These stories are founded on memories of my childhood on the farm. They first took definite form in response to the requests of my own little boys: Tell me about when you were little, Mama. Some of them were demanded over and over again; but it remained for Bobby, the youngest, to insist that they be put into a book. Many a time, after listening to one of them, he would say: I wish you would write your stories, Mama, so that other children could hear them.