is to say, it was not long before Tientietnikov noticed that on
the manorial lands, nothing prospered to the extent that it did on the
peasants'. The manorial crops were sown in good time, and came up well,
and every one appeared to work his best, so much so that Tientietnikov,
who supervised the whole, frequently ordered mugs of vodka to be served
out as a reward for the excellence of the labour performed. Yet the rye
on the peasants' land had formed into ear, and the oats had begun to
shoot their grain, and the millet had filled before, on the manorial
lands, the corn had so much as grown to stalk, or the ears had sprouted
in embryo. In short, gradually the barin realised that, in spite of
favours conferred, the peasants were playing the rogue with him. Next he
resorted to remonstrance, but was met with the reply, "How could we not
do our best for our barin? You yourself saw how well we laboured at the
ploughing and the sowing, for you gave us mugs of vodka for our pains."

"Then why have things turned out so badly?" the barin persisted.

"Who can say? It must be that a grub has eaten the crop from below.
Besides, what a summer has it been--never a drop of rain!"

Nevertheless, the barin noted that no grub had eaten the PEASANTS'
crops, as well as that the rain had fallen in the most curious
fashion--namely, in patches. It had obliged the muzhiks, but had shed a
mere sprinkling for the barin.

Still more difficult did he find it to deal with the peasant women.
Ever and anon they would beg to be excused from work, or start making
complaints of the severity of the barstchina. Indeed, they were terrible
folk! However, Tientietnikov abolished the majority of the tithes of
linen, hedge fruit, mushrooms, and nuts, and also reduced by one-half
other tasks proper to the women, in the hope that they would devote
their spare time to their own domestic concerns--namely, to sewing and
mending, and to making clothes for their husbands, and to increasing
the area of their kitchen gardens. Yet no such result came about. On the
contrary, such a pitch did the idleness, the quarrelsomeness, and the
intriguing and caballing of the fair sex attain that their helpmeets
were for ever coming to the barin with a request that he would rid one
or another of his wife, since she had become a nuisance, and to live
with her was impossible.

Next, hardening his heart, the barin attempted severity. But of what
avail was severity? The peasant wo