Semén. Ploughing? I would do it this minute. Mowing and ploughing is not so easily forgotten.
First Peasant. After the city life you will not, for example, have the patience.
Semén. One can live well in the village, too.
First Peasant. Now here is Uncle Mítri, and he is covetous of your delicate life.
Semén. Uncle Mítri, you would get tired of it. It looks easy, but there is a great deal of running about. One gets all mixed up.
Cook. Uncle Mítri, you ought just to see their balls,—you would be surprised!
Third Peasant. Why, do they eat all the time?
Cook. No! You ought to have seen it! Fédor Iványch took me to see it. When I looked, I got scared. Oh, how they were fitted out! You never saw the like! Naked down to here, and their arms bare.
Third Peasant. O Lord!
Second Peasant. Fie, what nastiness!
First Peasant. The climate, so to speak, permits it.
Cook. So, uncle, I looked at them, and I saw they were all of them naked. Would you believe it, the old ones—even our lady who has grandchildren—were bare, too.
Second Peasant. O Lord!
Cook. What do you think? When the music struck up, and they began to play, the gentlemen came up and embraced the ladies and began to whirl around.
Second Peasant. The old women, too?
Cook. The old women, too.
Semén. No, the old women remain sitting.
Cook. What are you saying? I saw them myself.
Semén. I tell you, no.
Old Cook (sticking his head out, in a hoarse voice). This is the polka-mazurka. Oh, you fool, you don't know anything that's the way they dance—
Cook. You, dancer, keep quiet! Somebody is coming.
