Part of a widely popular juvenile series about an obese boy named Marcus Aurelius Fortunatus Tidd who speaks with a persistent stutter. In this volume, Mark takes over a failing sawmill from Silas Doolittle Bugg and turns it into a profitable enterprise while frustrating the efforts of a corrupt power company agent to force him out of business.

The language and storytelling is very reminiscent of Leo Edwards, who rose to popularity a decade later, but the plot has a more of a Horatio Alger quality -- Mark succeeds because he is honest and forthright and makes a good impression on those in authority. ( )