Nastusia

Nastusia is Szymek Pacześ’s beloved and eventual wife, a young woman whose hopes for marriage are tested by the struggle over land and family authority. She does not remain a bystander when Szymek is denied a place in his mother’s household: she helps devise a way for them to establish a home independently, and later joins him in making that precarious beginning a shared life.

Identity and Introduction

Nastusia first emerges in village life as Szymek’s chosen partner. At a feast, he buys her amber beads, ribbons, and a red scarf. She puts them on immediately, and the two go from stall to stall with their arms around each other’s waists, delighted in one another and in the day. Their happiness stands out amid the same crowd in which Józka can only haggle over the small handful of money she has, while Jagusia wanders alone, subdued and detached from the festive bustle. The scene gives Nastusia a public presence as a bride-to-be, but also establishes the warmth and mutual pleasure that distinguish her bond with Szymek.

The marriage is approaching despite the opposition of Szymek’s mother, Dominikowa. When the banns are reported after Mass, village gossip immediately predicts another quarrel between mother and son. Nastusia herself says that the wedding is to take place in three weeks, before the harvest. Her answer is tender and intimate, but the timing is practical too: their marriage is tied to the urgent question of where they will live and how they will secure a livelihood.

Land, Conflict, and a Practical Plan

Dominikowa’s refusal to provide land or a settlement leaves Szymek facing expulsion and poverty. He fears that without a home he has nowhere to go, and his anger rises into a threat to resist even if resistance lands him in prison. Nastusia does not answer this crisis with a promise that the family dispute will be repaired. Instead, she draws her brother aside and proposes another route: buying six morgen from the squire at Podlesie and paying by instalments.

The proposal changes the terms of their predicament. Szymek has been relying on a claim to land from his mother, but that claim cannot give him security while she continues to deny it. Nastusia’s plan redirects their hopes toward a purchase they might make themselves. It does not remove the problem of money—the scheme is immediately met with the question of how they could afford it—but it gives the couple a course of action beyond pleading with Dominikowa or waiting for her to relent. Nastusia’s contribution is therefore both domestic and economic: she helps turn their marriage into a workable attempt at independent household life.

Marriage and the New Household

After the wedding, Szymek is determined that they should leave for their own place rather than remain longer in the cottage. He borrows a horse from Kłąb, loads their trunk, bedding, pots, and pans onto a cart, seats Nastusia with ceremony, and sets off with their kin walking alongside. The inventory is modest, but it marks a decisive separation: their household begins with the things they can carry, not with an inherited farmstead secured by Dominikowa.

The first sight of their new home brings no easy triumph. Left alone, Nastusia looks around the homestead and breaks into tears. Szymek is exhausted and drunk, and soon falls asleep on straw; she remains outside, crying as she looks toward the white walls of Lipce among the orchards. The scene makes the cost of independence visible. A home of their own is also an exposed beginning, with no guarantee that the new land or their limited possessions will sustain them.

Mutual Aid and a Fragile Beginning

Nastusia’s distress does not remain the household’s only condition. She cries more than once over their hardship, but less often as the village begins to help. Kłębowa arrives with a hen and a basket of chicks, and other women follow, visiting with something in hand. Their gifts are small, but they help the new household take root through repeated acts of practical assistance. Nastusia receives this help with deep gratitude, while one of the women answers that a kind word is enough repayment. Her new home is thus made not by property alone but also through the obligations and generosity of neighbors.

A cow later appears tied to a tree beside their dwelling, with clover laid in front of her. The animal’s arrival is unexplained: Nastusia checks whether anyone has lost it, asks around the village and at the manor, and is advised that it may be connected with a robbery and should be taken to the chancellery. She is reluctant to lose the unexpected source of milk, but the cow’s ownership remains uncertain. When Rocho tells her that the Lord Jesus has blessed an honest person in need, he gives the unexplained gift a religious meaning. The episode does not erase the material insecurity of Nastusia and Szymek’s household; it sharpens the contrast between their need and the sudden, almost providential help on which their survival depends.

Nastusia’s arc is defined by this combination of vulnerability and initiative. She is joyful beside Szymek at the fair, distressed when their new home leaves her alone with its uncertainty, and resourceful when she helps find a way out of dependence on Dominikowa. Her marriage does not resolve the village’s struggle over land or guarantee prosperity. Instead, her life shows how a couple excluded from an established household must assemble security from a plan, a few carried possessions, and the aid of neighbors.