my eldest sister, who was about thirteen years of age, also fell sick the
morning before the funeral took place. When we returned from church, we
found that she had been obliged to go to bed, and the apothecary declared
that she also had taken the fever. My father was very much alarmed for the
consequences, and he now devoted his whole attention to the care of my
sister, and left me entirely to manage his business.

The servant soon got well, in spite, as it were, of herself; for having
heard the dogs howl very much one night, the circumstance made such an
impression upon her weak, fearful mind, that it was with the greatest
difficulty she could be persuaded that she was better. The howling of the
dogs she considered as a certain omen of her death, and she gave herself
up entirely to this ridiculous notion; nor could any thing short of a most
excellent constitution have saved her from falling a prey to her own
superstition. However, having been almost forced out of her bed, and
persuaded with difficulty to put on her cloaths, she soon found, to her
great astonishment, that she was as well as ever she was in her life, with
the exception of being a little languid from the effects of the fever. The
recovery of poor BETTY KITE was a great comfort to the whole family; for,
although she was one of the plainest women in the world, and also very
illiterate, and full of superstition, yet she was an unequalled servant
both as to cleanliness and work. I was a great plague to her in various
ways. She not being the best tempered woman in the world, I used to
irritate her very much, by imitating the howling of dogs; and the
complaints that she frequently made to my father of my conduct to her were
truly ridiculous.

My father was now left a widower, in the prime of life; (at least he
considered himself quite in the prime of life at the age of fifty-eight)
with six children, myself the least, three sisters and two brothers. With