George Andersen is fourteen, and this little girl that follows him everywhere he goes is a neighbors brat of thirteen. Our wagon train has finally made it to the great Rocky Mountains. Jim Court, our wagon master, led us this far from Iowa with only one skirmish with the Cheyenne on the flat plains. Four good men died in that fight, and my dad was one of them. I am the man of our family now, and it is rough for us all. Now eight months has gone by since his death, and a lot has happened. The brat and I are the only survivors of eighty men, women, and children. Will the mountains, the animals, or the red man kill me, or will I become a mountain man and a legend in my youth?
