“Early in the morning the whole sky was covered with rain clouds; it was quiet, not hot and boring, as happens on gray cloudy days, when clouds have long hung over the field, you wait for rain, but it doesn’t come. The veterinarian Ivan Ivanovich and the gymnasium teacher Burkin were already tired of walking, and the field seemed endless to them. Far ahead the windmills of the village of Mironositsky were barely visible, on the right a row of hills stretched and then disappeared far behind the village, and both of them knew that this was the bank of the river, there were meadows, green willows, estates, and if you stood on one of the hills, you could see from there the same huge field, a telegraph and a train, which from a distance looks like a crawling caterpillar, and in clear weather you can even see the city from there. Now, in calm weather, when all nature seemed meek and thoughtful, Ivan Ivanovich and Burkin were imbued with love for this field, and both thought about how great and how beautiful this country is...”