Page 753 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 30

At the end of September the timber had been carted for
building the cattleyard on the land that had been allotted
to the association of peasants, and the butter from the
cows was sold and the profits divided. In practice the
system worked capitally, or, at least, so it seemed to Levin.
In order to work out the whole subject theoretically and
to complete his book, which, in Levin’s daydreams, was
not merely to effect a revolution in political economy, but
to annihilate that science entirely and to lay the foundation
of a new science of the relation of the people to the soil,
all that was left to do was to make a tour abroad, and to
study on the spot all that had been done in the same
direction, and to collect conclusive evidence that all that
had been done there was not what was wanted. Levin was
only waiting for the delivery of his wheat to receive the
money for it and go abroad. But the rains began,
preventing the harvesting of the corn and potatoes left in
the fields, and putting a stop to all work, even to the
delivery of the wheat.
The mud was impassable along the roads; two mills
were carried away, and the weather got worse and worse.

752 of 1759