I found this slightly-battered 1928 hardcover on the book-swap shelf in the Tyngsboro MA post office lobby. (Among the interesting notes: the copyright page includes this: "All rights reserved including that of translation into foreign languages, include the Scandinavian". Was it common to have explicitly included that? Were the Scandinavians prone to piracy-by-translation?) The book inspired a 1929 silent film - which seems to be a bit of a hybrid, at least in the online copy I saw: there's a soundtrack with music and sound effects (clucking chickens, trotting horses, etc.) but the dialogue is conveyed via speech panels. Looked quite entertaining, FWIW! Gold-hunting, bandits, dons and grandees and roving cowboys in old California, with romance and divided loyalties mixed in. The dashing hero has a horse called Pathfinder, which pleased me very much.

The book itself is a bit musty, though it's responded well to an airing-out. It has a few full-page illustrations scattered throughout, and a storyline featuring risk and redemption - and tragedy, and a truly delightful twist at the end to facilitate the match between the hero and his lady-love. [Spoiler: out of pride, while she was rich and he poor, they would not imagine marrying; this seems to be solved when her claim to her own lands is rejected, and when he proposes she gladly accepts. And then she reveals to him that it was her version of a test, as she - a lady of wealthy Spanish family - has been too used to seeing gringos so hungry for land that they'd promise anything. Turns out her late mother had the sense to nail down the land and deeds in delicious and unbreakable detail, and now she offers the lot to her new fiancé. And, to my relief, he is delighted with her mother's wisdom and her own cleverness, and doesn't get in a snit about the "test" part of things. Looks like they'll be happy together - although she longs to boot the Americans out of California and he's pretty sure California will make a find new state, so where their family will be in a couple of generations isn't clear. End of spoiler]

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in this new-to-me Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2021 Clean Start for the New Year challenge. ***

*** Released for the 2021 Movie challenge. ***