Susan coolidge was the eldest of a family Of four girls and a boy. In their home at Newport, Rhode Island, she and her brother and sisters spent an ideally happy childhood. A great part of their hfe was passed out of doors; the grounds surrounding their house comprised meadow, orchard, and woodland, and they seem to have enjoyed greater freedom than was usually permitted to young folk in America seventy or eighty years ago. They had not only plenty of room to romp and play, but as many animal friends as the heart of a child could desire; horses to ride, birds to pet, and dogs to Share their games. And to complete their happiness, a corner of the woodland was allowed to grow wild and given up specially to their use. To the children this was an enchanted land; for the imagination of the elder sister peopled it for them with elves and fairies, fiery dragons, witches and sorcerers, brave knights and gentle ladies. In Paradise, as the children called this favoured spot, the future author of the Katy books, with her little brother and sisters hanging upon her words, made her first essays in romance. It was many years before she sought a larger audience. Almost as soon as she could write she scribbled poems and stories for her own pleasure and the entertainment Of the family; but, unlike many authors, she seems to have had no desire to get them printed. The exercise of writing was to her its own reward; she had no craving for literary fame, and she was not constrained, like her contemporary and fellow countrywoman, Louisa Alcott, to seek an income from her pen.