and shouting to the women, and quickly setting straight the strap on the moving wheel. And what’s more, it’s not them alone — me they’ll bury too, and nothing will be left. What for?”

He thought this, and at the same time looked at his watch to reckon how much they thrashed in an hour. He wanted to know this so as to judge by it the task to set for the day.

“It’ll soon be one, and they’re only beginning the third sheaf,” thought Levin. He went up to the man that was feeding the machine, and shouting over the roar of the machine he told him to put it in more slowly. “You put in too much at a time, Fyodor. Do you see — it gets choked, that’s why it isn’t getting on. Do it evenly.”