Wallace J. Swenson Livres

Dirt-poor farmer, Paul Steele, is tested in Nebraska of the 1850's. He and his wife meet adversity head-on and overcome it while teaching their children honesty, loyalty and dedication. As the adults begin to overcome their challenges, the story centers more around their eldest son Simon's friendship with his best friend, Buell. Though these boys have dramatically different personalities, their loyalty to each other is unwavering, and each one takes something different from the lessons they share equally. Simon lives by the rules only to see his honesty turned against him, and the townspeople drive him and his friend away.

"Carlisle Nebraska 1876. Simon Steele and Buell Mace. Frontier Fiction"-- Provided by publisher

After a seven-year absence, lifelong friends Buell Mace and Simon Steele return to the town they grew up in. Carlisle, Nebraska in 1879 is trying to become a more genteel and law abiding place than the one a hot-headed Buell had been encouraged to leave at the age of nineteen. Sheriff Lorin Staker is one of the first people Buell talks to on returning, and Buell is amazed when he offers Buell a badge. The sheriff is having trouble with drifters, "Islanders" as they're called, who're camped on a five-hundred-acre sandbar three miles down the Platte River. Buell turns him down, his disdain for authority deeply seated. He does, however, ride out to take a look at the camp.