In all the cabins that lay between Ann Hamilton and the nearest settlement in the early wilderness of Western Pennsylvania, there were only boys and babies. Ann was so lonesome, she could hardly keep from crying when she thought of her cousin Margaret, of her school and friends back on the other side of the Allegheny Mountains in Gettysburg.

Her mother promised Ann that when a special occasion arose, they would take time off from their hard-working life and have a party. They would set the crude wooden table with the linen tablecloth, use the lavender flowered plates, and Ann would wear ribbons in her hair and even put on her blue Gettysburg shoes. But special occasions didn't seem to happen—until one wonderful evening a stranger rode up Hamilton Hill. He stayed to supper and even Ann agreed there never had been a better party. As she watched the stranger disappear over the hill, she knew there was no place she would rather be than on Hamilton Hill, growing a vegetable garden and helping to built the West.

When Jean Fritz was a little girl, she was taken to the house in Gettysburg where Ann Hamilton was born. But the real clue to Ann's personality, Mrs. Fritz tells us, came not so much from old family records as from her own daughter who remarked dreamily one day, "It must have been fun to have lived long ago."

Feodor Rojanovsky is known all over the world for his beautiful illustrations. His charming drawings reflect both the fun and sad times for Ann and her family.

From the dust jacket