In the year 1607 or thereabouts a young red-skinned warrior was striding along in the Virginia woods. Plop-plop — something hit his shoulder! He stopped short, alert for danger, but in a moment he discovered it was only his ten-year-old sister, Pocahontas, playing pranks again.

Pocahontas was soon to meet Captain John Smith and become one of the best-loved figures in early American history. But at this time she had only heard of the strange pale-faced men who came across the salt water in great white-winged canoes.

She loved to roam the woods, gathering nuts and looking for persimmons and chinquapins. She liked to hunt rabbits with the boys. In fact she lived up to her name Pocahontas, which means Playful Girl. She was to earn also the title of Brave Girl.

Pocahontas was a favorite with the whole village. We-wau gave her a pearl he found in an oyster, and Aunt Teemo wove a necklace for it and for the gold ring her brother had brought her from his long journey south. The ring, he said, had belonged to a pale-faced woman and was meant to be worn on the finger, but it was too big for Pocahontas.

The village began to hear of other paleface wonders — of the terrible shooting sticks and shiny cutting sticks and of a wonderful needle that always pointed north. And exciting news!—the captain with the magic needle was to be brought to Head Chief Powhatan. The instant Pocahontas saw the blond young Captain Smith, she knew she didn't want him to be killed. She made up her small determined mind to save his life and adopt him!

The captain and the Indian girl became great friends. He taught her English and she taught him some of her language and was amazed at the marvelous talking sheets he possessed. Captain Smith and the people of Jamestown, Virginia, had occasion more than once to be grateful to the daughter of Powhatan.

For Powhatan was cruel and crafty and he didn't like the men with pale faces who had invaded his land. Powhatan was simply biding his time. And finally his chance came —

Flora Warren Seymour, who wrote the delightful Bird Girl: Sacagawea, now recreates another equally delightful Indian girl. Mrs. Seymour, first woman member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, knows her material thoroughly. In addition she is a good storyteller. We are one with the graceful Indian child as she runs through the forest or chats warm-heartedly with her friends or gazes at the strange winged canoes so soon to change her life.

Mrs. Seymour tells of Pocahontas' childhood with a simple directness that matches the little Indian girl's own unmixed loyalty and friendliness. A child's imagination will grasp what she says just as directly and he will love the story Mrs. Seymour tells so charmingly.

There could be no better introduction to the whole biography of Pocahontas—her romantic marriage to John Rolfe and her years in England—or to the history of the Virginia colonists than this fine addition to the Childhood of Famous American series.

From the dust jacket