Kate Douglas Wiggin was an American children"s author and educator. She started the first free kindergarten in San Francisco in 1878. A few years later she and her sister opened a training school for kindergarten teachers. Her best known books are The Story of Pasty (1883), The Birds" Christmas Carol (1887), Polly Oliver"s Problem (1893), A Cathedral Courtship (1893), The Village Watchtoer (1896), Marm Lisa (1897) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903). Mr. Carey is killed during the Spanish-American War. His wife and children are left to fend for themselves. When Margaret is forced to put her house for sale, the children try to avoid being put out of their house by scaring off potential buyers. While Margaret is trying to find a new job, the girls fall in love with boys from the neighborhood.