American boys and girls of long ago did not have mechanical toys to play with as you do today but they had rag dolls, tops and bows and arrows. Here are stories about real toys of other days and their owners—a Fourth of July puppet made by a signer of the Declaration of Independence for his children; the toy drum that young Ishan Floyd beat while George Rogers Clark and his men crossed the flood rivers to Vincennes; the doll, Letitia Penn, who traveled from England to Philadelphia to be presented at court; and the whistle that taught young Ben Franklin his first lesson in thrift. You will also enjoy the stories of the real Jenny Lind and her namesake, a paper doll, and of the horse-drawn fire engine sent to a little New York boy who was the first to discover the great fire of 1870. These are a few of the many delightful stories in this book.

From the dust jacket