Plain Jane and pretty Betty : or, The girl who won out by May Hollis Barton
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"Plain Jane and pretty Betty" by May Hollis Barton is a novel written in the early 20th century. It follows Jane Cross, a sensitive, capable orphan taken in by the Powells, as she moves from a grim mining town to Greenville, where her path crosses with wealthy, aloof Betty Browning and with kind, inventive clerk Billy Dobson. Early setbacks—an accident, a devastating fire, and town gossip—set up a tale of class contrasts,
resilience, and a girl determined to win out. At the start, Jane Cross leaves the harsh mining town of Coal Run with the Powells, endures a moving-van crash, and arrives in Greenville, where eccentric neighbors Lydia and “Mad Marion” offer unexpected kindness. Settling into a small sunny house, Jane runs errands to Mason’s store, meets haughty Betty Browning, and befriends clerk Billy Dobson, an aspiring inventor. A great night fire destroys Martin and Hull’s grain buildings; Mr. Powell injures his hands and loses his job, while Mr. Browning privately fears ruin. Rumor then points to Billy as the firebug after a rebuffed pitch for backing, and he is publicly confronted; he denies it firmly, and Jane defends him while Betty remains coldly dismissive. The opening closes with worry settling over Jane’s household, prompting her to think hard about how she can help. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Barton, May Hollis |
|---|---|
| Title | Plain Jane and pretty Betty : or, The girl who won out |
| Original Publication | New York: Cupples & Leon Company, 1926. |
| Series Title | The Barton books for girls ; 5 |
| Credits | David Edwards, Dori Allard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres |
| Subject | Young women -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | City and town life -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | Job hunting -- Juvenile fiction |
| Subject | Working class women -- Juvenile fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77832 |
| Release Date | Feb 1, 2026 |
| Last Update | Feb 19, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 269 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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