On a cold, blustery day in 1609, seven-year-old Peter Stuyvesant marched up and down the path before his house in Scherpenzeel, Holland. A wooden sword was thrust through his scarlet sash. There was a wooden gun over his shoulder. He scowled fiercely as he shouted commands to an imaginary regiment of soldiers. "Left, right! Keep those lines straight!"

Someday he would have a real sword and a real gun. Maybe he would even sail to that wonderful new country across the ocean, America. Like every Dutch boy, Peter knew the story of brave Henry Hudson who had sailed a tiny ship, the Half-moon, to the New World.

"Stubborn Pete," some people called him, but Anneke, his older sister, said he was the bravest and kindest boy she knew. Who else would have dared stand up to the cruel boys who wanted to harm the old dog? And wasn't Peter the only one brave enough to solve the mystery of the haunted windmill? Of course, there was the time Peter insisted on skating on the canal, when he had been told the ice wasn't strong enough. That was one time it didn't pay Peter to insist on his own way.

All the townspeople remembered the day Peter rescued two baby storks from the roof of a burning house. Kindly Dominie Stuyvesant, Peter's father, said the boy had been, perhaps, a little foolhardy. But everyone agreed that when Peter made up his mind to do a thing, he did it.

When Peter was ten, he met a boy who was to have a great deal of influence, indirectly, on his life. Peter scowled when he saw the tumble-down house where Hans de Hoog lived. It wasn't very long before Peter had Hans and the other de Hoog children scrubbing the house and building a fence. One of the directors of the West India Company was so impressed with Peter's energy and leadership that he made up his mind he wanted Peter to work for him.

But first Peter had to go to a Latin school. Then he went into the army, for he had always wanted to be a soldier. But it took a long time to become a general, and Peter was impatient. After two years, he was glad to join the West India Company. He went to Curaçao and South America, where he was the governor of Dutch colonies. A few years later, his dream came true: he sailed to America as governor of the Dutch colony on Manhattan Island—New Amsterdam.

Peter was a good governor. Soon the streets were clean. He made the people build their houses of stone instead of wood. He made reasonable laws. New Amsterdam became a thriving community. Even when the colony was taken over by the British, and New Amsterdam became New York, Peter continued to live there. He loved America. It was his home.

Peter Stuyvesant's name is synonymous with New York, now one of the greatest cities in the world, and the city of which every American child is proud. Young readers will enjoy reading about its early days in Mabel Cleland Widdemer's latest book for the Childhood of Famous Americans Series. The author of such popular volumes for the series as Aleck Bell: Ingenious Boy, Washing Irving: Boy of Old New York and Harriet Beecher Stowe: Connecticut Girl, Mrs. Widdemer has written an exciting and entertaining story about the little Dutch boy Peter Stuyvesant who, as a man, helped build a metropolis.

From the dust jacket