3/19/2023 0 Comments Roll20 compendiumA man intattered clothes, crumpled hat, with bare feet and red stripesall over his face, detached himself from the crowd, and turnedtowards the prison.Īs they were speaking, the large iron door with a window in itopened, and an officer in uniform, followed by another warder,stepped out. Nekhludoff stepped aside from the waiting crowd. Everything the peasantsgot from the office they paid for in labour at a very high price.They paid in labour for the use of the meadows, for wood, forpotatostalks, and were nearly all of them in debt to the office.Thus, for the land that lay beyond the cultivated fields, whichthe peasants hired, four times the price that its value wouldbring in if invested at five per cent was taken from thepeasants. So that the peasants had to plough eachdesiatin three times, harrow it three times, sow and mow thecorn, make it into sheaves, and deliver it on the threshingground for five roubles, while the same amount of work done bywage labour came to at least 10 roubles. A sentinel was pacing up anddown in front of it, and shouted at any one who tried to passhim.įrom the office books and his talk with the foreman, Nekhludofffound that twothirds of the best of the cultivated land wasstill being tilled with improved machinery by labourers receivingfixed wages, while the other third was tilled by the peasants atthe rate of five roubles per desiatin about two andthreequarter acres. The huge brickbuilding, the prison proper, was just in front, and the visitorswere not allowed to come up to it. Several personsmen and womenmost of them carrying smallbundles, stood at this turning, about 100 steps from the prison.To the right there were several low wooden buildings to theleft, a twostoreyed house with a signboard. When the mass is over, you'll beadmitted." His fiancee wished it thislady was his fiancee, and her parents had advised them to takesome rolls to the prisoners. He came up toNekhludoff, and asked if and how he could give the rolls he hadbrought in alms to the prisoners. The goodnatured fellow told Nekhludoff the whole storyof his life, and was going to question him in turn, when theirattention was aroused by a student and a veiled lady, who droveup in a trap, with rubber tyres, drawn by a large thoroughbredhorse. This was the doorkeeper ofa bank he had come to see his brother, who was arrested forforgery. Next to Nekhludoff stooda cleanshaven, stout, and redcheeked man, holding a bundle,apparently containing undergarments. The visitors were, for the greaterpart, badlydressed people some were ragged, but there were alsosome respectablelooking men and women. When he got to his estate and setto work this unpleasant feeling vanished. But every now and then he had anunpleasant feeling, and, when he asked himself what it was causedby, he remembered what the driver had told him about the way theGerman was managing Kousminski. The fields were being ploughed, and Nekhludoffenjoyed the lovely day. Looking over the books in the office, and a talk with theforeman, who naively pointed out the advantages to be derivedfrom the facts that the peasants had very little land of theirown and that it lay in the midst of the landlord's fields, madeNekhludoff more than ever determined to leave off farming and tolet his land to the peasants.Ī dark cloud now and then covered the sun the larks were soaringabove the fields of winter corn the forests were already coveredwith fresh young green the meadows speckled with grazing cattleand horses. But he asked his steward tocall the peasants of the three neighbouring villages that lay inthe midst of his estate Kousminski to a meeting, at which hewould tell them of his intentions and arrange about the price atwhich they were to rent the land. Thereaping and selling of the corn he left for the steward to managein due season, and also the selling of the agriculturalimplements and useless buildings. He decided tosettle this business now, at once, while he was there. The steward's argumentsthat if the land were let to the peasants the agriculturalimplements would fetch next to nothing, as it would be impossibleto get even a quarter of their value for them, and that thepeasants would spoil the land, and how great a loser Nekhludoffwould be, only strengthened Nekhludoff in the opinion that he wasdoing a good action in letting the land to the peasants and thusdepriving himself of a large part of his income. Nekhludoff had known all this before, but he now saw it in a newlight, and wondered how he and others in his position could helpseeing how abnormal such conditions are. I myself am here for the first time," said Nekhludoff, "anddon't know but I think you had better ask this man," and hepointed to the warder with the gold cords and the book, sittingon the right.
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