A lesson in being content. Ruby's plans for a perfect day with friends ends up more special than she could have imagined!

A WORD FROM LOUIS L’AMOUR “Almost four decades ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in ‘pulp’ western magazines, I wrote a number of novel-length stories, known back then as ‘magazine novels.’ In creating them, I lived with my characters so closely that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared went out of print. Proud as I was of how I presented the characters and their adventures in the pages of the magazines, I wanted to tell the reader more about my people and why they did what they did. So, over the years, I revised and expanded these magazine works into novels that I published as full-length paperbacks under different titles. “These particular early magazine versions of my books have long been a source of considerable speculation and curiosity among many of my readers, so much so of late, that now I’ve decided to bring four of my ‘magazine novels’ back into print in this latest volume of my short fiction. “I hope you enjoy them.” FEATURING • Showdown Trail • A Man Called Trent • The Trail to Peach Meadow Canyon • The Rider of the Ruby Hills

Eleven-year-old Ruby Danes has a real best friend for the first time ever, but agonizes over whether or not to tell her a secret she has never shared with anyone--that her mother has been in prison since Ruby was five--and over whether to express her anger to her mother.

Ruby Raccoon paints a picture which unexpectedly shows the best feature of her various friends.

A lesson in making the best of a situation. When Ruby mixes her friends' advice into her cake, the results are surprising!

"Torn: Drenched in blood and sweat, Sir Torn is thrust before the healer known as Honey Wine that she might prepare him for the brutal entertainment to come: a slave -- Torn -- fighting another slave to the death for the depraved ruler's amusement. The new slave's arrogant nature piques Honey Wine's interest in more ways than one. Against her better judgment, she begins to notice him as a man. And begins to suspect that he is so much more than a slave."--Back cover.