Page 337 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 13

Levin put on his big boots, and, for the first time, a
cloth jacket, instead of his fur cloak, and went out to look
after his farm, stepping over streams of water that flashed
in the sunshine and dazzled his eyes, and treading one
minute on ice and the next into sticky mud.
Spring is the time of plans and projects. And, as he
came out into the farmyard, Levin, like a tree in spring
that knows not what form will be taken by the young
shoots and twigs imprisoned in its swelling buds, hardly
knew what undertakings he was going to begin upon now
in the farm work that was so dear to him. But he felt that
he was full of the most splendid plans and projects. First of
all he went to the cattle. The cows had been let out into
their paddock, and their smooth sides were already shining
with their new, sleek, spring coats; they basked in the
sunshine and lowed to go to the meadow. Levin gazed
admiringly at the cows he knew so intimately to the
minutest detail of their condition, and gave orders for
them to be driven out into the meadow, and the calves to
be let into the paddock. The herdsman ran gaily to get
ready for the meadow. The cowherd girls, picking up

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