This is the story of a real boy, gay, whole-souled, and vigorous, who lived in the Scotland of the eighteenth century; a boy who would walk as far and climb as high as any other his own age though, being lame, he could not go so fast as they. It is the story of a boy who might have retreated into the safe glory of schoolroom brilliance but who preferred to meet the other lads on their own ground and make his place in the Yard, even though he had to slip away to the lonely top of Arthur's Seat to read the books that set him to dreaming; a boy who led the George Square lads and fought with Green-Breeks; a shy lad who met the great poet Burns and named him the author of a quotation; a lad who tramped all over the countryside with his companions, to fish or to explore; a young Hercules who offered his umbrella to a girl in a green mantle.

It is the story of the boyhood of Walter Scott, who would never have been the man he was, had he not first been the boy he was. 

High-School Age.

From the dust jacket