All the long way from Rhode Island to Oregon, via Cape Horn and then by stagecoach, trekked the four Bounce orphans, to live with their Uncle Seth. But he had died before receiving their letter announcing they were on the way.

Arriving in the little pioneer town of Cynthianna, tired, hungry, and homeless in the midst of strangers, their plight would have been sad indeed if kind Rufus Boster and his wife, Nancy, hadn't befriended them. It was they who arranged temporary homes for the Bounces—Johanna, the baby, to stay with them, Luke to go with old Doc Kinsey, Markia to help Mrs. Weddle at the boarding house, and Matt, the eldest, to work in the print shop of the town's newspaper the Cynthianna Shield.

Matt and Markia's big problem was to fulfill the promise to their mother, keeping the Bounces together as a family. How they finally accomplished this and how even Peaches Charley, the Indian, and Feng, the Chinese laborer who hid in Mrs. Weddle's barn, and strange old Widow Morrison, all had a hand in solving the Bounces' problem.

Evelyn Sibley Lampman, author of The Shy Stegosaurus books, City Under the Back Steps, Three Knocks on the Wall and Bargain Bride, tells an absorbing and entertaining story—and Grace Paull's numerous pictures make the Bounces and their neighbors real and unforgettable people.