Luise Marie-Thérèse Dorothea Hélène von Goff-Puttkamer was the only child of Otto and Hildegard von Goff-Puttkamer.  Raised alone in the nearly deserted nursery of Schönwald, Luise had to find her entertainment and companionship in her pets and in the servants of the manor.

Luise’s father indulged her, and realised that she needed the companionship of pets, so he provided her with a red macaw for which he built a floor to ceiling cage right by Luise’s bedroom door so that she could be with her parrot every moment of every day that she wanted to.  Because the nanny and the governess were too afraid of the macaw to venture into its cage, Luise was able to go into the parrot’s cage to escape them.  That the parrot could curse in several languages was an added bonus to Luise.

Otto also gave Luise a black spaniel and a pony, one of the wild Tarpans from Poland that had been orphaned and hand reared.  Despite being hand reared, the pony remained wild, regarding Luise as its charge and fiercely protective of her.  With her pony and her dog Luise roamed safely all over the vast estate of Schönwald, in a life of freedom in sharp contrast to the normally restricted lives of young girls of the Junker class.

For mother love Luise turned to her grandmother and to the manor house cook, who doted on her.  Luise knew that her mother had no time for her, but was secure in the love of her father, her grandmother, and the cook, so it wasn’t until her grandmother died that Luise became painfully aware of the lack of affection and support from her mother, and felt lonely.  At that point Otto hired a foundling, Kirsten, as companion/maid for Luise so that she would not grow up alone.

Luise and Kirsten became close, with real affection and companionship between them.  When Luise was in trouble for one of her escapades, Kirsten refused to tell on her, and so was locked in the attic.  Luise then joined together with the children who worked and lived in the manor house to take food and bedding to Kirsten in the attic.

Luise was impetuous, impulsive and mischievous, but also loyal, generous and good hearted, so the children who worked and lived on the estate were fond of her, even to the point of risking getting themselves into trouble to help her.  When she wanted to learn to read, the cook’s daughter trusted Luise to teach her, knowing that not only was Luise capable of teaching reading and writing, she was also capable of keeping the secret even at cost to herself.  When a harsh governess was hired by Luise’s mother, the servant children joined Luise in making the governess’s life so miserable that she left Schönwald.

Luise had much needed companionship in Kirsten, and warmed under the touch of the much more suitable young governess Otto hired.  The new governess was able to deal with Luise’s enthusiasm and to challenge her quick mind.  To help her Otto also hired a tutor of mathematics and science; and kept on a teacher of dance and French who had been hired by Hildegard along with the harsh governess that the children had driven out of the house.  Although all of those people kept Luise busy, the main thrust of her life was still her pony and her dog and being with her Dad