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After a heart-wrenching series of occurrences, including the demise of all of her siblings as well as her parents, fifteen year old Elizabeth found herself totally and completely alone in the middle of nowhere. Not only did she have no one to appeal to for help nor anywhere to go, the man who murdered her brother was now also after her in a vast Montana wilderness. With only her faithful horse Robin and two trusty pistols in her holster Elizabeth tried to ride to Philadelphia to find a grandmother, encountering many obstacles and much trouble. The way to Philadelphia from Montana is very, very long by car, but on horseback it is just this side of infinite, or so it seems. A lot can happen on the way, and it did. She tried to enroll in school but got laughed down the steps, while inadvertently finding open, embracing arms at a house of ill repute. What kind of world was it that fiercely slammed the door of virtue in her face, while eagerly enticing her down the path of sin, Elizabeth had to wonder. In any case she would fight evil ferociously and seek good no matter what it took, and it turned out to take a lot. In an astounding display of inner fortitude and uncomprising goodness, Elizabeth finds that if one can hang on long enough during periods of long, apparently unending adversity, that luck will eventually break one's way. The beneficiaries of her good fortune extend far beyond herself, and we see that for a good person there is always hope.
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This book pulled me in from the start. It's a girl on an adventure and becomes a bit of a missionary story (fair warning given, to those of you who don't like such.). The adventure is epic in scope, but yet downplayed at the same time; Elizabeth does not think much of riding horseback from Montana to Pennsylvania to reach her last remaining relatives, and the reader consequently does not either. There are indeed moments of stark action; her brave escapes from dishonor, especially (there are three of those.).
She goes to her grandmother's and grows interested in the Christian Endeavor meetings (of which the author was a great advocate), where she learns to worship God truly; these parts become somewhat preachy, but I enjoyed it. She shows great pluck throughout the tale, which makes her likable.
If read for romance, it will disappoint; romance is much sidelined after a singularly romantic beginning, and does not have enough interaction between the two to suit the appetites of modern romantics. Elizabeth is a matter-of-fact, pleasant-natured survivor by nature, and those who like such characters will enjoy the adventure in this story.
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