Carroll Watson Rankin

Her first writing assignment came at the age of 16, when she was hired as a reporter for the Daily Mining Journal.

[1] Her free lance stories were published by Century, Harper's Monthly, Youth's Companion, St. Nicholas, Leslie's, Lippincott's, Metropolitan and other widely circulated periodicals.

Considered a regional classic in the Midwest, it tells of four young girls who negotiate the use of a derelict cottage belonging to a church as a playhouse by pulling dandelions for the senior warden of the church, prosperous Mr. Black.

The real life model for Mr. Black is generally acknowledged to be Marquette businessman and philanthropist, Peter White.

Rankin allowed her characters much latitude in emotion and behavior at a time when writing for children was often tepid and tutelary.