Under the Lilacs

Under the Lilacs is a children fiction novel by Louisa May Alcott, first published in 1878. The story is about two girls (Bab and Betty Moss), Miss Celia, a circus runaway (Ben Brown) and his dog (Sancho).
When two young girls decide to have a tea party with their dolls and a mysterious dog comes and steals their prized cake, they end up finding a circus run-away in their play barn, Ben Brown. Ben is a horse master, and loves horses, so when the Moss' take the young boy in they decide to give him work at the neighbors house driving cows.
After that a series of events happens, and Ben finds out his beloved father is dead. Miss Celia, a neighbor, feels sorry and comforts him, and finally offers to let Ben stay with her and her fourteen-year-old brother, Thornton who is called Thorny.
After that many adventures and summer-happenings go on in Celia's house. Sancho gets lost, Ben is accused of stealing, Miss Celia even gets hurt and Ben takes a wild ride on her horse, Lita. (wikipedia.org)

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and author of classic children's literature, best known for Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys, and An Old-Fashioned Girl. Raised in a New England household shaped by Transcendentalist thought, reform politics, education, and literary ambition, Alcott developed a body of fiction that combined domestic realism, moral seriousness, humour, sympathy, and a practical understanding of childhood. Her work remains central to nineteenth-century American literature and to the development of juvenile fiction.Alcott's children's books often explore friendship, family duty, illness, work, education, self-command, generosity, and the passage from childish impulse toward moral responsibility. In Jack and Jill, as in much of her best juvenile fiction, she turns everyday domestic and village life into a school for character, using accident, recovery, play, and community to show how young people learn courage, kindness, patience, and independence. For readers of classic children's books, American family fiction, and nineteenth-century girls' and boys' stories, Alcott remains one of the essential authors of the field.