Summary
Summary of Polly and Eleanor
Key ideas
Key idea 1
Gold brings danger to the mountain
Polly Brewster and Eleanor Maynard have found gold on Top Notch Trail, but owning a claim means protecting it. Sam Brewster gathers help and tries to keep the news quiet. On the mountain, the scout Rattle-Snake Mike reads tracks and discovers that other riders are already ahead.
Sam uses a bluff to turn away suspicious men without a fight. The race to secure the mine introduces a world where sharp observation matters as much as courage, while Polly dreams of a life beyond the ranch.
Key idea 2
The mountain threatens everyone alike
Start free to read
Key idea 3
Polly shares her world with Eleanor
Start free to read
Key idea 4
New visitors open unexpected possibilities
Start free to read
Key idea 5
Polly claims the right to choose
Start free to read
Key idea 6
Other people cannot write your lines
Start free to read
Key idea 7
Celebrations give way to fresh uncertainty
Start free to read
Key idea 8
A larger life need not betray home
Start free to read
Key idea 9
Small choices carry the larger adventure
Start free to read
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
You will enjoy it if you like horseback adventures, mountain weather and wildlife, spirited girls with big plans, clever schemes between friends, and comic country characters with a heart.
What this book is
Polly and Eleanor is the second book in the Polly Brewster series by Lillian Elizabeth Roy, written in the 1920s for young readers. It follows Polly, a fourteen-year-old Colorado rancher's daughter, and Eleanor, a lively Chicago girl, right after they have found a gold vein on Top Notch Trail. You get mountain rides, claim jumpers, a forest fire, a snow slide, a day with beavers and a country fair, all told with plenty of humor.
But the book is also about growing up. Polly longs to leave her volcanic crater home and go to high school in the city. Her father wants her to stay. Eleanor, who loves to scheme, has plans of her own for both girls. Around them move a quick-eyed Indian scout, a sheriff, two young engineers, a teacher in love, and a hired man named Jeb who is hunted by a determined widow.
In this summary you will meet the people, follow the story from the first night at the ranch through the fair and the business plans, and see what the story is really about. We stop before the ending. Let us begin at the supper table, where six tired people are plotting how to guard a gold mine.
In this summary
- 1A Race to Guard the ClaimFree
- 2Fire and a Mountain on the Move
- 3Jeb, Sary and the Movie Girls
- 4A Day with the Beavers
- 5Two Boys, a Tripod and a Lost Uncle
- 6The Polly-Eleanor Company and a Girl's Stand
- 7A Proposal Behind the Pigsty
- 8Fair Days, Engagements and Eleanor's Irons in the Fire
- 9What the Story Is Really About
Key point 1 of 9
A Race to Guard the Claim
The story opens at the Pebbly Pit ranch house on the evening the claim to Montresor's Mine is filed at Oak Creek. Polly Brewster and her friend Eleanor Maynard have found gold on Top Notch Trail, and now the grown-ups must protect it. Sam Brewster has sent a coded telegram to his son John, because he fears every rascal in the county will head for the mountain if the news gets out. He plans to take a lawyer named Simms, the sheriff and the sheriff's strong son along as guards.
Mrs. Brewster suggests hiring Rattle-Snake Mike, an Indian scout who is proud of his famous ancestor and cleverer than anyone in the district. The party includes Polly's mother, the teacher Anne Stewart, and Eleanor's older sister Barbara, who dislikes the rough life and mutters about her chances of being shot. Eleanor, who is frail but fearless, can hardly wait. Meanwhile the narrator stops to introduce the cast. Polly lives in the crater of an extinct volcano, guarded by the colored stone walls of Rainbow Cliffs. She has never been farther than Oak Creek, and she dreams of high school in Denver.
At dawn the riders set out, with Jeb, the ranch hand, sent ahead to fetch Mike. Mike offers a secret Indian trail that cuts half a day from the climb. Polly wonders aloud whether it is the very trail the old prospector Montresor once swore he rode, a story people had laughed at.
At Four Mile Blaze, Mike shows what a scout can do. He presses his ear to the ground and studies bent twigs, a spiked miner's boot print and the hoofmarks of three horses. A tear in a flour sack, leaking onto the trail, tells him one horse is lame and loaded. Three miners have gone ahead, and two tenderfeet are following close behind.
Mr. Brewster decides that Polly, Anne and Mike should ride on to the cave, while he waits with the others. Then comes a tense scene by a great tree. Sam leans casually against the trunk, but both hands rest on revolvers in his pockets. Two riders approach, one of them Hank, the clerk from the filing office. Sam teases them about night-time sightseeing and the Ten Commandments, then uses a bluff about the sheriff to send them away without a direct lie.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
- Nothing to pay today · Renews every year
- We email you before you pay
- Cancel online in two clicks
Check yourself
Why does Sam want Polly to give up going away to school?
Right. “That secret worry, the fear of losing his daughter, runs under much of the story.”Not quite. “That secret worry, the fear of losing his daughter, runs under much of the story.”
How could Rainbow Cliffs help make mining possible?
Right. “That income could then pay for the railway and equipment needed at Top Notch, and the two companies would help each other.”Not quite. “That income could then pay for the railway and equipment needed at Top Notch, and the two companies would help each other.”
What causes tension between Eleanor's plans and Polly's independence?
Right. “Polly is astonished to hear plans she never agreed to.”Not quite. “Polly is astonished to hear plans she never agreed to.”
Questions about Polly and Eleanor
What is Polly and Eleanor about?
It is a Colorado adventure for young readers. Polly Brewster and her friend Eleanor Maynard find a gold mine, then face claim jumpers, a forest fire and a snow slide while Polly dreams of going to school in the city.
Do I need to read Polly of Pebbly Pit first?
The book stands well on its own. The narrator introduces the main people early, explaining who Polly, Eleanor, Anne and the Brewster family are, so new readers can follow the gold mine plot easily.
Who is Rattle-Snake Mike?
Mike is an Indian scout who knows the mountains better than anyone near Oak Creek. He guides the party up Top Notch Trail, reads hoofprints and boot marks, and helps save lives when the avalanche comes.
Is Polly and Eleanor a true story?
No, it is a made-up story, written in the 1920s by Lillian Elizabeth Roy. It uses real details of ranch life, beavers and mountain weather, but its characters and the gold mine are imagined.
What is the main message of the book?
The book shows that a young girl can respect her family and still choose her own path. It also values honesty, loyalty between friends, generosity with wealth and standing up for what you believe.
