The blooms of a colonial New Hampshire town inspired this heartwarming 1878 children’s novel. A tea-party-crashing dog introduces two girls to Ben Brown, a boy on the run from the circus. The friends help Ben find home, family, and a happy ending, but not before misunderstanding, adventure, and tragedy strike.

Ben has run away from his life as a circus boy because his father went away and his guardians mistreat him. Bab and Betty find him and his talented dog living in the carriage house. Their mother takes him in, cleans him up and gets him a job helping the Squire, but when Miss Celia reopens the big house, she finds she needs someone to help her and her brother, who is recovering from an illness. Ben, Thorny, Bab and Betty have adventures, learn lessons about life, death and faith and all comes out as well as can be expected in the end.