Whitecloud Literary "To breathe is to write." Carlisle The Steele family lives a hard-scrabble life on the Nebraska prairie in the mid-1800’s.  Paul, and his wife Anna, grimly struggle to survive and provide for their five children. A sod house on the outskirts of town contrasts sharply with Paul’s brother, Matt, who lives on the prosperous family farm that he gained through fraud and deceit. When all seems lost, the town drunk offers the family a way out of poverty.  The drunk is actually a well-educated lawyer who moved west to try and escape his past. A small loan from him, some hard work, and a little good luck turn Paul’s fortune around. Matt has deep-seated, though completely unwarranted, hatred for his brother and does his best to bring him down.  Paul’s son, Simon, is a trusting and impressionable boy. When Matt denies them the help they desperately need, Simon struggles to see the worth of the morals his father and mother instill in him. Simon’s best friend, Buell, is a dark and moody boy who slowly develops into a seriously anti-social young man. His loyalty to Simon is unbending, and he takes deadly exception when Simon is threatened. Into this mix comes a crew of Texas cattlemen who deliver a herd of Civil War blockaded cows to the beef-starved Western Army. Hard-bitten men, they teach Simon and Buell some valuable lessons when the boys are allowed to tend the herd for a summer. Several other characters have a hand in shaping this story of life and death on the American frontier; the blacksmith: Buell’s father and Paul’s best friend; a fair but strict sheriff; Matt’s son, David, sadistic and spoiled and Sarah, who Simon loved from the first grade and is the reason both Simon and Buell leave town, Simon because he wants to, Buell because he must.   Read the first two chapters of Book I. Go to synopsis of Book II (Laramie)   Return Home