Amelia Bromfield-Brown looked out the train window. What she saw was discouraging: flat, parched-looking ground, dotted with cactus plants; hills, behind them, mountains; a cloudless, hot sky.

The rest of Amelia's family did not seem to feel optimistic, either. "Well!" Grandmother snapped out so loudly that half the railroad car turned around to look at them. "If this is where we are to live, I have only one thing to say." She paused dramatically, then announced, "Riverside, California, is going to be the absolute end of the world!"

Thus the Bromfield-Browns arrived in the California of the 1880s, having wended their arduous way from England via Canada. They were moving to the desert climate for Father's health, but they soon found that this problem was only one of a legion, including such things as white scale, the terrible Applebooms, and Grandmother's social life.

Led by the indefatigable Amelia, the three Bromfield-Brown children attack their problems in a brisk, uncompromising way. Patricia Beatty, evoking the mood of the day, continues to delight her readers in this sprightly historical novel.

From the dust jacket