Book excerpt: Tess, Beany and Lucy live near the same sleepy canal in Seneca Falls but couldn't be more different. Tomboy Tess is the daughter of a drunken handyman, Beany the timid daughter of a runaway slave, and Lucy the ambitious daughter of a wealthy abolitionis. It's no surprise their goals and personalities clash. All three, however, are enamored of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her First Woman's Rights convention, but it's not until Tess rescues Stanton and Amelia Bloomer from town bullies and is rewarded with a job printing Bloomer's temperance and women's rights newspaper that they become friends. When Tess's father delivers Beany's mother to slave catchers, the girls fight to save her. A bloody battle on the towpath leaves two of them broken in body and spirit, adrift on the Rie Canal. Adventurous Tess finally gets her wish: she's leaving home. But at what price? And how will she survive? -- From back cover.