The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1854-01-12
III. From Chambers's Journal.
TROUBLE-THE-HOUSE.
.AisLEGEND OF LIvoNIA.

iAiLEGEND OF LIvoNIA.
ONCE on time there lived in the pro-
vince of Livonia certain peasant, named
Peter Letski. Peter had no relation that
he knew of in this world but his mother
She and her husband came from Cour-
land long ago, when they were married
but the man died fve-and-twenty years
before the time of our story, and old Ros-
kin and her son lived on in the cabin oi
pine logs he had built on the lands of the
boyar Nicklewitz. The 'boyar took rank
with the high and ancient nobility of Rus
sia. His ancestors had fought against
the Mongols, and held Office under Ivan
the Terrible. They were said to have
been rich, but little of their wealth had
descended, for there was not a poorer es-
tate, nor more prudently supplied hot
in the province. Theodore Nicklewitz
sowed his own hemp and rye, moved his
meadows, and set a good example to the
reapers in harvest-time, while his wife and
two daughters brewed quass, baked rye
Iloaves, preserved everything, from cram
berries cayiare, against the winter, and
spun with their maids great packs of yarn
for sale to the eastern merchants.
In short, there was work for man and
maid at the hof; but the quass was always
strong, the holidays were well kept there,
and most of the peasants thought seat
in the great hall worth having, when the
snow was deep in Livonia. Somehow,
Peter and his mother preferred their old
cottage. 1t was built, as we have said, oi
= pine logs, out of which were cut the door
and window, the latter glazed, SO to speak
with a sheet of thin mica; the roof was
Of wattles, oyerlaid yard deep with turf
and clay, and as green as meadow in
summer. Their property, besides COW
and apatch of rye-ground, consisted o1
a loom, a stove, spinning wheel, and g
chest wherein were laid up the Sunday
clothes which Peters father had left him
and those which old Roskin inherited from
her mother. They were free peasants o.
the old Germanic race, long settled il
Courland. No boyar owned or maintain
ed them; but Roskin was noble spinner
and Peter had few equals at the spade
axe, or fail Of schools, Peter Letsk
know nothing; books he had never seen
!, except in church; and the only education
his mother gave him was; "My son, b,
honest, and trust in God'
e Under that brief but often-repeatet
lesson, Peter grew up one of the bes
sons In the province. 1t was his fxeC
opinion, that no woman on earth coulc
snequal his mother in knowledge, pru
a dence, and house-keeping-besides, sh,
had been friends, relations, and all to him
Though poor, they had been happy to
gether in the log cabin, whose rent, a
wellas that of the rye-feld, was paid il
hard work to the thrifty boyar. In sum
mer and harvest time, Peter was boun
to devote certain days to his fields; Ros
kin spun at the hof in winter evenings
while her son made baskets, nets, an,
fishing tackle, always getting as nea
as he could to the wheel turned b,
the pretty Niga, whose soft blue eyes an,
e light golden hair had turned the heads G
half the peasants in her neighborhood.-
Like Peter, Niga was an only child, bu
death had taken her mother. Her fathe
honest Ivan, as the peasants called him
:, was a stout old boor, who hewed wood i
y summer in the forest, and in winter at tn
hof; he and his axe belonged to the boy
ar. Nigga, of course, was born serf, bu
old Roskin said she would make goo
.swife. Peter thought SO too; and th
! t, wedding crowns of gift paper, kept in tn
nelghboring church, would have been re
quired but for 3 scheme of their commo
:.master. His old purse had died som