Book 2 Chapter 9 The Land Settlement

It was morning before Nekhludoff could fall asleep, and therefore
he woke up late. At noon seven men, chosen from among the
peasants at the foreman's invitation, came into the orchard,
where the foreman had arranged a table and benches by digging
posts into the ground, and fixing boards on the top, under the
apple trees. It took some time before the peasants could be
persuaded to put on their caps and to sit down on the benches.
Especially firm was the ex-soldier, who to-day had bark shoes on.
He stood erect, holding his cap as they do at funerals, according
to military regulation. When one of them, a respectable-looking,
broad-shouldered old man, with a curly, grizzly beard like that
of Michael Angelo's "Moses," and grey hair that curled round the
brown, bald forehead, put on his big cap, and, wrapping his coat
round him, got in behind the table and sat down, the rest
followed his example. When all had taken their places Nekhludoff
sat down opposite them, and leaning on the table over the paper
on which he had drawn up his project, he began explaining it.

Whether it was that there were fewer present, or that he was
occupied with the business in hand and not with himself, anyhow,
this time Nekhludoff felt no confusion. He involuntarily
addressed the broad-shouldered old man with white ringlets in his
grizzly beard, expecting approbation or objections from him. But
Nekhludoff's conjecture was wrong. The respectable-looking old
patriarch, though he nodded his handsome head approvingly or
shook it, and frowned when the others raised an objection,
evidently understood with great difficulty, and only when the
others repeated what Nekhludoff had said in their own words. A
little, almost beardless old fellow, blind in one eye, who sat by
the side of the patriarch, and had a patched nankeen coat and old
boots on, and, as Nekhludoff found out later, was an
oven-builder, understood much better. This man moved his brows
quickly, attending to Nekhludoff's words with an effort, and at
once repeated them in his own way. An old, thick-set man with a
white beard and intelligent eyes understood as quickly, and took
every opportunity to put in an ironical joke, clearly wishing to
show off. The ex-soldier seemed also to understand matters, but
got mixed, being used to senseless soldiers' talk. A tall man
with a small beard, a long nose, and a bass voice, who wore
clean, home-made clothes and new bark-plaited shoes, seemed to be
the one most seriously interested. This man spoke only when there
was need of it. The two other old men, the same toothless one who
had shouted a distinct refusal at the meeting the day before to
every proposal of Nekhludoff's, and a tall, white lame old man
with a kind face, his thin legs tightly wrapped round with strips
of linen, said little, though they listened attentively. First of
all Nekhludoff explained his views in regard to personal property
in land. "The land, according to my idea, can neither be bought
nor sold, because if it could be, he who has got the money could
buy it all, and exact anything he liked for the use of the land
from those who have none."