The people of Castleto'n, or Castle Town, Vermont, are justly proud of two of its early citizens. One was the carpenter who built there the most beautiful church pulpit in the state and the other was a girl who designed and fashioned a carpet so lovely that it now hangs in the Metropolitan Musuem of Art in the city of New York. On that carpet, among other designs, is pictured a most fascinating blue cat.

Why a blue cat? Ah, well—thereby hangs this tale; a tale of enchantment which some will call pure Americana, some folk lore, and some a tale of chivalry. For the blue cat is like a knight on a quest. His quest is to find a hearth to fit the song the river taught him and to teach the owner of the hearth to sing that song.

Many adventures befell the blue cat before he fulfilled his mission; many strange and interesting characters crossed his path. There were Ebenezer Southmayd the pewterer and John Gilroy the weaver; Arunah Hyde who wove the Dark Spell and Thomas Royal Dake the artist carpenter who made the pulpit. There was also the girl Zeruah Guernsey who fashioned the carpet. And, by no means to be forgotten, there was the Guernseys' barn cat, not a blue cat, to be sure, but a remarkable creature in her own right.

Trusting children and other rare people will accept this beautiful story on faith. For the skeptical there is proof enough—the enchanted town of Castleto'n itself, the pulpit and the carpet. And, its power no whit diminished by time, for any mortal who will listen with the heart as well as the ear, there is the Bright Enchantment and the river's song which the blue cat learned under a blue moon in a Vermont meadow more than a hundred years ago.

From the dust jacket