A Cathedral Courtship: "There is a kind of magicness about going far away and then coming back all changed."

Kate Douglas Wiggin was born in Philadelphia on September 28, 1856. As an adult she devoted her life to the welfare of children many of whom were badly treated and thought of as more a source of cheap expendable labour than minds to be nourished and expanded. By 1878 she had started what was then the first free kindergarten in San Francisco. Of course as well as being active in social reform and education she is a very well known authoress. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm being her most credited...