Eight-year-old Jimmie Cooper pulled his homespun cap over his ears as he and his Indian friend Koogah entered the forest near Cooperstown in York state. In the year 1797 the village founded by Jimmie's father at the tip of Lake Otsego still lay on the edge of the wilderness. East of the lake ran the road to Albany and civilization. To the west stretched the deep forests that only the scouts, hunters and Indians knew.

It was a cold day, and the two boys had been hunting for a long time. Jimmie noticed that the daylight was fading fast. Hunters had told about a mysterious monster lurking in the forest, and no one wanted to be out late.

Suddenly Jimmie's dog Frisk, barked and leaped at a big oak tree. There on a low branch crouched a great furry animal–the monster! It was a panther, Jimmie realized, but the largest one he had ever seen–ten times as big as Frisk.

Frisk jumped higher and higher. The panther snarled and crawled along the limb. Its cruel eyes followed every move the dog and boys made. What were Jimmie and Koogah to do? Their small bows and arrows couldn't kill the panther. If only they were old enough to have guns!

Then Jimmie reached a decision. Koogah must go to Indiantown for aid. He would try to keep the panther treed until help came. It was a dangerous thing for a boy his age to do.

The Indian braves who killed the panther said Jimmie was responsible for the capture of the monster. Judge Cooper was proud of his son for being so stanch. He said Jimmie was a regular little Leatherstocking. To Jimmie this was a great compliment. Why, "Leatherstocking" was one of the nicknames of Mr. Shipman, the best deerslayer for miles around. The old hunter in his buckskin clothes knew everything about hunting wild animals and birds, about Indians and the wilderness, and Jimmie wanted to be just like him.

Jimmie never forgot any of the things he learned from the scouts and Indians. He always remembered his own exciting adventures in the forest and on the lake. All these incidents, experiences, settings and characters of his childhood formed the background for the famous "Leatherstocking Tales" Cooper wrote when he grew up. His novels—The Pathfinder, The Last of the Mohicans, The Deerslayer and many others—immediately became American classics. No one has ever written better of the frontier, and Cooper's stories have thrilled generations of readers young and old.

Gertrude Hecker Winders' story about lively young Jimmie will lead children on with interest to Cooper's own books about Indians and deerslayers and the wilderness. James Fenimore Cooper: Leatherstocking Boy has a note of adventure and a fine spirit of fun that make it an exciting and entertaining addition to the Childhood of Famous American series.

From the dust jacket