Authenticity of factual content doesn't compensate for this pedantic marshalling of the routine action, conscientious Western....The saga of the Clark family, as they take the dangerous trek from Missouri to Southern California, where they settle, and learn to know their Spanish-American and Mexican neighbors. The children grow up, the family prospers, the good are rewarded, the horse thieves are punished. Stilted conversation introduces some interesting facts of natural history in the desert, but that's about all we can recommend in this disappointing book.