This tale aims to capture the vigour and roughness of the pioneering days out West, focusing on a girl, who prefers to follow her hankerin to pan for gold in Colorado than become the last girl in town to be married, and Claude with whom she becomes friends until they both find a gold nugget and race each other to file a claim. Tracey Campbell Pearson is the author-illustrator of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, Old Macdonald had a Farm and Dollhouse People.