Tabitha's Vacation

Summer freedom in the Nevada mining town of Silver Bow brings Tabitha Catt an unexpected worry. She and Gloriana Holliday have barely begun their holiday when news of Mr. McKittrick's worsening condition reaches them. His family needs money for an operation in Los Angeles, while his wife struggles to care for him and their six children. Tabitha offers to help, bringing the concerns of a neighboring household into her plans for vacation.

Ruth Brown MacArthur's children's novel sets friendship and responsibility against a landscape of steep paths, desert flowers and distant mining camps. Billiard runs away across the sand, imagining a future in the navy until hunger, darkness and unfamiliar sounds unsettle him. The contrast between his confident plans and the realities of the desert gives the adventure its tension. Readers interested in older stories of young people facing practical troubles will find both domestic concerns and outdoor danger here.