Chapter I: Foreword

In these chapters the author has used her own family names,
to which she fancies she has a right. There are, however,
some changes; it was, for instance, a Katherine
Knickerbocker who married a Van Buskirk. The “Aunt
Katherine” of the story is really the author’s grandmother,
Harriet Cathalina Van Buskirk, a granddaughter of the
original Martin Van Buskirk. She taught in the Emma Willard
school at Troy, New York, and married William Lee, nephew of
Madam Willard and son of her oldest sister, Mary Hart.

To present a happy, normal school life and real girls in the
midst of life’s most delightful opportunities is the object
of this series.

CATHALINA AT GREYCLIFF