Five-year-old Dorothea Dix wanted more than anything else to learn to read, but her father, a poor preacher in the Maine wilderness, had no money to buy her a primer or a slate. Finally she persuaded him to scratch the ABC's and a few words with a stick on the ground near the cabin.

Dorothea's father sold printed sermons to people in the wilderness. She and her mother had to stitch and paste the printed pages of the sermons to make booklets. Often when she rested, she read some of the sermons. Certain words were hard for her, but she learned to sound them out.

Mrs. Dix, Dorothea's mother, was sickly much of the time. Dorothea had to help with the work in the cabin, even though she was only a small child. Her closest companion was her dog, Chief, who went with her constantly and helped to look after her.

One time when Grandfather Dix, a wealthy physician in Boston, came to visit Dorothea and her parents, he took Dorothea home with him. He bought her some books and a slate and proceeded to teach her in his home. Grandmother Dix bought her pretty clothes and taught her to use good manners.

When Dorothea returned home from Boston, she started to attend a public school, but she could go only now and then. Most of the time she had to stay at home to care for her sickly mother, look after her new baby brother, clean the cabin, weed the garden, and stitch and paste sermons.

After a few years Grandfather Dix died and Dorothea left home to live with Grandmother Dix in Boston. Her grandmother enrolled her in a private school, where she worked hard to make up for the years she had lost. When she was fourteen years old, she began to teach school, and within a few years started a school of her own.

Eager to be of service, she took over a class in prison and discovered the terrible conditions that prevailed there. Soon she began to visit prisons, poor houses, and insane asylums through Massachusetts. Then she extended her visits to other states and other parts of the world.

Finally Dorothea Dix became a crusader to obtain better conditions for the insane. She persuaded many states to remodel old asylums or to build new ones, and to employ trained persons to work in the asylums. Today she is remembered for her human kindness and for her lasting contributions to the mentally ill.

From the dust jacket