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It was only hard work when he had to break off the motion, which

had become unconscious, and to think; when he had to mow round a

hillock or a tuft of sorrel. The old man did this easily. When a

hillock came he changed his action, and at one time with the

heel, and at another with the tip of his scythe, clipped the

hillock round both sides with short strokes. And while he did

this he kept looking about and watching what came into his view:

at one moment he picked a wild berry and ate it or offered it to

Levin, then he flung away a twig with the blade of the scythe,

then he looked at a quail's nest, from which the bird flew just

under the scythe, or caught a snake that crossed his path, and

lifting it on the scythe as though on a fork showed it to Levin

and threw it away.