This is the story of a tender relationship between a young girl and an old woman, whose compassion and affection for one another do much to dispel the loneliness that each has felt to keenly in the past.

Rosabel is a lonely member of a large farm family in Minnesota at the turn of the century—a middle child with no one close to her own age to share her thoughts with. During the late summer, she has to remain away from the farm and the other children all day, for her chore is to tend alone the herd of cows as they wander through woods and meadows where pastures seem best to them.

One day a strange old woman comes to Rosabel's aid at a frightening time—when the cows are running rampant through a neighbor's cornfield. A warm friendship develops between the old woman and the young girl, although it must remain a secret because "Granny Meg" is hiding in the woods from the town officials who, "for her own good," want to put her into the County Home.

Secrets are pleasant to have when they cause no conflict, but the burden of this one gradually becomes unbearable when Rosabel's mother has a severe heart attack which only Granny Meg's knowledge of herbs can alleviate. What should Rosabel do? Where do her loyalties lie?

As in her earlier book, Runaway to Glory, Mrs. Christgau deals sensitively with the plight of old people who, as they lost contact with the mainstream of society, develop ways of behavior that are often misunderstood by younger generations.

From the dust jacket