Bazarov is out of doors before anyone else, and his first thought is that this is not much of a place to look at. When Nikolai apportioned land to the peasants he kept four naked desiatins for the house, the servants' quarters, and a homestead. The young trees have failed, the pond holds little water, and the wells taste brackish. Lilacs and acacias are what grew. Bazarov walks the paths, the stables, and the sheds, then takes two household boys to a marsh to catch frogs. One asks what he wants them for. To make them useful, he says. He likes to open them and see what the insides are doing. You and I are frogs too, except that we walk on our hind legs. If the boy falls ill and Bazarov has to treat him, he might avoid some mistakes. Vasika, seven and barefoot, does not like frogs. Bazarov sends his young philosophers into the water.
On the terrace a tea-urn simmers under the awning. A maid announces that Theodosia Nikolaevna is not well enough for breakfast. Nikolai says he will pour the tea himself. Arkady lowers his eyes and asks whether Thenichka is staying away because he is here. The question begins like a lecture he is nervous to give. By the end his own voice has steadied him. He will not summon his father to judgment. If she was asked to live here, she has deserved it. Nikolai thanks him faintly, fingers on his forehead, and admits she might feel embarrassed on the day after the arrival. Arkady springs up to go and tell her she need not shun him. He does not wait for the warning. He comes back kind, triumphant. He has made her acquaintance. She will appear later. And why was he not told he had a little brother? He has already kissed the child. He falls on his father's neck. Paul steps out behind them, elegant even in a morning suit and a small fez, and neither father nor son is sorry to be interrupted.
Paul butters a piece of bread and asks what Bazarov is. A Nihilist, Arkady says, smiling. Nikolai repeats the word. Paul stops the knife, a morsel of butter still on the blade. A man who accepts nothing, the father guesses, from the Latin for nothing. A man who respects nothing, the uncle hazards. Arkady corrects them. A Nihilist will not bow to authority or take a principle on trust, however sanctified it may be. Paul says their generation cannot take a step or draw a breath without principles, wishes these messieurs a general's rank, and asks how they mean to exist in an airless void. He wants his cocoa. Thenichka brings it herself: twenty-three, pale, dark eyes, a clean cotton gown and a new blue kerchief. She sets the cup down shyly, sorry she came, and also sure she has a right to stand at that table. Paul frowns. Nikolai is confused. She goes out with her slightly careless step. Across the flowerbeds comes Bazarov, mud on his linen, a scrap of marshweed on his old round hat, a small bag stirring in his hand. Not leeches. Frogs, for experiment. Paul says, so, he vivisects them. So, he believes in frogs more than in principles. Arkady gives him a reproachful look. Nikolai shrugs. Paul feels the remark was out of place and turns the talk towards the estate and the new steward. The bag is already inside the house.
