A Voice in the Wilderness

Margaret Earle, a young Eastern schoolteacher bound for a post in Arizona, steps down at a lonely desert water tank believing she has reached her stop. The train pulls away, stranding her in open country after nightfall. The frightening hours that follow, a menacing stranger and a rescue by a young cowboy, set the tone for Grace Livingston Hill’s 1916 novel of faith and courage on the frontier. Once Margaret reaches the rough settlement where she is to teach, she works to win over the children and the hardened adults around her, trusting that quiet conviction can change a place. The story pairs a gentle romance with the earnest Christian themes that made Hill one of the most widely read novelists of her era. It stands as both a Western and an early example of inspirational fiction.