Jo Wiley had disguised herself as a boy and had run away from the Purdy Orphanage, in the deep south of America. She hoped she could find her father, who was working on a Mississippi mail-boat called “Queen of the Levee”.
Samantha “Sam” Connolly is brought up by her baseball player father, Quicksilver Jim, to think and act as a boy. When he loses his job, Sam secretly joins the Lee Lomax dancers to earn money as the star of the troupe.
Dulcie Starr and her wheelchair bound sister, Bella are the only survivors of an Indian raid and hoped to complete their journey to their uncle in Sweet Water Valley on foot.
Dan McCabe’s family are travelling across America to start a new life in Texas. Along the way they make friends with two cowboys, not knowing they are actually bank-robbers. They hide the stolen money in Jill McCabe’s piano, and plan to pick up the money again when the family reach the next town.
Other Appearances:
Fourteen year old, Sue Mason was the only girl on the Bar M ranch in Wyoming. Her widowed father, Henry Mason, and her two strapping brothers, Sam and Luke, refused to admit she was growing up. They tried to protect her at all times, but in fact she was well able to look after herself AND them.
Orphaned Bonny Boon and her dog, Smokey, lived in a cave on the outskirts of the American frontier town of Crystal Springs. Bonny made a living by trapping and selling fur pelts, and because of her wild way of life, all but one of the grown-ups of the town treated her as an outcast. Bonny warned them that the fierce Shawnee Indians were about to attack Crystal Springs. At first, Bonny was not believed, but finally the town prepared to defend itself against the Shawnee raiders …
When gold was discovered in the Klondike in North America, young Kathy Grant was left in the care of Mrs Smart, a cruel storekeeper. Kathy’s father set off for the gold-fields to try to make his fortune. The money her father had left ran out, and Kathy was forced to slave for Mrs Smart. Determined to join her father somehow, Kathy saved any tips she got for the laundry service she ran for Mrs Smart. Then Kathy spent all her savings to buy an injured husky, whose master was going to kill him.
While crossing the Great Plains of America, Lucy-Mae Graham was separated from her parents and captured by a tribe of Cherokees, but her life was spared. She was renamed White Star and was forced to work for the Chief’s granddaughter, Grey Cloud. Grey Cloud was very harsh and cruel towards the prisoner, although White Star was liked and respected by the rest of the tribe.
She called herself Lucy Lariat because she didn’t know her real name, and because she was so good with a rope. Since her parents had been killed by Indians, she had been brought up by Ruben Rothwell, who trained Lucy and other children to steal for him. Lucy had stolen a horse from the Tracy ranch, but when she returned to steal a beautiful white horse, she saw a cougar about to attack it. She lassoed the cougar, and it clawed her leg. Thinking Lucy had saved their stock, Jim Tracy and his daughter, Diana, put her up for the night and made a-fuss of her.
Bonnie Scotland’s talent for playing the bagpipes had gained her a scholarship to Cameronian College. USA, where it was the tradition to have a piper for ceremonial occasions. One of Bonnie’s duties was to play the pipes in the morning to waken everybody.
