This is the story of the beginning of the first four colonies in America.  It tells why people came to live in America, what they found there, how they built their homes, and how they lived.

We have tried to select those incidents which will most appeal to children and which will make the life of the pioneers as vivid as possible.   The authentic story of Myles Standish and his Red Cow, told, so far as we know, for the first time in a child's book, explains the system of trading most clearly.  Wherever possible, we have included in the narrative and the pictures, for children are most of all interested in what other children did and how they looked.

From the dust jacket