This is a historical fiction oriented book about two young girls who were orphaned and subsequently brought up by their aunt. The story begins when the aunt is accidently shot dead and the girls have to be taken in by the minister and his wife. The girls worked hard for the minister and his wife and their 5 young children, but when the older girl is supposed get married to a much older man, she balks and they run away. They take with them two horses and supplies enough to last part of their way. Their destination is Independence, Missouri, where they hope to find an uncle who was living there for a time.
The main idea of the book is that people can get embroiled in misadventures, even though their intentions are reasonable, according to their own views. And most of the characters in the book do get involved in misadventures - not just the titular Maude March. There is horse thievery, bank robbery, and murder, in addition to lots of other frontier misadventures. But it is enough to keep reluctant readers quite involved, I would think.
This is a Wild West type story with female protagonists and is a fairly good yarn. The only thing that made it fall a little short for me is that I like the narrating character, Sallie, the younger sister, better than I did Maude. In fact, I didn't think Maude's character was drawn as clearly as it could have been. I always seemed to have the feeling that I didn't quite understand what made Maude tick. Sallie was much clearer.
Not great literature, but a good enough read.
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