Below, enclosed within an ample dike, stretches a sheet of water which glistens like copper in the sunlight.

Beyond, on the side of a slope, lie some scattered peasants' huts, a manor house, and, flanking the latter, a village church with its cross flashing like a star.

There also comes wafted to your ear the sound of peasants' laughter, while in your inner man you are becoming conscious of an appetite which is not to be withstood.
Oh long-drawn highway, how excellent you are! How often have I in weariness and despondency set forth upon your length, and found in you salvation and rest! How often, as I followed your leading, have I been visited with wonderful thoughts and poetic dreams and curious, wild impressions! At this moment our friend Chichikov also was experiencing visions of a not wholly prosaic nature.

Let us peep into his soul and share them.
At first he remained unconscious of anything whatsoever, for he was too much engaged in making sure that he was really clear of the town; but as soon as he saw that it had completely disappeared, with its mills and factories and other urban appurtenances, and that even the steeples of the white stone churches had sunk below the horizon, he turned his attention to the road, and the town of N.vanished from his thoughts as completely as though he had not seen it since childhood.

Again, in its turn, the road ceased to interest him, and he began to close his eyes and to loll his head against the cushions.