Leo Politi's charming picture books are loved from coast to coast.  They have a quality all their own; a quality that is hard to put into words.  He has his own secret for capturing in a few brief pages, beauty, friendliness and an unusual tenderness or children and animals.

This time the story is of the friendship between Juan, a little boy in the California town of Capistrano and Julian, the old gardener and bell-ringer at the Mission of San Juan Capistrano.  It is Julian who tells Juan of old days at the Mission.  Together they ring the bells to welcome the swallows as they come flying in from the sea on St. Joseph's Day.

Lovely, colorful pictures show the Mission, the California coastline, and the swallows' return.  There are two songs—one is sung by the children of the Mission school as the swallows fly home.

From the dust jacket