"Barney, let me ride old Spot over to the corral!"

"Uncle Dan, will you teach me how to lasso?"

There was no stopping Willie Rogers. Even when he was five years old, he was planning to be the best cow hand in the Oklahoma Indian territory!

The Southwest was still wild in the 'eighties when Willie grew up on his father's big ranch near Claremore. Willie loved the open range. He wanted to spend all his time with the cowboys—riding and roping and tending cattle.

As soon as he learned how to use a lasso, Willie began to carry a rope with him—ready to lasso anything that moved. When his father gave him a sorrel pony for his very own Willie was ready to sign on as a cow hand. He couldn't understand why his father wanted him to go to school. Sure, he wanted to amount to something, but what was better than being a "top hand"?

Willie went to school with Cherokee Indian boys and girls; he himself was part Cherokee. They all liked Willie—he kept them laughing at his jokes. At recess and noon—Willie's favorite times—they had fine horse races and foot races. But the summer, when he could take care of his own herd of dogies, seemed much better to Willie.

Trying to act like a cowboy sometimes got Willie into trouble. There was the time he and his friend Charley set the prairie on fire. With Uncle Dan's help, they finally beat out the flames and saved the ranch. But just then Willie's horse stumbled and Willie fell off and broke his arm. He thought his career as a cowboy was over! How could he ever lasso with a stiff arm?

Willie's enthusiasm with practice and hard work, got him out of his scrape. He found a way to prove himself to his father. He beat all the cowboys in the territory at steer roping! He could do almost anything with a rope. At last, he became a top hand—when he was only fourteen!

Willie's was a childhood to amuse, excite and thrill boys and girls today, and his story is a delightful addition to the Childhood of Famous Americans series. Fun and hard work as a youngster on the ranch blended to produce unique qualities in Will Rogers. He grew up to be the best-loved man of his generation. Hailed as America's favorite humorist, Will kept a whole nation in smiling good humor through trying times. As an entertainer–on the stage while his rope swirled about him, in movies, in his daily newspaper columns–he was unparalleled. His witty, wholesome wisdom and his unselfish love of his fellow men will always stand as a monument to Will, who "never met a man he didn't like."

From the dust jacket