This is the story of three children who, due to compromising circumstances, move into a remote part of the English countryside. They lose their father, their comfortable home, access to their friends, their schooling and even their wealth of provisions (firewood, tea, food, etc.). Their only acquaintances work on the barge or on the railway, and it's up to the children themselves to make a new home for themselves.
Bobbie is the most interesting character, since she is the one who shoulders most of the family burdens. She isn't impulsive like her brother, and she pulls herself together better than her sister Phyllis. She knows the severity of her family situation, due to how observant she is, but is too tactful of her mother's feelings to ask about it.
This novel doesn't have one solid plot strand, but is a collection of different adventures. This made it a little too easy to stop reading, particularly during the later chapters, when the pacing slowed down. Their adversities were never too difficult to deter the children, which is uplifting, but during certain stories it seemed unrealistic. (Fires, the hound, etc.) Since the language gets a little wordy, that coupled with the plot was a hard to get through.
