Twelve-year old Rufus Mayflower did not start out to make a million dollars. That just happened. It all began when he was in the sixth grade and met Kate Mackinstrey. By the time he was ready for the eighth grade, he had over a million dollars in the bank.

Rufus first became upset over the fact that a tube of toothpaste cost 79¢. He bet he could make a gallon for 79¢. He did just that and more.

Mr. Conti's math class became known as Toothpaste I as the students helped work out the increasingly complicated arithmetic for Rufus's over-expanding business. The cost of the toothpaste was 2¢ a tube. At a selling price of 3¢ with 1¢ profit, figuring that each of the approximately two hundred million people in the United States use one tube of toothpaste per month, even if only 1 out of 10 used Rufus's toothpaste, he would make the staggering sum of $2.5 million profit in one year.

The story follows the rising success of the enterprise in very realistic and easy-to-understand examples from its inception through establishing a corporation, selling stock, acquiring bank loans, and advertising, until Rufus's rather early retirement at age thirteen. Every reader will be caught up in the logic and honesty of his efforts and will come to better understand the machinations of the business world.

From the dust jacket