The Diary Of A Goose Girl

Kate Douglas Wiggin is best known for "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm," A popular author of children's books, also opened the first free kindergarten in California -- the Silver Street Free Kindergarten, and worked there till the late 1880s.

"The Diary of a Goose Girl" tells the story of a young woman who tires of civilization, and moves to a small village in England "in search of the strenuous life, and eager to wait, rather than to be waited upon."

"I am very tired of people," she wrote, "and want to rest myself by living a while with things."

"I rely upon you to keep an honorable distance yourselves, and not to divulge my place of retreat to others, especially to -- you know whom Do not pursue me. I will never be taken alive "

Her story of her life on a farm, keeping hens, Belgian hares, and especially geese, and her portraits of those she abides with form the basis of a charming tale.