“We shall send out three troikas to carry the mail. And there’s Ilyushka, he has been off with his team; but he’s just come back.”
“Well, is that profitable for you? How much do you earn that way?”
“What do you mean by profit, your excellency? We at least get enough to live on and bait our horses, thank God for that!”
“Then, why don’t you take hold of something else? You see, you might buy wood, or take more land.”
“Of course, your excellency: we might rent some land if there were any convenient.”
“I wish to make a proposition to you. Since you only make enough out of your teaming to live on, you had better take thirty desiatins of land from me. All that strip behind Sapof I will let you have, and you can carry on your farming better.”
And Nekhliudof, carried away by his plan for a peasant farm, which more than once he had proposed to himself, and deliberated about, began fluently to explain to the peasant his proposition about it.
Karp listened attentively to the prince’s words.
“We are very grateful for your kindness,” said he, when Nekhliudof stopped, and looked at him in expectation of his answer. “Of course here there’s nothing very bad. To occupy himself with farming is better for a peasant than to go off as a whip. He goes among strangers; he sees all sorts of men; he gets wild. It’s the very best thing for a peasant, to occupy himself with land.”
“You think so, do you?”
“As long as my father is alive, how can I think, your excellency? It’s as he wills.”