More than one million readers, here and abroad, laughed and wept as they relived Sterling North's boyhood as related in his best-selling memoir Rascal. Now they will enjoy an enchanting story of a boy and his wolf set in the American Midwest of one hundred years ago.
It was a time when the clear streams were alive with fish. Great wedges of wild geese, ducks, and millions of passenger pigeons filled the air with the rush of their wings. A few timber wolves still prowled the woods. Occasionally a boy like Robbie Trent, who loved the wilderness, had the courage to crawl into a wolf den to take for himself a wolf whelp that he would raise with loving care.
Those were the days when the McGuffey Readers were considered second only to the Bible, when kerosene lamps were beginning to replace bayberry candles, and when quilting bees, house-raisings and cornhuskings provided the basis for a community spirit that is largely forgotten today.
Beyond the rail fence of his family's farm lay the deep woods, always beckoning to Robbie Trent. But a boy owed his full time and labor to his father until he was twenty-one years of age. It took great resourcefulness on the part of a young man to "buy his time." Any schooling beyond eighth grade was considered a luxury and a priceless privilege.
Within the story, Sterling North introduces as Robbie's loyal ally the figure of Thure Kumlien (1819-1888), who lived in a log cabin in the woods across the fence and shared his rich knowledge of nature with the boy. This great Swedish-American naturalist, who should be ranked with Thoreau and Muir, knew every bird, beast, flower and insect. He comes authentically alive in this sensitive and nostalgic novel.
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