Danneberg, Julie

During the last week of school, the students in Mrs. Hartwell's class try to come up with the perfect present for their teacher.

Margaret records in her journal the many wondrous sites she and her family visit on their vacation to Colorado, including the Garden of the Gods, the Royal Gorge, the Continental Divide, and the Black Canyon.

Untalented at riding, roping, and cracking a whip, Slim the cowboy calms a stampeding herd of cattle with his poetry.

Mrs. Hartwell is concerned that preparing her students to take the Big Test is only making them nervous, so she thinks of a way to help them relax.

In 1890s Cripple Creek, Colorado, when young Mary McHugh's father loses his leg in a mining accident, she tries to help, both by earning money and by encouraging her father to go back to carving wooden figurines and playing piano.

The children in Mrs. Sarah Jane Hartwell's class write letters to her.