Thus the house stood in a most lonely, secluded spot, with
only the chimney and the top of the roof visible to the people of the
neighborhood.
Here Peter Jerrold lived with his daughter Hannah, who was now nearly
fifteen, and who had kept his house since her mother's death, which
occurred when she was twelve years old.
Bright, unselfish, and very pretty, Hannah was a general favorite with
the people of Allington and many were the merry-makings and frolics held
at the old farm-house by her young friends. But these were suddenly
brought to an end by a fearful sickness which came upon Hannah, and,
which transformed her from the light-hearted, joyous girl of fifteen,
into a quiet, reserved, white-faced woman, who might have passed for
twenty-five, and whose hair at eighteen was beginning to turn gray. It
was the fever, the people said, and Hannah permitted them to think so,
though she knew that the cause lay behind the fever, and dated from the
awful night when Joel Rogers came into their kitchen, and asked for
shelter from the storm, which was readily granted him.
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