Oh! Forgot to do this on Sunday!
Oh my goodness, how I love Nesbit! I forget how I stumbled on her recently ~ her name & titles were familiar but I hadn't read The Railway Children or any of her many other kids books. The children are excruciatingly innocent but also independent, a combination we really don't see anymore, I think. Published around 1900. She was a feminist & Fabian, & the girls are most definitely not shunted off to quiet sewing while the boys have all the adventures. No little mamas.