Mr. Coogan, suddenly disappear. Others, like Snowshoe Ballou, the mail carrier, speak tenderly with their actions, bringing not words but gifts, like an eagle's feather. When the hulking Brother Clyde Claymore, a minister ''preaching the benefits of prunes and proverbs,'' arrives on an undersized mule, Lucy and her mother quickly brush him off, but learn not to judge this man by his ludicrous first impression. Hungry for security and stability, Lucy finds California's climatic conditions formidable. Cold, drenching winters alternate with searing summer droughts.
Fire ravages the town, followed by an equally devastating flood, and death is a constant presence.
People mysteriously arrive and disappear, and to Lucy's horror, boarders openly court her mother. Worse, her brother falls gravely ill. Despite her stubborn resistance, Lucy changes her attitudes. Lucy is not one to suffer in silence. Letters to her grandparents, full of self-pity and wistful whining, vividly describe ''living with a bunch of men who never wash or change their clothes . . .