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Arriving for dinner at the village, and leaving his horse at the

cottage of an old friend of his, the husband of his brother's

wet-nurse, Levin went to see the old man in his bee-house,

wanting to find out from him the truth about the hay. Parmenitch,

a talkative, comely old man, gave Levin a very warm welcome,

showed him all he was doing, told him everything about his bees

and the swarms of that year; but gave vague and unwilling answers

to Levin's inquiries about the mowing. This confirmed Levin still

more in his suspicions. He went to the hay fields and examined

the stacks. The haystacks could not possibly contain fifty

wagon-loads each, and to convict the peasants Levin ordered the

wagons that had carried the hay to be brought up directly, to

lift one stack, and carry it into the barn. There turned out to

be only thirty-two loads in the stack.