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CHAPTER V.

AN ONLY DAUGHTER

are few conditions of life more abounding both in responsibilities and temptations than that of an only daughter, called at an early age, by the death of her mother, to take that mother's vacant place and superintend her father's house. She has to be his earthly consoler, his duteous child, and the careful manager of his domestic affairs, just after they have been wrecked or shattered by a heavy blow. It must be her study to prevent her father from having to mourn over a ruined home, as well as a departed wife.

"Poor thing! she has lost her mother when she needed her care most," is the frequent remark when a young maiden is thus left,—left, just as childhood is merging into womanhood, and all the varied difficulties, mistakes, and peculiar trials of youth have to be encountered by the motherless girl. Every feeling heart must be interested in one so situated;