Throughout her early life, Keller took great pleasure in nature. She felt it, tasted it, and smelled it, and then imagined its sights and sounds. As she pursued her studies, one of her favorite subjects was physical geography because "it was a joy to learn the secrets of nature." Describing the experience of climbing a tree, she comments in chapter five, "I sat there for a long, long time, feeling like a fairy on a rosy cloud. After that I spent many happy hours in my tree of paradise, thinking fair thoughts and dreaming bright dreams."