About the book

After financial disaster and her mother's death, Bushy Sukolt refuses to accept being left behind when her father joins a geological expedition. Her insistence carries her into a childhood of camps, animals, practical tasks, and sudden danger. The adults around her cannot provide the sheltered world usually imagined for a small girl; instead, observation and self-reliance become essential forms of education. Westover presents the adventures as a romance rooted in real experience, while acknowledging that memory has softened the hardships. Bushy's attachment to her father and animal companions gives continuity to an episodic account of courage and resourcefulness. The frontier setting also carries the period's racial assumptions and appetite for violent adventure, which belong to the book's perspective rather than to an uncomplicated celebration of settlement.

Childhood and self-reliance
Family loyalty
Frontier adventure

Why read it

Bushy's practical competence makes her an active participant in the dangers and work of her surroundings.

English text of the 1896 Morse Company edition, published as Cynthia M. Westover

Contents and reading sections

About the book

Why read it

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