The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West

The Bobbsey Twins in the Great West, originally published in 1913, takes the Lakeport family on an extended cross-country railway trip to visit cousin Mr. and Mrs. Bingo on a ranch in the American West. The premise lets the series do a kind of educational tour. The twins see the Mississippi River for the first time, ride a Pullman sleeper car, encounter cowboys, learn to ride horses, attend a rodeo, and have several brushes with the local color of frontier life as imagined in 1913.

Flossie and Freddie, the six-year-old twins, get lost twice during the trip, which is the standard formula for generating minor crises. Nan and Bert handle the older-twin responsibilities. There is a small mystery involving an inheritance the cousin family has been hoping for. The plot is not the point of these books. The Western locations are the point, and the writing is reasonably specific about train schedules, ranch routines, and the geography of the journey.