Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    What Katy Did
    What Katy Did
    What Katy Did
    Ebook256 pages8 hours

    What Katy Did

    By Susan Coolidge

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.

    “And now, Katy, it's your turn. Tell us what you're going to be when you grow up.”

    “I’m not sure about what I’ll be,” replied Katy; “beautiful, of course, and good if I can. That’s what I’d like to be. But now I’ll tell you what I mean to do…’

    Tomboyish Katy Carr is tall, gangling, and full of mischief. Constantly scheming and playing with her brothers and sisters, 12-year-old Katy dreams that one day she will be ‘beautiful and beloved, and amiable as an angel’. But goodness and obedience don’t come easily to Katy, who had promised to be a good stand-in mother to her younger siblings but finds it difficult to stick to her word. When her bedridden cousin Helen comes to stay, Katy becomes enchanted with her as the living embodiment of goodness and light. On the day Helen leaves, Katy devotes herself to be a shining example of Helen’s behaviour. But quickly the best of intentions go awry, and a day of mischief ends in an accident: a serious fall from a swing that seems to threaten Katy’s grand hopes for the future. But by focusing on the good humour and strength she witnessed in Helen, Katy eventually learns to overcome her difficulties in the ‘School of Pain’, and to practice strength, patience, and hope.

    Originally published in 1872, and often paired with The Secret Garden and Pollyanna, What Katy Did is the classic American tale of childhood, love, hope, and ‘doing good’.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateSep 13, 2012
    ISBN9780007502752
    Author

    Susan Coolidge

    Susan Coolidge was born Sarah Chauncey Woolsey in 1835 in Cleveland, Ohio. She worked as a nurse during the American Civil War, after which she began to write. She lived with her parents in their house in Rhode Island until she died.

    Read more from Susan Coolidge

    Related to What Katy Did

    Related ebooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Lethal Intrigue

      Mar 15, 2020

      Lethal Intrigue
      12 min read

    • Article

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time

      Oct 23, 2020

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time
      27 min read

    • Article

      Don’t Call Them Trash

      Aug 4, 2022

      Don’t Call Them Trash
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Saga Of Sievekings

      Dec 2, 2021

      A Sieveking Family History Paul Sieveking Privately published 2021 Hb, 200pp, £25 inc p&p from sieveking@forteantimes.com The magnificent if notoriously snobbish novelist Anthony Powell was so obsessed by family trees and breeding that he even took a

      8 min read

    • Article

      Holding A Mirror Up To Local Stories

      Dec 4, 2018

      Every year we see the publication of more diverse books about British Columbia’s history, reflecting the expectations of readers and the interests of authors and historians. My eyes are drawn to titles on bookstore shelves that amplify underrepresent

      15 min read

    • Article

      Challenge Your BC Bookshelf

      Jun 4, 2020

      Challenge Your BC Bookshelf
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Lie of Little Women

      Aug 14, 2018

      The Lie of Little Women
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books & co

      Jul 10, 2020

      Novels, histories, biographies… By Louise Fein ‘A German girl. A Jewish boy. A love that changes everything.’ These are the words on the cover of Louise Fein’s debut novel – People Like Us – which is set in 1930s Leipzig, and is a book inspired by ev

      6 min read

    • Article

      Encounters

      May 13, 2021

      Encounters
      5 min read

    • Article

      Time For Us All To Grow Up

      Apr 28, 2022

      CIRCUS OF DREAMS (Constable, £25), John Walsh’s elegant and entertaining memoir of London literary life in the late 1980s and early 1990s, turns a bit less elegant and entertaining in its final stretch. Here Mr Walsh files a traditional Grub Street v

      3 min read

    • Article

      Laurie Colwin Possessed A ‘Positive Genius For Comfort’

      Jul 26, 2021

      With the reissue of novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin’s books, our reviewer recalls interviewing her decades ago.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time

      Nov 25, 2020

      Once Upon A Time
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Shipstead, Ryan, Walker, and More

      May 17, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Maggie Shipstead, Eimer Ryan, Sarai Walker, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millio

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Day, Würger, Owuor, and More

      Mar 12, 2019

      Hot off the presses this week, three debuts, two much-welcomed sophomore efforts, and a memoir drawing comparisons to 'H Is for Hawk.' The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Day, Würger, Owuor, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Necrolog

      Mar 23, 2023

      Folklore and the world of forteana lost a rising star with the untimely death of Kai Roberts following a short illness. He was the son of my friend and long-time FT contributor Andy Roberts. I first met Kai when he was just four years old at his home

      4 min read

    • Article

      How To Become A Cult Writer

      Apr 1, 2022

      How To Become A Cult Writer
      8 min read

    • Article

      ‘Call yourself English?’

      Aug 21, 2019

      ‘Call yourself English?’
      19 min read

    • Article

      Writing Queer

      Dec 27, 2018

      Ididn’t know it, but I was mentally ill until about age 16. Anybody queer was considered “mentally ill” until 1973, when the American Psychiatric Association removed the diagnosis of homosexuality as a disorder (though “sexual orientation disturbance

      8 min read

    • Article

      Cj Carey

      May 19, 2021

      OCCASIONALLY, A WRITER CAN TELL YOU exactly how a book began life. In the case of CJ Carey (a pseudonym), she’d gone out for lunch with a friend, who had offered condolences over the 2018 death of her husband, the novelist Philip Kerr. But there was

      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for What Katy Did

    4/5

    19 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Twelve year old Katy Carr and her five brothers and sisters have all kinds of fun adventures. A thicket becomes "Paradise", a hayloft a place for a "feast", and the entire house a playground for games invented by Katy. Katy means well, but is impulsive and irresponsible and is constantly getting into scrapes and trouble. After the Carr's Cousin Helen visits, Katy vows to be more like Cousin Helen, who is saint-like despite the fact that she had a bad accident and hasn't been able to walk for years. Unfortunately, Katy gets into the worst scrape of her life the very next day - disobeying her Aunt Izzie, she herself has a terrible accident. It will take Katy a long time to recover and in the course of her recovery she grows into a beautiful, responsible young woman. I loved reading "What Katy Did" as a child and it's still fun to read as an adult. Written in the 1870's, it is definitely old-fashioned, but it makes me yearn for the days when life was so much simpler. Susan Coolidge writes as if she is sitting opposite the reader, verbally telling the story and uses words that children might use such as "honestest" which makes the book a pleasant read. Coolidge also includes humor that children won't get, but adults will, such as when Katy gives Aunt Izzie $7.25 and a long list of Christmas presents to buy with that small amount of money. Katy is a very realistic heroine; yes, she gets into mischief, but what child doesn't, and she means well. The rest of the children are equally engaging, for me Elsie stands out. Cousin Helen is indeed saintly, almost unbelievable in her goodness, but Coolidge makes her believable also. "What Katy Did" is a nice, old-fashioned read.
    • 5/5
      I. love. this. book. When I first discovered it in our bookshelf, I absolutely fell in love with the characters, obviously Katy most of all. For years I felt very acutely the injustice of not having been born in the early 20th century in a countryside somewhere in Devon or Kent. This is a book I will hold on to forever, and one of the few where I actually have an emotional attachment to. Definitely going to save this one for any future spawn I may produce. It's got everything a children's classic should contain. The main character, Katy, is a precocious young girl, the eldest of a large family. She's always getting herself into scrapes, as young children do, and is imaginative and lively, always thinking up stories in their garden, which actually sometimes get her into trouble. One day, as a result of her disobedience, she gets into an accident that will change her life forever. However, this accident unleashes a series of events which actually enrich her, fill her with compassion and kindness, and most importantly the strength to move on in the face of her adversity. The book had a great impact on me as a child, and for a month afterwards I tried very hard to be like the serene and wonderful and impossibly perfect Helen, one of the characters in the book. A month of commitment from a 10 year old is pretty impressive, looking back!
    • 4/5
      I'm not sure if I ever read this as a child - although it was one of my Mum's favourite books I found it hard to get into. I enjoyed it as an adult though, the enthusiastic joy of Katy and her siblings and their games and adventure, and then her growth and learning after her injury. I can see why people despise it for the 'pain is a lesson from God so we can become patient people' theme, which is very dangerous and needs to be handled with a lot of care, but I can also see why it is a classic.
    • 4/5
      As a child I always wanted to read this novel, but never got around to it. Even almost grown, the novel still captivated me. Dear Katy with all her faults, trying so hard to do the right thing, and then the accident...I could put the book down until I knew if Katy would be alright.
    • 4/5
      A great read for anyone.
    • 3/5
      As a child I always wanted to read this novel, but never got around to it. Even almost grown, the novel still captivated me. Dear Katy with all her faults, trying so hard to do the right thing, and then the accident...I could put the book down until I knew if Katy would be alright.
    • 3/5
      So this book was sorta weird, in as much as I'm not really sure what I think of it. I started out really liking it. The antics of Katy and her siblings made me laugh out loud several times. Katy is a tomboy, impulsive, always getting into some scrape, saying the first that pops in her head...in other words, fun. The kind of girl most of us would have loved for a friend when we were that age.

      ~*~*~*~SPOILERS TO FOLLOW~*~*~*~*~*~

      The problem, though, is when Cousin Helen comes in half way through the book. Not surprisngly, Helen and Katy are polar opposites. Helen is paralyzed from the waist down (we surmise), but in spite of her trials, is well-mannered, soft-spoken, never says an ill-word about anyone, never complains, blah blah blah. Of course, the moral of the story is that all good little girls should be like Helen. Katy resolves to try, but of course fails. And because she fails, she has a tragic accident that leaves her bed-ridden for a couple of years. And naturally, during this time, she sees how right Helen is and becomes this wonderful, saint of a girl. Yada yada.

      I could have gotten past all that cheesiness, though. It was, after all, written in the 1800s. And in a lot of ways, the book reminds me of Little Women (which I did not like), with its Christian over-tones. However, the tragic tale of Helen was just too much for me. It was ridiculously implausible. Helen was engaged to be wed to Alex. Unfortunately, she has a tragic accident (we never learn what) that leaves her horrible ill; for a while, they think she will die. Helen ultimately survives, but will remain an invalid the rest of her life (again, they never come out and say she's paralyzed, but one can guess). Now that's all well and good. But HERE'S where it gets weird. Alex still wants to marry her, but she insists he cannot. She doesn't want to tie him down like that. Right noble of her, huh? SO THEN, Alex marries someone else and MOVES IN NEXT DOOR TO HELEN. Helen and his wife become best of friends. Alex and his wife have a daughter who they name Helen. Alex and his wife never do anything without first consulting Helen. I'm sorry, but are you F-ING serious? Am I the only one who sees the dysfunction in this? I was on board with refusing to marry the guy, but then to live next door to him and wife? And become one big, happy family? Come on. It sounds like "Days of our Lives" for the 1800s. Had I read this when I was in grade school, I probably would have glossed over it as "romantic." As an adult, though? I find it bizarre and creepy.

      In short, Cousin Helen ruined this book for me. It was okay. It was so funny in several places, I feel obligated to give it 3 stars, rather than 2. But do I consider it a must-read classic? Definitely not.
    • 5/5
      If every young girl should read just one book, it should be this.

      This is a childhood favourite of mine, I love it. It's just the way a children's story should be, simple, slightly nostalgic to an older audience, and with a valuable lesson to learn.
    • 4/5
      I know I read and re-read this as a kid and after reading Katy by Jacqueline Wilson I can see some of the problematic aspects to it. But also there are aspects that are period details, yes there were injuries that could happen to a back that are now treated with physio and injections (and I'm currently going through some of that myself, incidentally) but the best treatment of the time was rest and this is what Katy endures when she badly injures her spine after a stupid accident that is down to being a bit headstrong, which is, of course, disapproved of in this period. I had forgotten the neighbour with the counterfeiting husband that Katy befriends, but overall this is a story that in context is interesting. And I did enjoy the update I do think kids need to read stories from different periods to learn how life was and is different for different people in different places and times. The mild anti-Irish and anti-black sentiment is a discussion that would be useful for people too. Paternalism is another discussion that didn't come up in the afterwords though it was implied when Katy did some of the "good deeds". Cousin Helen does veer into preachy occasionally.Interesting, worth re-reading but the enjoyment was somewhat spoilt by adult views. Though I did empathise with Katy and her getting lost in reading when I was younger, I still remember the resonance.
    • 2/5
      Hm. Yes it's preachy. Of course we'd like Katy to be able to have fun, and not have to learn to be a little housewife while bedridden while still a young teen. But the thing is, in those days before antibiotics, people did die, and other people did have to step up. And apparently this series is as to a memoir - inspired at least by the author's childhood. So, given all the context, I'm glad I kept reading the series. In fact, I'll give this 2.5 stars.
    • 5/5
      I loved reading this book. It was one of my favourites as a child and I was half afraid I wouldn't enjoy it as much now I'm all grown up.I wasn't disappointed however.This book is perfect for anyone who wants their kids to read some wholesome old fashioned literature.
    • 3/5
      Katie wants to be a better person but she really doesn't begin to improve until she becomes disabled.
    • 4/5
      It's... very moralistic. In a 19th-century, Christian fashion. HOWEVER, I still love it. It's such a ridiculous story and the bit about the School of Pain made me want to vomit (in fact, it reminded me of a stupendous article that appeared in Lupus UK about how chronic illness is really a "beautiful beast within" which is actually the most offensively stupid thing I have ever had the misfortune to see in my entire life, including that film where Jack Black is a luchador) but otherwise there is something so wonderfully compelling in the Katy character that will never make me able to hate this book despite me disagreeing with this whole moral construct. I don't actually think Katy is a less interesting character after she "grows up". There's nothing wrong with learning to be patient with others and to love your neighbour and try to see the best even in the worst situations. It just shouldn't be presented as a requirement of personhood. Anyway, compared to all the other turn-of-the-century sentimental crap that came out of American children's literature (Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Pollyanna... VOMIT) this is a lot better, and I remember enjoying the sequels too! Good to read on a tiring journey.
    • 3/5
      I used to love this book so much when I was little. I'm pretty sure I had an abridged edition, because this seemed longer than the one I read, and I kept coming across things that were new to me. I reread this one as an ebook, though, so it was a little hard to judge the length and compare it.

      Anyway, it's obvious now what this book was trying to do -- how it was trying to get girls to learn to be patient and kind and content, and to be what everyone else wants/needs them to be, and all of that. I noticed that when I was younger, but I focused on the story more. I have to agree with whoever said that the lively Katy of the beginning of the book is perhaps more interesting, but I liked all of it. The story wasn't so very original, maybe, but I loved the presence of Cousin Helen, who sounded so very much like someone I'd like to know.

      I was surprised at how much I still liked it now, actually, and how much it could still interest me.
    • 4/5
      I actually really enjoyed this book. I know it's a bit old-fashioned now, and obviously things have changed a lot since this book was written. Girls aren't expected to be perfect little angels these days. But it's still a very sweet book. It was interesting to see Katy change from a rebellious little girl into a polite and kind young woman.One thing about this book that I didn't really like was the ending. I thought the last chapter seemed a bit rushed, and it seemed to me like the happy ending was a bit of an afterthought, and slightly unlikely too.
    • 3/5
      A charming old Children’s book about a little girl who hurts her spine in an accident and must remain in bed for almost two years. During that time she learns some important lessons about humility, patience and helping others and well, being able to see the positive side of her situation. The book deals with some serious issues as death, suffering and handicaps in a good way for Children - unfortunately Susan Coolidge is too eager to spread moral lessons all over the place. A more subtle approach would have been nice.

    Book preview

    What Katy Did - Susan Coolidge

    WHAT KATY DID

    Susan Coolidge

    Image Missing

    Copyright

    Harper Press

    An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

    77–85 Fulham Palace Road

    Hammersmith

    London W6 8JB

    Susan Coolidge asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

    A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

    Life & Times section © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

    Gerard Cheshire asserts his moral rights as author of the Life & Times section

    Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from

    Collins English Dictionary

    Source ISBN: 9780007920648

    Ebook Edition © September 2012 ISBN: 9780007502752

    Version: 2014-11-12

    All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

    CONTENTS

    Title Page

    Copyright

    History of Collins

    Life & Times

    To Five

    Chapter 1 The Little Carrs

    Chapter 2 Paradise

    Chapter 3 The Day of Scrapes

    Chapter 4 Kikeri

    Chapter 5 In the Loft

    Chapter 6 Intimate Friends

    Chapter 7 Cousin Helen’s Visit

    Chapter 8 To-Morrow

    Chapter 9 Dismal Days

    Chapter 10 St. Nicholas and St. Valentine

    Chapter 11 A New Lesson to Learn

    Chapter 12 Two Years Afterward

    Chapter 13 At Last

    Classic Literature: Words and Phrases adapted from the Collins English Dictionary

    About the Publisher

    History of Collins

    In 1819, millworker William Collins from Glasgow, Scotland, set up a company for printing and publishing pamphlets, sermons, hymn books and prayer books. That company was Collins and was to mark the birth of HarperCollins Publishers as we know it today. The long tradition of Collins dictionary publishing can be traced back to the first dictionary William published in 1824, Greek and English Lexicon. Indeed, from 1840 onwards, he began to produce illustrated dictionaries and even obtained a licence to print and publish the Bible.

    Soon after, William published the first Collins novel, Ready Reckoner, however it was the time of the Long Depression, where harvests were poor, prices were high, potato crops had failed and violence was erupting in Europe. As a result, many factories across the country were forced to close down and William chose to retire in 1846, partly due to the hardships he was facing.

    Aged 30, William’s son, William II took over the business. A keen humanitarian with a warm heart and a generous spirit, William II was truly ‘Victorian’ in his outlook. He introduced new, up-to-date steam presses and published affordable editions of Shakespeare’s works and Pilgrim’s Progress, making them available to the masses for the first time. A new demand for educational books meant that success came with the publication of travel books, scientific books, encyclopaedias and dictionaries. This demand to be educated led to the later publication of atlases and Collins also held the monopoly on scripture writing at the time.

    In the 1860s Collins began to expand and diversify and the idea of ‘books for the millions’ was developed. Affordable editions of classical literature were published and in 1903 Collins introduced 10 titles in their Collins Handy Illustrated Pocket Novels. These proved so popular that a few years later this had increased to an output of 50 volumes, selling nearly half a million in their year of publication. In the same year, The Everyman’s Library was also instituted, with the idea of publishing an affordable library of the most important classical works, biographies, religious and philosophical treatments, plays, poems, travel and adventure. This series eclipsed all competition at the time and the introduction of paperback books in the 1950s helped to open that market and marked a high point in the industry.

    HarperCollins is and has always been a champion of the classics and the current Collins Classics series follows in this tradition – publishing classical literature that is affordable and available to all. Beautifully packaged, highly collectible and intended to be reread and enjoyed at every opportunity.

    Life & Times

    What Katy Did

    The title of this novel is intended as a subtle joke around a play on words. In the US, bush-crickets are known as katydids, because the males elicit a mating call that sounds like the trisyllabic mantra ‘ka-ty-did’. On the original front cover of What Katy Did, there was a drawing of five anthropomorphic katydids. The joke is that the katydid insects see and tell ‘what Katy did’ as she goes about her tomboyish mischief in the story. The author imagines they are saying, ‘Katy did this, Katy did that’ as ever-present tattletales, in much the same way that young children are driven to tell the truth about the wrongdoings of their siblings and friends.

    The Author and her Female Contemporaries

    Susan Coolidge was the oddly modern-sounding pen name of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey, the daughter of wealthy American parents from Cleveland, Ohio. She worked as a nurse during the American Civil War. Woolsey was 30 years old when the war ended and she decided to devote her life to writing children’s books. Curiously, she never had children or married, despite her interest in children’s literature.

    Woolsey published What Katy Did in 1872, at the age of 37, and established herself on the literary stage. She continued authoring books until her death in 1905, at the age of 70. Parallels can be drawn between What Katy Did, The Secret Garden (1911), by Francis Hodgson Burnett, and Pollyanna (1913), by Eleanor H. Porter. All three books tackle the subject of paraplegic paralysis in one way or another.

    In What Katy Did, the eponymous Katy admires the robustness and goodness of her invalid cousin Helen. She then suffers temporary paralysis herself, due to a fall from a swing, and Helen teaches her how to cope with her affliction until she recovers. In The Secret Garden, there is a reversal, in which Mary teaches her sickly cousin Colin to fight his affliction and learn to walk again. In Pollyanna, the eponymous Pollyanna is paralyzed when struck by a motorcar and finds the will to recover thanks to the love returned to her by the townsfolk.

    Clearly, Hodgson Burnett and Porter were both influenced by the work of Woolsey and saw potential in reworking the general theme of mind over matter. The message that things will improve by encouraging the body to heal with the application of thought is an interesting one to consider. There is more than a hint of Christian faith underpinning these stories, suggesting that minor miracles can be generated simply by thinking positively with determination and perseverance.

    If we consider the era in which these books were written, it becomes apparent why these books were successful. The fields of medicine that dealt with the causes and treatment of paralysis were not yet developed, so the idea of using the mind to overcome such disabilities seemed as good as any. Moreover, those who did show improvement and recovery were deemed to have done so for positive reasons, while those who remained unchanged were thought to have lapsed faith. In short, it was a self-fulfilling belief system, so it was assumed to be true.

    There was also the prevailing notion that unabashed children, and girls in particular, were somehow in possession of a magic charm that overrode the jaded cynicism of adults. Of course, all three authors happen to be female themselves, but one would be hard pushed to find a boy in literature imbued with similar charm. This is the veneration of female virtue that prevailed at that time. It is the ‘marianismo’ of the female, as contrasted with the machismo of the male. In What Katy Did, this is especially so, as the implication is that Katy suffers her accident precisely because she is a tomboy. When she eventually recovers, her cousin teaches her how to be more feminine and appreciative in her outlook. Thus, femininity is good for the girl and good for those who are touched by it.

    An American Childhood

    Of course, What Katy Did is also a tale of American childhood. In this respect, it shares a good deal with Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was published just four years later, in 1876. Twain – real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens – was born in the same year and had been a journalist during the American Civil War. Both stories are good yarns, in the sense that they have effective characterization and plots that keep the reader amused and entertained. As such, Woolsey and Twain jointly set the precedent for what the modern children’s novel should be. There was certainly a ready market in the post-war climate, in which parents were beginning to forget the horrors of war and their children had either been too young to remember or had been born in the aftermath.

    Just as Twain followed up the success of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Woolsey also published sequels to What Katy Did: What Katy Did at School (1873) and What Katy Did Next (1886). In the latter, the reader finds Katy travelling to England, where the author finds humour in her discombobulation and perplexity at English culture and world outlook. Woolsey wrote many other books, including two titles that followed the antics of Katy’s siblings – Clover (1888) and In the High Valley (1890) – but none was ever as popular as the What Katy Did books. In the US, these books had helped to restore the idea of what being American was all about. In Britain, they were a breath of fresh air in a staid Victorian and then Edwardian milieu.

    Publication

    One of the reasons that Woolsey managed to find a publisher in the first place was her clever approach of the Roberts brothers. They had published Little Women (1868–9) by Louisa May Alcott and had established a niche for realistic girls’ literature. When Woolsey came along, they were more than happy to add her work to their portfolio, realizing that it had the same commercial appeal.

    In the character of Katy, Woolsey tapped into the awkwardness and self-consciousness felt by many girls and that resulted in a vast readership that identified with Katy. In turn, the author based Katy on herself, which was why she was able to make her personality so well observed and believable. Key to this was Katy’s height and lankiness, which made her conspicuous when she would rather have passed unnoticed. Generally, children do not like to have traits that distinguish them as different from the norm, as it only serves to amplify their self-awareness and anxiety. This desire to attenuate is what Woolsey understood so well in Katy and it is what brought her to life in the minds of her keen readership.

    The Roberts brothers chose Addie Ledyard as the illustrator of What Katy Did. She illustrated many other books at that time and became the illustrator of choice, because of her rounded style. Her attractive line drawings can be found in children’s novels by Woolsey (Coolidge), Louisa May Alcott, Helen Hunt Jackson, Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards and Louise Chandler Moulton. Ledyard was able to lend all of these women a collective identity as a stable of authors who fit into a similar mould. Her images gave the books a familiarity that created a shared readership of young girls who wished to collect the range of different titles. From a historical point of view, Ledyard’s illustrations provide information about the informal dress code of that era, which is useful, as most photographs and paintings have a more formal ‘Sunday best’ feel to them. Ledyard also contributed drawings to St. Nicholas Magazine, which was a very popular children’s magazine first published in 1873.

    To Five

    Six of us once, my darlings, played together

    Beneath green boughs, which faded long ago,

    Made merry in the golden summer weather,

    Pelted each other with new-fallen snow.

    Did the sun always shine? I can’t remember

    A single cloud that dimmed the happy blue,

    A single lightning-bolt or peal of thunder,

    To daunt our bright, unfearing lives: can you?

    We quarrelled often, but made peace as quickly,

    Shed many tears, but laughed the while they fell,

    Had our small woes, our childish bumps and bruises,

    But Mother always kissed and made them well.

    Is it long since?—it seems a moment only:

    Yet here we are in bonnets and tall-coats,

    Grave men of business, members of committees,

    Our play-time ended: even Baby votes!

    And star-eyed children, in whose innocent faces,

    Kindles the gladness which was once our own,

    Crowd round our knees, with sweet and coaxing voices,

    Asking for stories of that old-time home.

    "Were you once little too?" they say, astonished;

    Did you too play? How funny! tell us how.

    Almost we start, forgetful for a moment;

    Almost we answer, "We are little now!"

    Dear friend and lover, whom to-day we christen,

    Forgive such brief bewilderment, thy true

    And kindly hand we hold; we own thee fairest.

    But ah! our yesterday was precious too.

    So, darlings, take this little childish story,

    In which some gleams of the old sunshine play

    And, as with careless hands you turn the pages,

    Look back and smile, as here I smile to-day.

    CHAPTER 1

    The Little Carrs

    I was sitting in the meadows one day, not long ago, at a place where there was a small brook. It was a hot day. The sky was very blue, and white clouds, like great swans, went floating over it to and fro. Just opposite me was a clump of green rushes, with dark velvety spikes, and among them one single tall, red cardinal flower, which was bending over the brook as if to see its own beautiful face in the water. But the cardinal did not seem to be vain.

    The picture was so pretty that I sat a long time enjoying it. Suddenly, close to me, two small voices began to talk—or to sing, for I couldn’t tell exactly which it was. One voice was shrill; the other, which was a little deeper, sounded very positive and cross. They were evidently disputing about something, for they said the same words over and over again. These were the words—Katy did. Katy didn’t. She did. She didn’t. She did. She didn’t. Did. Didn’t. I think they must have repeated them at least a hundred times.

    I got up from my seat to see if I could find the speakers; and sure enough, there on one of the cat-tail bulrushes I spied two tiny pale-green creatures. Their eyes seemed to be weak, for they both wore black goggles. They had six legs apiece—two short ones, two not so short, and two very long. These last legs had joints like the springs to buggy-tops; and as I watched, they began walking up the rush, and then I saw that they moved exactly like an old-fashioned gig. In fact, if I hadn’t been too big, I think I should have heard them creak as they went along. They didn’t say anything so long as I was there, but the moment my back was turned they began to quarrel again, and in the same old words—Katy did. Katy didn’t. She did. She didn’t.

    As I walked home I fell to thinking about another Katy—a Katy I once knew, who planned to do a great many wonderful things, and in the end did none of them, but something quite different—something she didn’t like at all at first, but which, on the whole, was a great deal better than any of the doings she had dreamed about. And as I thought, this little story grew in my head, and I resolved to write it down for you. I have done it; and, in memory of my two little friends on the bulrush, I give it their name. Here it is—the story of What Katy Did.

    Katy’s name was Katy Carr. She lived in the town of Burnet, which wasn’t a very big town, but was growing as fast as it knew how. The house she lived in stood on the edge of the town. It was a large square house, white, with green blinds, and had a porch in front, over which roses and clematis made a thick bower. Four tall locust-trees shaded the gravel path which led to the front gate. On one side of the house was an orchard; on the other side were wood piles and barns, and an ice-house. Behind was a kitchen garden sloping to the south; and behind that a pasture with a brook in it, and butternut trees, and four cows—two red ones, a yellow one with sharp horns tipped with tin, and a dear little white one named Daisy.

    There were six of the Carr children—four girls and two boys. Katy, the eldest, was twelve years old; little Phil, the youngest, was four, and the rest fitted in between.

    Dr. Carr, their papa, was a dear, kind, busy man, who was away from home all day, and sometimes all night too, taking care of sick people. The children hadn’t any mamma. She had died when Phil was a baby, four years before my story began. Katy could remember her pretty well; to the rest she was but a sad, sweet name, spoken on Sunday, and at prayer-times, or when papa was specially gentle and solemn.

    In place of this mamma, whom they recollected so dimly, there was Aunt Izzie, papa’s sister, who came to take care of them when mamma went away on that long journey, from which, for so many months, the little ones kept hoping she might return. Aunt Izzie was a small woman, sharp-faced and thin, rather old-looking, and very neat and particular about everything. She meant to be kind to the children, but they puzzled her much, because they were not a bit like herself when she was a child. Aunt Izzie had been a gentle, tidy little thing, who loved to sit, as Curly Locks did, sewing long seams in the parlour, and to have her head patted by older people, and be told that she was a good girl; whereas Katy tore her dress every day, hated sewing, and didn’t care a button about being called good, while Clover and Elsie shied off like restless ponies when any one tried to pat their heads. It was very perplexing to Aunt Izzie, and she found it hard to quite forgive the children for being so unaccountable, and so little like the good boys and girls in Sunday-school memoirs, who were the young people she liked best, and understood most about.

    Then Dr. Carr was another person who worried her. He wished to have the children hardy and bold, and encouraged climbing and rough plays, in spite of the bumps and ragged clothes which resulted. In fact, there was just one half-hour of the day when Aunt Izzie was really satisfied about her charges, and that was the half-hour before breakfast, when she had made a law that they were all to sit in their little chairs and learn the Bible verse for the day. At this time she looked at them with pleased eyes; they were all so spick and span, with such nicely-brushed jackets and such neatly-combed hair. But the moment the bell rang her comfort was over. From that time on, they were what she called not fit to be seen. The neighbours pitied her very much. They used to count the sixty stiff white pantalette legs hung out to dry every Monday morning, and say to each other what a sight of washing those children made, and what a labour it must be for poor Miss Carr to keep them so nice. But poor Miss Carr didn’t think them at all nice; that was the worst of it.

    "Clover, go upstairs and wash your hands! Dorry,

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1