Nils was longlegged and gay—a regular fellow his school mates said. He lived on a farm and had a pony all of his own. He had cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He was going to be a cowboy when he grew up.

Nils' father and mother had come from Norway . . ."That was fine, for they knew many curious tales that would come in handy when he was a cowboy and sat at the bonfire under the starry sky."

Indeed everything was fine until one day Nils' grandmother sent him a pair of long knitted stockings from Norway. Nils thought that they were the most beautiful stockings in the whole United States.

The story of what happened to Nils and his stockings and to Nils and his school friends is told and pictured by Ingri and Edgar Parin d'Aulaire with real humor and with a deep understanding of the problems of a small boy or girl growing up, going to school and standing on his own two feet in the United States today.

The d'Aulaires live on a hillside farm, a farm that is a happy combination of the culture of Europe and America and their story and lovely colored lithographs represent America's culture today as truly as their POCAHONTAS and ABRAHAM LINCOLN, their Caldecott Medal Book, did an earlier America.

From the dust jacket