I was very surprised to discover that Sophie, in "Sophie's misfortunes", is not even 4 years old (in recent illustrations and movies she's pictured much older, around 7). She is left alone to play, and obviously cause some mischief — she's 3 going on 4! Her mother also tell her that if she wants to cross the forest with her she'll have to keep pace and she won't help her or even check if she's around. And the forest is supposed to be haunted by wolf. This is a fiction, but it seems very literal and normal behavior from a high class 19th century family. Obviously things have changed.