Ballad of Lucy Whipple, The

In 1849 twelve-year-old California Morning who renames herself Lucy is distraught when her mother moves the family from Massachusetts to a small California mining town. There Lucy helps run a boarding house and looks for comfort in books while trying to find a way to return "home." Her mother is a widow with four children and loves the challenges of life in the west. Lucy saves up gold dust and money by baking pies to pay for her trip home. She works hard but, would rather spend time reading and writing letters to her grandparents. In the end, she learns that home is where ever you choose it to be.