At nearly sixteen years of age, Tom Nelson sets out for California hoping to earn money in the gold fields to pay off the mortgage on his father's farm, braving thieves, outlaws, and Indians along the way.
Horatio Alger Jr. ; January 13, 1832 – July 18, 1899) was a prolific 19th-century American writer, best known for his many young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)