Jack of the Pony Express; Or, the Young Rider of the Mountain Trails

The year is 1860. The Pony Express is the only thread connecting civilization to the far-flung outposts of the American West, and when Jack Bailey's father falls dangerously ill, sixteen-year-old Jack must inherit not just a mail route, but a family's survival. Armed with nothing but his loyal pony Sunger and sheer determination, he rides into a world of mountain bandits, blizzards, and men who would kill for the contents of his saddlebags. Frank V. Webster understood exactly what his young readers craved: the thunder of hooves against frozen ground, the weight of a leather mail pouch heavier than fear, and the desperate thrill of a race against time. Jack is no hero at the start , just a boy worried about his father, uncertain whether he can fill boots too large for him. But the mountain trails have a way of forging courage from necessity, and what begins as a family obligation becomes a test of everything Jack thought he knew about himself. This is frontier adventure at its purest, the kind of story that made boys dream of the open West and wonder if they, too, could be brave when it mattered most.