"Wait for Mr. Meeker!
For young Mr. Meeker!
We're all going to Oregon
When Mr. Meeker comes."

That was the song an Iowa farmer named Ezra, his wife Eliza Jane and his friends Dan and William sang during the long, cold winter of 1852.

All their plans were made. Their big covered wagons were ready. So were the oxen and cows and chickens they would take. They could hardly wait to set out for the Oregon Territory, several hundred miles west. They had heard about its fine, rich soil and tall trees. They dreamed of the big farms and cozy cabins they would have there. If only the leader of their party, young Mr. Meeker, would come! They couldn't think of starting over the Oregon Trail without him.

But it was March before Ezra heard the sound of a hunting horn. "Mr. Meeker is here!" cried the horn. "Mr. Meeker has come!" Ezra ran home like the wind.

There indeed was the pioneer leader, surrounded by a group of excited ladies. "Mr. Meeker is a wonderful young man," they told Ezra. Each one added a pleasant remark about him. 

   "He is so big."

   "He is so strong."

   "He is so handsome."

   "He is so good!"

And Eliza Jane said, "What a help he will be on the way to Oregon!"

Then finally, Ezra saw the leader. At the moment he looked very angry, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs. Ezra felt rather frightened by young Mr. Meeker's loud voice and angry manner, though Mr. Meeker was a very small baby and Ezra's own son.

So begins an unusual and diverting story about a famous trip to Oregon, seen from a baby's-eye view—that of young Mr. Meeker, who was barely a month old when he set out on the exciting journey. It carries the Meekers the long way to their new house, and includes all the adventures of travel in which young Mr. Meeker played a prominent part. He was to prove himself an excellent leader for a wagon train. He insisted on comforts that kept the whole party rested, clean and well fed. He kept the travelers cheerful with his good disposition and accomplishments. He helped trade with the Indians. He even protected his mother heroically from a mountain lion. His lively story is a wonderful juvenile saga of the Oregon Trail.

Miriam E. Mason's many entertaining, easy-to-read books have made her a favorite storyteller for children. Her tale of the pioneer baby is the most original and amusing she has ever written—the authentic story of Ezra Meeker's wagon train told from a novel angle children will both understand and enjoy hugely."

From the dust jacket