A travelogue of a summer vacation, Sunbridge is not written to Eleanor Porter’s usual high standards. It was subsidized —written to please a corporate backer, not her fans. She issued it under the pen name, “Eleanor Stuart” which she had used in her short stories. There is a possibility that it was written much before 1913, which also helps explain its uneven quality.
L.C. Page, the publisher, promised readers a tale of “real girls” and “manly boys!”
Any girl of any age who is fond of outdoor life will appreciate this fascinating tale of Genevieve Hartley's summer vacation house-party on a Texas ranch. Genevieve and her friends are real girls, the kind that one would like to have in one's own home, and there are a couple of manly boys introduced.
The story goes like this:
Wealthy Genevieve Hartley is sixteen. She is in the Hexagon Club along with five other girls at a private school in Sunbridge, NH. She invites the girls to her ranch in Texas. They include Cordelia, a serious girl who solves people’s problems, and Tilly a joker whose wisecracks enliven the fact-packed discussions. Their chaperone is Mrs. Julia Kennedy, a schoolmarm and pretty widow. All expenses for the trip are paid by Genevieve’s father, a ranch-owning, handsome widower. They travel by train to the ranch where Genevieve immediately gives a concert for Mr. Hartley and the ranch hands. The girls experience horses, boys and Texan culture. They go to church and sing hymns. They meet Pastor Jones and his daughter Quentina, who has a talent for poetry.
Chapter Twelve, “The Opening of a Barrel,” recapitulates the famous passage in Chapter Five of Pollyanna in which Pollyanna recounts her late father accepting a donation from Ladies Aiders. In Pollyanna, the barrel story is a paragraph that perfectly explains the Glad Game. In Sunbridge, Pastor Jones’ family takes most of a chapter to un-gladly open their barrel of disappointing gifts. The girls vow to pack a big barrel to send from Sunbridge.
They hold a Texan-style dance, they help a man who is injured, and Cordelia uncovers another man’s hidden identity. Summer ending, they leave the ranch and visit San Antonio (The Alamo, etc.) and head to New Orleans, but, on the way there, the train crashes and Tilly breaks her arm. They take a steamboat to NYC.
The last third of the book sees the girls back in Sunbridge. Another hidden identity is revealed. A new boy comes to school. They pack a “good” missionary barrel for Pastor Jones. Genevieve goes to Boston on an errand, spends carfare on poor kids and gets lost on Christmas Eve. A party in Sunbridge attracts eligible males. Girls are bridesmaids at a wedding; Finally, as the girls had long wished, Quentina Jones is expected to come east as the book ends happily. —END
Music:
Chapter Seven describes the evening when the girls were welcomed to the Hartleys’ ranch. Genevieve Hartley performs:
"I think it would help the waiting if Genevieve would go in and sing to us," suggested Bertha, after a moment's silence. "It will be so heavenly to sit out here and listen to it!"
"Oh, sing that lovely Mexican 'Swallow Song,'" coaxed Elsie. "'La Gol—' —Gol-something, anyhow."
"Don't swear, Elsie," reproved Tilly, with becoming dignity.
"'La Golondrina'?" laughed Genevieve.
"Yes, it's a dear," sighed Elsie.
"I'd rather have that Creole Love Song that you say Mammy Lindy taught you," breathed Cordelia. "That would be perfect for such a scene as this."
"Pooh! I'd rather have one of those tinkly little tunes where you can hear the banjos and the tambourines," averred Tilly.
"Indeed! At this rate I don't see how I'm going to sing at all," laughed Genevieve, "with so many conflicting wishes. Anything different anybody wants?"
"Yes," declared Mr. Hartley, promptly. "I want them all."
"Of course!" cried half a dozen voices.
"All right!" rejoined Genevieve, laughingly, springing to her feet.
And so while everybody watched the stars in the far-reaching sky, Genevieve, in the living room, played and sang till the back gallery and the long covered way at the rear of the house were full of the moving shadows of soft-stepping Mexican servants and cowboys. And everywhere there was the hush of perfect content while from the living room there floated out the clear, sweet tones, the weird, dreamy melodies, and the tinkle of the tambourines.
La Golondrina (The Bluebird) was written in 1862 by a Mexican exile and has become an international standard. A poignant song of farewell and nostalgia, it is represented on YouTube by dozens of recordings — vocals, instrumentals and full orchestras. Here are two versions. In the movie The Wild Ones, villagers serenade the departing men with La Golondrina, and Maria Mouskouri offers a lovely solo.
In Chapter Ten, the girls go to church:
They sang first, Genevieve's own clear voice leading; and even Tilly, who seldom sang in church at home, found herself joining heartily in "Nearer my God to Thee," and "Bringing in the Sheaves." There was something so free, so whole-souled about the music in that soft outdoor air, that she, as well as some of the others, decided that never before had any music sounded so inspiring.
And, that is all the Music in The Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch.
This novel is structured like a big ugly house with rooms that are inconveniently located. Every room is nicely furnished and decorated, but, in this house, people have to climb steep stairs or pace endless hallways to reach a room. Unlike Eleanor’s other books, Sunbridge has an inefficient, rambling structure. Some episodes deliver her wit and warmth, but linking these moments together in a sequence is often a stretch. It is unlike any of her other books: EHP juggles six protagonists and at least three locations while inserting dry almanac-style facts about destinations.
The “Wild West” was declared tamed in 1912 and Sunbridge emerged in 1913 — almost certainly subsidized to promote western tourism. It could have been funded by the railroad(s) who were promoting western travel at the time. My own travel writing helped me understand this project. I enjoyed some great “freebies.” I stayed in nice inns and dined at expensive restaurants — but I was duty-bound to mention them in my article. I suggest that EHP was held to similar expectations on a trip out west, and the book was structured to accommodate those obligations; the resulting prose suffers and cannot compare with her other, very competent efforts.
[Gutenberg.org offers free copies at: Sunbridge Girls at Six Star Ranch]
The next installment of Glad Tidings will look at Just David (1916), a best-seller in which the main character is a musician. After Pollyanna, David is the book most identified with Eleanor Porter. Her loving descriptions of musical moments are lush and passionate.
After David, we tackle EHP’s remaining novels: The Road to Understanding (1917), Oh, Money! Money! (1918), Dawn (1919), Mary Marie (1920) and Sister Sue (1921)