Book 2 Chapter 4 The Peasants Lot

When Nekhludoff came out of the gate he met the girl with the
long earrings on the well-trodden path that lay across the
pasture ground, overgrown with dock and plantain leaves. She had
a long, brightly-coloured apron on, and was quickly swinging her
left arm in front of herself as she stepped briskly with her fat,
bare feet. With her right arm she was pressing a fowl to her
stomach. The fowl, with red comb shaking, seemed perfectly calm;
he only rolled up his eyes and stretched out and drew in one
black leg, clawing the girl's apron. When the girl came nearer to
"the master," she began moving more slowly, and her run changed
into a walk. When she came up to him she stopped, and, after a
backward jerk with her head, bowed to him; and only when he had
passed did she recommence to run homeward with the cock. As he
went down towards the well, he met an old woman, who had a coarse
dirty blouse on, carrying two pails full of water, that hung on a
yoke across her bent back. The old woman carefully put down the
pails and bowed, with the same backward jerk of her head.

After passing the well Nekhludoff entered the village. It was a
bright, hot day, and oppressive, though only ten o'clock. At
intervals the sun was hidden by the gathering clouds. An
unpleasant, sharp smell of manure filled the air in the street.
It came from carts going up the hillside, but chiefly from the
disturbed manure heaps in the yards of the huts, by the open
gates of which Nekhludoff had to pass. The peasants, barefooted,
their shirts and trousers soiled with manure, turned to look at
the tall, stout gentleman with the glossy silk ribbon on his grey
hat who was walking up the village street, touching the ground
every other step with a shiny, bright-knobbed walking-stick. The
peasants returning from the fields at a trot and jotting in their
empty carts, took off their hats, and, in their surprise,
followed with their eyes the extraordinary man who was walking up
their street. The women came out of the gates or stood in the
porches of their huts, pointing him out to each other and gazing
at him as he passed.