At first, everything went well. Monsieur Heger wrote to me often. He was pleased（开心的） with my daughters, he said. They were good pupils（学生）. But life at home in Haworth was hard. My curate died, and Aunt Branwell became very ill（有病的）.

  Emily and Charlotte came home to see her, but she was dead（死的） before（ 在…之前） they arrived. She was a good woman, Elizabeth Branwell. She kept my home for more than twenty years, and she taught my daughters everything she knew. But she never liked Haworth, I am sure of that. She said it was a cold, miserable（痛苦的） place. I hope that God（神） has found somewhere（ 在某处） warm and comfortable（舒适的） for her now.

  But how could I live without her? My eyes were now very bad, and I could not see to read. And our servant（仆人）, Tabby, was older than I was. Anne could not help me. She was a governess for the Robinson family, and now Branwell had a job there, too, teaching their young son. So Charlotte went back to Brussels, alone（单独的）, this time as a teacher in Monsieur Eger's school.

  Emily stayed at home to cook and clean for me. She did not like Brussels, she said. She was happy to do the housework（ 家务劳动） and live at home with Tabby and me. She was a strange（陌生的）, quiet girl, Emily. She was the tallest of the girls, and in some ways she was as（ 像…一样） strong as（ 像…一样） a man. She loved to walk by herself（她自己） on the wild（野生的）, lonely（孤独的） moors（沼地） with her dog-keeper（看护人） running by her side.

  Sometimes I saw her there, singing（烧焦） or talking quietly（安静地） to herself（她自己）, and I thought perhaps（也许） she could see the people in her secret（秘密的） world of Gondal, and was talking to them. I know that she spent a lot of time writing alone in her room. And when Anne was at home, she and Emily often talked and wrote about the world of Gondal together. There were sometimes dangerous people near Haworth, so I always had a gun（枪） in the house. Before my eyes were bad, I taught Emily to shoot（发射）. She loved that.

  Sometimes I used to practice（练习） shooting（射击） in the garden while（正当…的时候） she was making bread in the kitchen. I shot first, then I called Emily. She came out, cleaned her hands, picked（ 拾起） up the gun（枪）, shot（发射） and went back in to finish the bread. She was much better at shooting than I was, but by 1844 my eyes were too bad for shooting.