Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO A. S. SUVORIN.SUMY, August 29, 1888.… When as a boy I used to stay at my grandfather’s on CountPlatov’s estate, I had to sit from sunrise to sunset by the thrashingmachine and write down the number of poods and pounds of cornthat had been thrashed; the whistling, the hissing, and the bass note,like the sound of a whirling top, that the machine makes at fullspeed, the creaking of the wheels, the lazy tread of the oxen, theclouds of dust, the grimy, perspiring faces of some three score ofmen—all this has stamped itself upon my memory like the Lord’sPrayer. And now, too, I have been spending hours at the thrashingand felt intensely happy. When the thrashing engine is at work itlooks as though alive; it has a cunning, playful expression, while themen and oxen look like machines. In the district of Mirgorod fewhave thrashing machines of their own, but everyone can hire one.The engine goes about the whole province drawn by six oxen andoffers itself to all who can pay for it.90