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_ The personal matter that absorbed Levin during his conversation
with his brother was this. Once in a previous year he had gone to
look at the mowing, and being made very angry by the bailiff he
had recourse to his favorite means for regaining his temper,--he
took a scythe from a peasant and began mowing.
He liked the work so much that he had several times tried his
hand at mowing since. He had cut the whole of the meadow in front
of his house, and this year ever since the early spring he had
cherished a plan for mowing for whole days together with the
peasants. Ever since his brother's arrival, he had been in doubt
whether to mow or not. He was loth to leave his brother alone all
day long, and he was afraid his brother would laugh at him about
it. But as he drove into the meadow, and recalled the sensations
of mowing, he came near deciding that he would go mowing. After
the irritating discussion with his brother, he pondered over this
intention again.
"I must have physical exercise, or my temper'll certainly be
ruined," he thought, and he determined he would go mowing,
however awkward he might feel about it with his brother or the
peasants.
Towards evening Konstantin Levin went to his counting-house, gave
directions as to the work to be done, and sent about the village
to summon the mowers for the morrow, to cut the hay in Kalinov
meadow, the largest and best of his grass lands.
"And send my scythe, please, to Tit, for him to set it, and bring
it round to-morrow. I shall maybe do some mowing myself too," he
said trying not to be embarrassed.
The bailiff smiled and said: "Yes, sir."
At tea the same evening Levin said to his brother:
"I fancy the fine weather will last. To-morrow I shall start
mowing."
"I'm so fond of that form of field labor," said Sergey
Ivanovitch.
"I'm awfully fond of it. I sometimes mow myself with the
peasants, and to-morrow I want to try mowing the whole day."
Sergey Ivanovitch lifted his head, and looked with interest at
his brother.
"How do you mean? Just like one of the peasants, all day long?"
"Yes, it's very pleasant," said Levin.
"It's splendid as exercise, only you'll hardly be able to stand
it," said Sergey Ivanovitch, without a shade of irony.
"I've tried it. It's hard work at first, but you get into it. I
dare say I shall manage to keep it up...."
"Really! what an idea! But tell me, how do the peasants look at
it? I suppose they laugh in their sleeves at their master's being
such a queer fish?"
"No, I don't think so; but it's so delightful, and at the same
time such hard work, that one has no time to think about it."
"But how will you do about dining with them? To send you a bottle
of Lafitte and roast turkey out there would be a little awkward."
"No, I'll simply come home at the time of their noonday rest."
Next morning Konstantin Levin got up earlier than usual, but he
was detained giving directions on the farm, and when he reached
the mowing-grass the mowers were already at their second row.
From the uplands he could get a view of the shaded cut part of
the meadow below, with its grayish ridges of cut grass, and the
black heaps of coats, taken off by the mowers at the place from
which they had started cutting.
Gradually, as he rode towards the meadow, the peasants came into
sight, some in coats, some in their shirts mowing, one behind
another in a long string, swinging their scythes differently He
counted forty-two of them.
They were mowing slowly over the uneven, low-lying parts of the
meadow, where there had been an old dam. Levin recognized some of
his own men. Here was old Yermil in a very long white smock,
bending forward to swing a scythe; there was a young fellow,
Vaska, who had been a coachman of Levin's, taking every row with
a wide sweep. Here, too, was Tit, Levin's preceptor in the art of
mowing, a thin little peasant. He was in front of all, and cut
his wide row without bending, as though playing with the scythe.
Levin got off his mare, and fastening her up by the roadside went
to meet Tit, who took a second scythe out of a bush and gave it
to him.
"It's ready, sir; it's like a razor, cuts of itself," said Tit,
taking off his cap with a smile and giving him the scythe.
Levin took the scythe, and began trying it. As they finished
their rows, the mowers, hot and good-humored, came out into the
road one after another, and, laughing a little, greeted the
master. They all stared at him, but no one made any remark, till
a tall old man, with a wrinkled, beardless face, wearing a short
sheepskin jacket, came out into the road and accosted him.
"Look'ee now, master, once take hold of the rope there's no
letting it go!" he said, and Levin heard smothered laughter among
the mowers.
"I'll try not to let it go," he said, taking his stand behind
Tit, and waiting for the time to begin.
"Mind'ee," repeated the old man.
Tit made room, and Levin started behind him. The grass was short
close to the road, and Levin, who had not done any mowing for a
long while, and was disconcerted by the eyes fastened upon him,
cut badly for the first moments, though he swung his scythe
vigorously. Behind him he heard voices:
"It's not set right; handle's too high; see how he has to stoop
to it," said one.
"Press more on the heel," said another.
"Never mind, he'll get on all right," the old man resumed.
"He's made a start.... You swing it too wide, you'll tire
yourself out.... The master, sure, does his best for himself! But
see the grass missed out! For such work us fellows would catch
it!"
The grass became softer, and Levin, listening without answering,
followed Tit, trying to do the best he could. They moved a
hundred paces. Tit kept moving on, without stopping, not showing
the slightest weariness, but Levin was already beginning to be
afraid he would not be able to keep it up: he was so tired.
He felt as he swung his scythe that he was at the very end of his
strength, and was making up his mind to ask Tit to stop. But at
that very moment Tit stopped of his own accord, and stooping down
picked up some grass, rubbed his scythe, and began whetting it.
Levin straightened himself, and drawing a deep breath looked
round. Behind him came a peasant, and he too was evidently tired,
for he stopped at once without waiting to mow up to Levin, and
began whetting his scythe. Tit sharpened his scythe and Levin's,
and they went on. The next time it was just the same. Tit moved
on with sweep after sweep of his scythe, not stopping or showing
signs of weariness. Levin followed him, trying not to get left
behind, and he found it harder and harder: the moment came when
he felt he had no strength left, but at that very moment Tit
stopped and whetted the scythes.
So they mowed the first row. And this long row seemed
particularly hard work to Levin; but when the end was reached and
Tit, shouldering his scythe, began with deliberate stride
returning on the tracks left by his heels in the cut grass, and
Levin walked back in the same way over the space he had cut, in
spite of the sweat that ran in streams over his face and fell in
drops down his nose, and drenched his back as though he had been
soaked in water, he felt very happy. What delighted him
particularly was that now he knew he would be able to hold out.
His pleasure was only disturbed by his row not being well cut. "I
will swing less with my arm and more with my whole body," he
thought, comparing Tit's row, which looked as if it had been cut
with a line, with his own unevenly and irregularly lying grass.
The first row, as Levin noticed, Tit had mowed specially quickly,
probably wishing to put his master to the test, and the row
happened to be a long one. The next rows were easier, but still
Levin had to strain every nerve not to drop behind the peasants.
He thought of nothing, wished for nothing, but not to be left
behind the peasants, and to do his work as well as possible. He
heard nothing but the swish of scythes, and saw before him Tit's
upright figure mowing away, the crescent-shaped curve of the cut
grass, the grass and flower heads slowly and rhythmically falling
before the blade of his scythe, and ahead of him the end of the
row, where would come the rest.
Suddenly, in the midst of his toil, without understanding what it
was or whence it came, he felt a pleasant sensation of chill on
his hot, moist shoulders. He glanced at the sky in the interval
for whetting the scythes. A heavy, lowering storm-cloud had blown
up, and big raindrops were falling. Some of the peasants went to
their coats and put them on; others --just like Levin himself--
merely shrugged their shoulders, enjoying the pleasant coolness
of it.
Another row, and yet another row, followed--long rows and short
rows, with good grass and with poor grass. Levin lost all sense
of time, and could not have told whether it was late or early
now. A change began to come over his work, which gave him immense
satisfaction. In the midst of his toil there were moments during
which he forgot what he was doing, and it came all easy to him,
and at those same moments his row was almost as smooth and well
cut as Tit's. But so soon as he recollected what he was doing,
and began trying to do better, he was at once conscious of all
the difficulty of his task, and the row was badly mown.
On finishing yet another row he would have gone back to the top
of the meadow again to begin the next, but Tit stopped, and going
up to the old man said something in a low voice to him. They both
looked at
the sun. "What are they talking about, and why doesn't he go
back?" thought Levin, not guessing that the peasants had been
mowing no less than four hours without stopping, and it was time
for their lunch.
"Lunch, sir," said the old man.
"Is it really time? That's right; lunch, then."
Levin gave his scythe to Tit, and together with the peasants, who
were crossing the long stretch of mown grass, slightly sprinkled
with rain, to get their bread from the heap of coats, he went
towards his house. Only then he suddenly awoke to the fact that
he had been wrong about the weather and the rain was drenching
his hay.
"The hay will be spoiled," he said.
"Not a bit of it, sir; mow in the rain, and you'll rake in fine
weather!" said the old man.
Levin untied his horse and rode home to his coffee. Sergey
Ivanovitch was only just getting up. When he had drunk his
coffee, Levin rode back again to the mowing before Sergey
Ivanovitch had had time to dress and come down to the
dining-room. _
Read next: Part Three: Chapter 5
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