Little May’s Friends: Or Country Pets and Pastimes (1878)

Gwen McfryA[a–a[s father said, A[a–AdonA[a–a[t you sometimes feel like a best seller at a lending library?A[a–A Home from helping her brother Logan survive the shock of fathering triplets, faced now with the choice of helping her Aunt Mae move, or keeping house for her mystery-writing Aunt Clara at her mountain hideaway, Gwen did feel like a well-worn book. This time she signed herself out to Aunt Clara. On the bus to Mineral Bluff, she let herself dream about getting married. That, supposing she met the right man. The first man she met getting off the bus was blue-eyed Deputy Sheriff Dillon Murphy, very handsome in his uniform. She was due to see a lot of that uniform, because four escaped convicts were loose on the mountain and Dillon was the protective type. The next man Gwen met was sitting in the oak tree outside her auntA[a–a[s windowA[a–acold, hungry, un-shaven. One of DillonA[a–a[s fugitives? Probably, but Gwen just couldnA[a–a[t bring herself to turn him in.