Don’t know if I’m going to recall enough about this one to make it identifiable, but I figured I’d take a shot at it.
Probably 12-15 years ago I subscribed to both OWL and National Geographic World magazines. In one of them (I’m leaning toward World), they once printed an excerpt of a novel. It is this novel I’m hoping to find.
The part of the story excerpted was about a young woman, probably in her teens, from either Scotland or Ireland, living in the 1800s. Her brother had left for America some time ago, and due to some worsening circumstance at home, the girl decided to follow. Maybe their parents had died, or the family just couldn’t support all their children anymore, I don’t really remember.
The girl made a point to spend her money very carefully, buying a sack of oats she intended to have as her main sustainance during the voyage. She had the misfortune to fall in with some new “friends,” a woman and her two daughters who were also immigrating, who would up stealing the oats.
The only other thing I recall is that the girl and her brother seemed to have some minor degree of telepathy.
That’s it, sorry, can’t even remember the characters’ names. But thanks for any brain-picking you do to help me find this.