A Russian Proprietor

speak to you about," said Nekhliudof.

out. What cattle have I got? One mare and colt; and last autumn

why did you sell your heifer?"

I got to fe

straw for feeding th

anured, but my land's all clay.

clay? Then the land would give you grain, an

tock, so how am I go

dof to himself; and he actually was at his w

h on that which was manured well. No one like God," he added with a sigh. "Yes, and my stock are always dying off. Five years past I haven't had any luck with 'em. Last summer one heifer died; had to sell another, had

cow," said Nekhliudof, reddening, and fetching forth from his pocket a packet of crumpled bank-notes and untying it. "Buy you a cow at

ke the money, Nekhliudof laid it down on the end of th

said Churis, with his ordinary sm

times as she stood under the loft,

, went out into the entry, and called to Churis to follow him. The sight of the man w

er to help you, because I know that you are not lazy. You will work, a

untenance, as though the young man's assurance that he would come out all right had awakened all his opposition. "In my father's tim

d you b

f course, what could a single peasant do? Well, there wasn't no law or order. André? Ilyitch managed simply to suit himself. 'Take all you can get.' And whatever he could extort from a peasant, he took without asking. Then the poll-tax was raised, and they began to exact more provisions, and we had less and less land, and the grain stopped growing. Well, when the new allotment was made, then he took away from us our manured land, and added it to the master's, the villain, and ruined us entirely. He ought to have been hung. Your father[15]-the kingdom of heaven be his!-was a good bárin, but it was rarely enough that we ever had sight of him: he always lived in Moscow. Well, of course they used to drive the

ling akin to shame or remorse. He