The year 1780 was an exciting time in Hanover County, Virginia. The Revolutionary War was going on. Henry Clay, who was nearly four years old, was sure his father could protect him against the British. But his father died, and the soldiers ransacked Henry's home and carried off the food supplies. Life during those war years was hard even for a little boy.

True, there were baptizings, company dinners, swimming in the river and watermelons to enjoy. It was fun to go with Aaron, Mother's trusted slave, on errands. Then, too, it was fun to go to the mill. While he was waiting for his corn to be ground to meal, he could play with the other boys. He could go inside the mill and see how the water from the millrace made the big millstone turn. He would be covered with flour and milling dust when he reached his home among the slash pines of the Virginia swampland. No wonder his family called him its "Mill Boy of the Slashes," a nickname that stuck for years.

After hearing Patrick Henry at Hanover Courthouse, young Henry Clay began making speeches to trees, rocks and cattle, just as one day, much later, he would speak to the Congress of the United States and with his words help to postpone a war.

While he was working in a store in Richmond, Henry learned that in an argument it was often better to compromise, to give in just a little. For instance, he once had to show two young visitors the city. One boy wanted to see only the ships in the river, the other, only the Capitol. They were ready to fight about it, so Henry suggested they compromise and go both places. The boys told their father later, "Of course compromising ain't so nice as having everything your own way. But Henry is right. By compromising with the other fellow you can get things done." All his life, it was Henry Clay's way of getting things done.

Helen Albee Monsell is making her fifth contribution to the Childhood of Famous Americans Series. Through her able pen Robert E. Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Stonewall Jackson and Dolly Madison have lived again for young readers. In Henry Clay: Mill Boy of the Slashes Miss Monsell has the same deft touch that she has given her other tales of child life. Born, reared and educated in Virginia, she imparts to the background a degree of realism one less well acquainted with the region could not do.

Children will ask, "Is this book history or is it a story? It is both. Henry Clay was a very real boy who lived in an exciting period of American history. This book is true to the known facts of his boyhood. Other incidents and characters have been added which, while improvised, in themselves are true to the time, the scene and the essential spirit of Henry Clay's boyhood. Henry Clay: Mill Boy of the Slashes is a historical story. 

From the dust jacket