With his dog, Patches, Johnny Texas sets out on a 600-mile journey on the Old San Antonio Road. He must deliver a load of corn mean across the Mexican border and return with the gold payment in time for his father to pay a note that is due on his mill.

Day after day Johnny drives his slow-moving ox team over the road traveled more than a century by missionaries, settlers, soldiers, and great heroes like Austin, Long, and Houston.

Each day adds a fresh experience: a new landscape, a raid by wild pigs, a narrow escape from rattlesnakes, sudden storms, a wild-turkey hunt.

Johnny has a frightening experience with an Indian, but the real climax of his journey comes when he picks up a companion—Jed Arnold. Johnny soon discovers that Jed is interested only in the gold he believes Johnny is carrying.

It is thrilling to travel with Johnny and share his adventures on the San Antonio Road. Carol Hoff's new story has a fine feeling for a boy growing up in the exciting young country that was Texas in the 1830's.

8 and up. 

From the dust jacket