One afternoon when the author was a little girl in China, she was reading about Aladdin and wondering if she could find anything magic near her. She picked up a stone and rubbed it.

Suddenly, out of the tall grass, the huge face of Da Lobo, the Big Turnip, appeared. She looked up and saw the Water-Buffalo Children, Farmer Ching's son and daughter, riding on the Water-Buffalo's back.

The little girl thought the magic stone had brought them there. The Water-Buffalo Children insisted they had been coming, anyhow.

But whether or not the stone was magic and what they did to find out is the story which the author tells here for her own and other children that they may know and enjoy the Chinese children.

From the dust jacket of the Methuen & Co. edition