Pining for her puritan home, she died early.

The father made a toy of his daughter till he too died in the fortified town of Kingston, on the northern shore of Lake Ontario.

No other relatives coming forward to assume his debts or to claim his child, their duty in the matter was clear to the minds of the Croom household, and the girl was sent for.
Her name was Susannah, but she herself gave it the softer form that she had been accustomed to hear; when she first entered the sitting-room of the grave Croom family trio, like a sunbeam striking suddenly through the clouds on a dark day, she held out her hand and her lips to each in turn, saying, "I am Susianne." That first time Ephraim kissed her.

It was done in surprise and embarrassed formality.

He knew, when the moment was past that his parents had perceived that Susannah needed more decorous training.