"Vojak bounded across the road and scrambled up the rocky hillside, searching wildly for a hiding place. The horse's hooves pounded nearer on the road below. Rocks gave way beneath Vojak's feet, and he tangled with a grapevine. As the dried branches of the grapevine broke, he plunged headlong down into the road, thumping to a stop just in front of a horse."

Vojak, who later would be called Stephen, was about to see for the first time Good King Wenceslas.

Author Luckhardt's moving story is based on the familiar Christmas song, "Good King Wenceslas". Mrs. Luckhardt has given vivid personalities to the page boy and his king and to the other people of her story as she contrasts the customs and actions of pagans and Christians.

The excitement of secret midnight trips by horseback over uncharted mountain routes, the drama of duels, and the threat of war, are offset by pleasantly complete descriptions of the day-to-day lives of the people of the little kingdom of Bohemia in the tenth century.

Good King Wenceslas is a story to be treasured by both boys and girls for years to come.

From the dust jacket