Their mother’s birthday was always a great event. When that day arrived Louisa would say to herself as soon as she awoke, “It’s Mother’s birthday: I must be very good.” After breakfast the children always gave their mother her presents. One year Louisa’s gift was a cross made of moss with a bit of poetry attached. That day there were no lessons, and everybody was very jolly and happy.
Two great joys of Louisa’s life were books and the outdoors. She enjoyed a quiet corner with a good book. She also loved to run in the woods in the early morning before the dew was off the grass. She liked to feel the velvety moss under her feet and to look up into the green branches overhead. Once, when she was a child, she paused in her running and stood still listening to the rustle of the pines.
“It seemed as if I felt God,” she wrote in her journal, “and I prayed in my heart that I might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life.”
Louisa had a quick temper and found difficulty in managing it. At fourteen years of age she wrote a poem about her struggles entitled, “My Little Kingdom.” It began:
“A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell.
And very hard I find the task
Of governing it well;
For passion tempts and troubles me,
A wayward will misleads,