There was always plenty of excitement around Timber Ridge Plantation in southern Virginia when Sam Houston was a boy. He was the youngest of six strapping brothers and they lived just after the Revolutionary War on the edge of the wilderness.

Their father was a captain in the Virginia Militia and it was his job to hunt deserters from the army camps along the frontier.

Sometimes the whole community had to guard against treacherous white men who smuggled guns to hostile Indians.

Sam had a part in both these adventures.

His playfellows were two plantation darkies, Lije and Bije, who were devoted to him and who gave him an admiring audience when he practiced his piece for school. But everyone liked to hear Sam recite for he was a natural orator.

Another friend was an Indian boy Ooloo, whom he helped to escape from slavery. Later on Ooloo returned this favor in a Cherokee village.

How Sam dealt with a supposed Tory, how he squared things with the preacher when the twins snored in church, how he taught a lesson to a city dandy—these things lead up to his great exploit when he discovers the secret of Blennerhasset Island and helps to uncover the treachery of Aaron Burr.

On the death of his father the Houston family settled down in Tennessee. Sam tried farming and storekeeping, but didn't like either. His brothers called him lazy, but he had just outgrown his strength. He ran away to live with the Cherokees, and while he was with them one thrilling thing after another happened.

Sam Houston's boyhood nurtured the bravery, resourcefulness, wisdom and patriotism which were to mark his career as soldier, orator, statesman, the idol of the Lone Star State.

It has been more than ten years since Augusta Stevenson wrote Abe Lincoln: Frontier Boy which started the successful series called the "Childhood of Famous Americans." Abe Lincoln is now in its twelfth large printing and more popular than ever.

Since then she has written Ben Franklin: Printer's Boy; Andy Jackson: Boy Soldier; George Washington: Boy Leader; and Daniel Boone: Boy Hunter. Each has gone through edition after edition and each has strengthened Miss Stevenson's hold as a favorite writer for children.

Every word in the Stevenson books is story. There is not a dull word of prosy description and no beating about the bush. She is full of ___. She knows just what will interest youngsters in the early days of these great men who were once unknown youngsters themselves. She makes them seem real boys, true comrades. When the child reader grows up to meet them in history they are remembered as old friends.

____ she selects with unerring instinct those incidents which illustrate the traits in the boy ___ were one day to make him famous.

_____ Sam Houston: Boy Chieftain is added to her list of books, Sam is a "made to order" ____ for her. She loves boys with the spirit of adventure in them and plenty of get-up-and-go. Sam was like that—no "goody-goody," but ___ and daring and a giant in his teens. Something always happened when he was around

Sam Houston spent part of his boyhood in a Cherokee village, lived in the chief's house, became a brave, and was called by an Indian name, the Raven. He lived the child's dream, and now he captures the child's imagination.

From the dust jacket