Past and present become intermingled in Pamelia's mind during the summer she spends with Aunt and Uncle on their farm outside St. Louis. An Indian temple once stood at the top of one of the straight-sided hills that break up the flat countryside—right where the farm now stands. "They say it would have taken a thousand Indians at least five years to carry all the earth for it," Uncle explains.

Pamelia's imagination is caught by these ancient Mound Builders, and she is convinced that Pawnee Sam, who helps her uncle, is descended from them. Before the summer is over she is able to bring the past and present together, and return a bit of his heritage to her friend.

Miss Coatsworth has created another of the little girls who have made her books so well loved over the years. And the lame, goose, Livy, is surely one of the most endearing fowls in literature.

From the dust jacket of 1969 printing