Chapter Four
In Which I Am Taken into The Bosom of a New Family in Several Ways.
After the incident with the parson's wife, I am afraid my parents were uncharitably eager to rid themselves of me. They sent me to live with my aunt Molly, who had a small farm a day's ride to the south. My mother's brother, Molly’s husband, had been thrown from his horse and killed several years earlier. Aunt Molly lived alone with her two daughters, Emily, who had eighteen years, and Rebecca, who had nineteen. As a young man of eighteen, I would be the man of the household, although I was by no means happy to assume such responsibilities. I knew I would work from dawn to dusk to earn my keep.
I had not seen my aunt and her daughters since the funeral, when I was only twelve and had as yet no eye for beaut
