Indeed, he went to his writing-desk then and there, and started to indite a list which gave not only the peasants' names, but also their late qualifications.
Meanwhile Chichikov, having nothing else to do, stood looking at the spacious form of his host; and as he gazed at his back as broad as that of a cart horse, and at the legs as massive as the iron standards which adorn a street, he could not help inwardly ejaculating: "Truly God has endowed you with much! Though not adjusted with nicety, at least you are strongly built.

I wonder whether you were born a bear or whether you have come to it through your rustic life, with its tilling of crops and its trading with peasants?
Yet no; I believe that, even if you had received a fashionable education, and had mixed with society, and had lived in St.Petersburg, you would still have been just the kulak [26] that you are.

The only difference is that circumstances, as they stand, permit of your polishing off a stuffed shoulder of mutton at a meal; whereas in St.Petersburg you would have been unable to do so.

Also, as circumstances stand, you have under you a number of peasants, whom you treat well for the reason that they are your property; whereas, otherwise, you would have had under you tchinovniks [27]: whom you would have bullied because they were NOT your property.
Also, you would have robbed the Treasury, since a kulak always remains a money-grubber." "The list is ready," said Sobakevitch, turning round.
"Indeed?
Then please let me look at it." Chichikov ran his eye over the document, and could not but marvel at its neatness and accuracy.

Not only were there set forth in it the trade, the age, and the pedigree of every serf, but on the margin of the sheet were jotted remarks concerning each serf's conduct and sobriety.