It may therefore be readily imagined that Anna
was for a time regarded with suspicion and jealousy, for the very
reason which ought to have commanded the sympathy and good-will of
her neighbours--'that she was a stranger in the land.' Her mode of
life perhaps increased the prejudice against her. Respecting the
reason of her voluntary exile, she preserved a studied silence;
though I afterwards learned that the persecution she endured from her
own family on the subject of religion was the principal cause. Our
village adjoined a populous manufacturing district, and Anna, having
been accustomed to such occupation, soon obtained employment. Being a
person of a peculiarly reserved and serious turn of mind, she could
not endure the thought of living in lodgings; and as she was not able
to furnish or pay the rent of a cottage, she hired for a trifling sum
an old lonely barn belonging to my father, who was a small farmer,
and, with the labour of her own hands, managed to put it into a
habitable condition.
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