We'd been traveling so long, I could barely remember what it felt like to sleep in a real bed in our log cabin back home in Indiana. Eight weeks, Ma said. And still we were not even halfway to Oregon.

To rest the weary cattle, Pa said the wagon train would stop until after the Fourth of July. At home, Jesse remembered, the Fourth was a day of flying flags and booming cannons, of parades and speeches and games. How could they celebrate way out here on the plains?

Everyone prepared for the holiday: hunting for game, baking pies, putting together tables, and sewing a flag from clothing scraps. Jesse wanted to help too. And suddenly he had the most wonderful idea for a way to add to the thrill of the glorious Fourth.

With warmth and sensitivity Jean Van Leeuwen writes about the daring spirit of one young boy, while Henri Sorensen's stunning illustrations capture the joys and hardships of the pioneers' historic journey on the Oregon Trail.

From the dust jacket