Relates the summer adventures of a young boy living in Michigan in the nineteenth century and how he came to acquire the two things he most wanted--a dog and a pair of copper-toed boots.
Nine-year-old Hannah, a Quaker living in Philadelphia just before the Civil War, longs to have some fashionable dresses like other girls but comes to appreciate her heritage and its plain dressing when her family saves the life of a runaway slave.
In 1750 in Pennsylvania, mischievous young Eli, recently arrived with his Mennonite family from Germany, tries to adjust to his new life and especially to the teaching methods of his schoolteacher, Christopher Dock.
An Amish girl living with her family on their farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, tries to finish her hooked rug so that she may take her first trip to market with Father.
In 1831 in rural North Carolina, sixteen-year-old Martitia, newly orphaned and timid, comes to live with a large, boisterous Quaker familywhose five sons delight in teasing and laughter.