All the long way from Rhode Island to Oregon, by stage coach and boat, trekked the four Bounce orphans, to live with their Uncle Seth. But Uncle Seth had died before he ever received their letter telling him they were on the way.

Arriving in the little pioneer town of Cynthianna, tired and hungry, to find themselves homeless in the midst of strangers, their plight would have been said 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 the Widow Weddle at the boarding-house, and Matt, the eldest, to work in the print shop of the editor of the Cynthianna News.

Each of the Bounces had problems fitting themselves into their new homes but Matt and Markia had the biggest one because of their promise to their mother to keep 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 queer old Widow Morrison, all had a hand in the solution of the Bounces' problem, Evelyn Lampman, author of Crazy Creek and Treasure Mountain, tells in an absorbing and entertaining story—and Grace Paull's pictures make the Bounces and their neighbors real and unforgettable people.

From the dust jacket