A Waif of the Mountains

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 167

Read PDF online Download Save

About this book

Snow fills the mountain passes around a small mining settlement while the men inside its saloon argue over a name for their town. Their competing suggestions turn into comic speeches, with college graduate Budge Isham encouraging the dispute through pointed questions. The camp brings together former clerks, educated adventurers, a parson and men with troubled pasts, all hoping for better fortunes in the diggings.

Edward Sylvester Ellis sets this novel for young readers in the American West, where community life and family concerns share space with physical danger. The book's subjects include missing children and fathers and daughters. A later passage follows Captain Dawson, Ruggles and the parson Brush down a dark canyon, searching for the horses they need for a pursuit. Readers will find both the humour of the miners' conversations and the practical difficulties of moving through remote mountain country.