At the Battle of Manassas or Bull Run in our War between the States, the Southern forces were giving way. One of their generals rallied his men by pointing to the brave commander of a brave brigade. "There stands Jackson," he cried, "like a stone wall!"

When Tom Jackson was a little boy he didn't dream he was going to be a great soldier. But he stood by his mother like a stone wall. She was sick, and he helped her in every way he could. When he knew he had to leave her to go live with his grandmother—he ran away. Then, safe in the woods, he thought how frightened his mother would be. He said to himself, "You can't make things better by running away from them."

He went back, and promised his mother he would always "be brave, love God, and do what he thought right." Then he and his sister Laura went to live with his grandmother and his bachelor Uncle Cummins at Jackson's Mill. It was the happiest of homes!

Tom and Laura made a dugout canoe, like the ones the Indians made, by burning out a big log. They learned to tap sugar-maple trees and make maple sugar. Tom made himself a cornstalk fiddle!

When Grandmother Jackson died, one of his married aunts took Tom to her home. Tom and Laura were separated. Tom was homesick for Jackson's Mill. He went back there, back to his old home. He helped Uncle Cummins run the sawmill and gristmill. When the county needed a constable, Tom was only seventeen, but he was so honest, strong and popular, they named him for the post.

All the schooling Tom had as a child was in a little log schoolhouse, studying by the light of the fire in the wintertime. Now in his teens he decided he must get an education. He was so slow the other boys laughed at him. But the teacher said, "You may not make your mark in a hurry, but make it I believe you will!"

He made his first mark when he got his appointment to West Point. Next he was promoted for bravery in battle. Finally he became the famous, noble and steadfast soldier, Stonewall Jackson.

You will enjoy this story of the boyhood of one of our country's heroes. Miss Monsell, who wrote it, is the author of Boy of Old Virginia: Robert E. Lee and Tom Jefferson: A Boy in Colonial Days, in the same popular series. She is Registrar at Richmond College, in the University of Richmond.

From the dust jacket