Sometimes it is hard to remember that great men in your history books were once little boys. More than a hundred and fifty years ago Alexander Hamilton grew up on St. Croix Island in the West Indies. This was a land where monkeys chattered at him from the trees, playfully throwing sticks and leaves down on him, and summer lasted the whole year around.

Far across the blue waters of the Atlantic were the British Colonies, which he was to help make the United States of America. The mere thought of this land was enough to bring a shine to young Alec's eyes. There a new country was growing up, and he wanted more than anything else to go there to college and help the new country grow.

Life on the island was very exciting. There was the day on which he investigated the strange cry of "Hurry Up! Hurry Up!" which came from a queer-looking box bobbing about on the bay near where he was swimming. You could never guess what he discovered in that box!

Another day his uncle took him down to the docks to see a great ship unload the cargo which it had carried from England. That was a day he never forgot. It was the day on which he met a splendid friend who was to have a great influence on the rest of his life.

Alec Hamilton went to school -- a small school that sometimes met on the beach and seemed more like a picnic. He studied hard for the day when he could go to North America for college. But it took money to go to college and he must earn this money. The job he found was very hard. At first the grown men with whom he worked were jealous of his success, and made things very difficult for him, but the Little Lion only struggled on.

The day the hurricane struck the island was to be one of the most exciting and most important in Alec's life. He had a narrow escape, for while he was riding furiously to warn the planters, the storm swept down upon him with all its terrifying strength. Out of this day's events came to him a thrilling opportunity.

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Alexander Hamilton became a Founding Father, one of America's greatest statesmen, and this did not come about by chance. For here, in Alec Hamilton: The Little Lion, you will see that although he loved fun and excitement just as any other boy, he never forgot his great dream of helping the colonies of the mainland, the colonies that became our nation.

A fine service is performed by all the books in this popular series. When you read American history you do not think of these persons as dull old men long dead. You have learned to think about them as real human beings very much alive.

From the dust jacket