Steadfast Ground

About this book

1841. The best cotton crop the Daniels family has seen in years means one thing: Dudley means to haul it all the way to the river port of Fulton himself, and this time he's taking seventeen-year-old Jasper along instead of Robert, a first for them both. But a good crop and a full coin pouch draw more than just a fair price. On the long road home, two rough men who marked Dudley being paid at the landing follow the wagon into a lonely stretch of timber, and it will take every bit of quick thinking Jasper has learned this past year to see his father safely home. Back at the farm, Elizabeth is struck down by a sudden, dangerous fever, and it falls to Zora Sue to put to real use the healing knowledge Gray Fox once taught the family, while Robert rides hard for the Washington doctor and the quinine that might save her. Rooted in real 1840s Arkansas history - the bustling steamboat trade at Fulton, the ever-present danger of malaria on the frontier, and the thin protection the law offered travelers on a lonely road - Steadfast Ground is a heartfelt, faith-filled story about courage under pressure, the different kinds of bravery a family can call on, and a God who gives, in his own words, "not the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." This is a complete, stand-alone story and the seventh book in Tales from Blackland Prairie, for family read-alouds and young readers ages 8-12 who love stories of courage, family, and gentle faith.