This is the heartwarming story of Dwight D. Eisenhower's boyhood.

Here is young Ike growing up in a busy, happy family of six boys on a modest farm in Kansas. He and his brothers did farm work, housework, cooking. They delivered newspapers, peddled vegetables and sandpapered wooden animals for Abilene's merry-go-round. As they grew older, they took turns working in their father's creamery. Their mother, a pious, strong-minded woman, kept the family together and set an example of integrity and high principle for her sons, which Ike never forgot.

Like all boys, Ike and his brothers often got into scraps that ended in fist fights. His mother went about her business, while the boys pummelled each other mercilessly at her feet. She refused to interfere in their quarrels, hoping to develop in them self-reliance and the ability to make their own decisions.

Once, during a flood, Ike and his brother Edgar floated off in a skiff without oars. It was only a miracle that they escaped death. They had other adventures too, for they were healthy and active and curious. Ike fished, hunted, boxed, played baseball, and became a star football player and first President of the Athletic Association of Abilene High. He decided on a military career by entering West Point.

Graduated in 1915, he rose slowly through the ranks until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. From that point forward he progressed with astonishing speed becoming, in 1943, Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces for the invasion and conquest of Western Europe. After the German surrender, he remained on military assignment most of the time, succeeding General Marshall as Chief of Staff of the Army. He was elected President of the United States by an overwhelming landslide and took the oath of office in Washington on January 20, 1953.

Here is the story of a lovable, friendly boy who grew up to be a world leader, but the memorable part of the story is the picture it gives of an active, happy childhood.

From the book