When Selma Lagerlöf was three and a half years old, after bathing in a fresh-water pond with her father, she developed a form of infantile paralysis. Months of inactivity followed; some lasting results of this disease have been handicaps of the author throughout her life. With humor and realistic portrayal of a child’s point of view of this period, she tells in _Mårbacka_, the chapter “Grand Company,” how she increased in social importance in the family, having exclusive attention of the grim nurse, and dainties to eat in place of the usual food, much to the jealous disgust of her brother and sister. A sojourn at Stromstead by the sea brought new vigor and recovery of motion to the little girl; with amazement to herself and her family she walked to investigate a brilliant, stuffed “bird of paradise.” The sprightly zest in living, which characterizes the author’s personality, is reflected in all her books. Animals as pets, poultry of the farmyard, and birds and flowers are vital factors in her earlier and later tales. Among important influences of her childhood was the singing of Bellman Ballads, with their humor, pathos, and haunting music. One day when Miss Lagerlöf had won a place among twenty-five chosen candidates at Teachers’ College in Stockholm, and had been listening to a lecture about Bellman and Runeberg and their ballads, she had her “flash of inspiration.” She determined to tell stories about her own Varmland; she would become narrator of her “Cavaliers” and would incorporate into her tales the legends, folklore and real characters of the home district. She had cherished ambitions to write verse and even plays, from the days when, as a young girl, she visited her uncle in Stockholm and went to the theatre with the old housekeeper, becoming impressed by peasant plays and scenes from Nosselt’s _History_. She had lain awake at night, composing rhymes and neglecting the sleep which would have fitted her for the tasks of the next day in “composition and arithmetic.”[68]