but when a rheumatic fever came on, one hard winter,
and finally settled in his limbs, reducing the most active and hardy
man in the parish to the state of a confirmed cripple, then his reckless
improvidence stared him in the face; and poor Jack, a thoughtless,
but kind creature, and a most affectionate father, looked at his three
motherless children with the acute misery of a parent who has brought
those whom he loves best in the world to abject destitution. He found
help, where he probably least expected it, in the sense and spirit of
his young daughter, a girl of twelve years old.

Hannah was the eldest of the family, and had, ever since her mother's
death, which event had occurred two or three years before, been
accustomed to take the direction of their domestic concerns, to manage
her two brothers, to feed the pigs and the poultry, and to keep house
during the almost constant absence of her father. She was a quick,
clever lass, of a high spirit, a firm temper, some pride, and a horror
of accepting parochial relief, which is every day becoming rarer amongst
the peasantry; but which forms the surest safeguard to the sturdy
independence of the English character. Our little damsel possessed this
quality in perfection; and when her father talked of giving up their
comfortable cottage, and removing to the workhouse, whilst she and
her brothers must go to service, Hannah formed a bold resolution, and
without disturbing the sick man by any participation of her hopes and
fears, proceeded after settling their trifling affairs to act at once on
her own plans and designs.

Careless of the future as the poor drover had seemed, he had yet kept
clear of debt, and by subscribing constantly to a benefit club, had
secured a pittance that might at least assist in supporting him during
the long years of sickness and helplessness to which he was doomed to
look forward. This his daughter knew. She knew also, that the employer
in whose service his health had suffered so severely, was a rich and
liberal cattle-dealer in the neighbourhood, who would willingly aid an
old and faithful servant, and had, indeed, come forward with offers of
money. To assistance from such a quarter Hannah saw no objection. Farmer
Oakley and the parish were quite distinct things. Of him, accordingly,
she asked, not money, but something much more in his own way--'a cow!
any cow! old or lame, or what not, so that it were a cow! she would be
bound to keep it well;