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p. 4 [Note: Numbering here begins with 2, so 'Visagras Atminas' must have been the unnumbered number 1.]
2. Pre-school.
After the pastor examined me, I was sent to a summer school'.a pre-school, with a young teacher, to begin learning. I
remember that it was during the summer, and that a number of older pupils came there; now I only recall that the Debulis's
daughter was there, the young farmer Drebulis's [?] sister. The sun shined brightly, and I, seated by the open window, put
my head on my hands and fell asleep. I was awakened by the teacher's voice: I should bring a pillow along next time. That
is all that I remember, and I think that I was taken out of school and sent to be a swineherd. It may also be that the others
went away to prepare for confirmation, since the pastor's estate was near Aizpute, ten versts (six to seven miles) away.
3. Going to Suveni.
There were two Suvens' houses: Martin's and Peter's. Our relatives, the Tomsevicses, lived in the first; the Zemaraji,
in the second. I learned of the relationship not long ago, and am still trying to fill in the details. It turns out that my
father's, Adam's, mother (whose name I still haven't determined) was the daughter of the farmer at Suveni [or the farmer named
Suvens?], and the sister of the farmer at Martin-Suveni; thus my father and the man at Martin- Suveni were the children of
the brother and sister: 'kozini'; as they called them. That's why our relations were close, even though the
houses were away from each other. The Suvenu house was one of five houses rented by the pastor: rent was paid, not to
the state, but to the pastor, as his salary. The others were Vitkupi, two Eglenieki houses, and Vangravi; though it may be
that it wasn't Vangravi, but the other Suveni. In later years people tried to call the Suvenu houses by more polite, modern
terms: siveni, which I couldn't pronounce. [What on earth is he talking about? siveni, with a long e, means 'swine']
The walk there went along a path across the avenue to the Muizaraju threshing barn, then on the road to the meadow; then
further, along the edge of the fields, turning through the meadow, across the Raudina (a small river;more precisely, a stream),
through a birch woods, past the animal barn into the farmyard.
On the right was a granary and behind that was the garden. The gooseberries and plums were the tastiest things there.
I don't know what my mother did there-I was only interested in the garden, and a little afraid of the bees there. Going by
the pasture I was endlessly pleased by the [bezdeli';gas actin'a'm un kak'u pe'din' a 'm = ?]; along the Raudin'a stream there
were [govjporni /tagad- pureness = ?] , and in the birch-wood there were [bul'l';pauti ari bul'l'porni /purni/ = ?] and the
blue-and- yellow [ja'n'uza'le = ?].
My oldest brother, Fricis, told me that when he had been a boy of 13 or 14, he had been helping work at Suveni during
the plowing. No matter how hard he tried, the plow kept jumping out of the {vaga} [= furrow?], plaguing him to the point of
tears. When he had felt sorry for himself, the other workers laughed at him- 'a new plowboy', they said. Later it turned out
that the end-part of the [lemes'a = ?] had been open, and wasn't usable for plowing. Later, when Fricis was living in Liepaja
and worked in a factory, he came out for a visit and, of course, came to Suveni as well, trudging along the muddy main road-we
didn't have a horse ourselves, and the Kalnieki farmstead was still being rented out to the Muiz'ara'ji.
4. To the K'ikuru smithy
A blacksmith lived there, Pl'a've'js (I don't know why he also had the name En'g'elis, because there was a second blacksmith
named En'g'elis who had two sons; Z'anis had a workshop in Aizpute, not far from the Laz'a parish house), a relative on my
mother's side of the family. The way there is clear in my memory for two reasons. First, the blacksmith's wife treated me
to {karusas} boiled in milk, which had been caught in the lake there or in a feeder stream of the Raudin'a. She solemnly [?
latv. 'gauz'am'] warned me about the bones, since the {karusa} has plenty of them, and sharp ones at that. But they were so
delicious that I can still taste them in my mouth. The second memory is the swimming. In the lake, partway below the K'ikuru
estate garden, was a {laipa} from which we swam. Once I waded in too deep, and it seems I swallowed some water, so I thrashed
[paddled? -k'epurojos] around in great excitement, but couldn't reach the bottom of the lake with my feet. I just remember
that Ernests Pl'a've'js waded out, got hold of me, and pulled me to shore. It was lucky, since my screaming [latv. nobli's
= ?] was great enough to stay in my memory for life. The other brother, Z'anis, swam in the deep part of the lake as well,
as he was a good swimmer. I will have to tell more about these two, and will do so later on. The way to K'ikuri was on the
same path as we took going to Suveni up to the {laipa} over the Raudin'a and beyond along the edge of the Suveni fields until
we reached the smithy, alongside the main road and the lake.
5. If I'm telling about that place, then I should also tell about going with my playmates to the Raudin'a and the Raudin'a
{slu'z'a'm} .You could see them from the garden and {gatve} of the Kalnieki farmstead. I remember it as if it were today;
it was April 1st by the old calendar, and a sunny day. We were all barefooted.... (end of p. 4)
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