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What sort of people do you like best to readabout—white people or Indians?

I think you will say Indians, because all thechildren of whom I have ever asked this questionhave said that they liked best to read aboutIndians. Indians do everything so differentlyfrom the way we do that they are always interesting.

This book which we are now going to readis about Indians,—the Indians who lived nearthe Pacific Ocean before our grandfathers wereborn, and before we Americans came west andsettled the country.

Do you like best to read about grown-up peopleor about children? I think I can hear yousay, “What a question! Children, of course!”Yes, children can have such fun, running andplaying and finding out about all kinds of thingsfor which grown people never have time, thatit is much pleasanter to read about them. So[vi]this whole book is about children. The firstpart tells about the little Indian boy, Docas;farther on, when Docas grows to be a man, thebook tells about his children and grandchildren.

Last of all, the stories tell about things thatactually happened to Indian children long agoin California, so they are what you call “trulystories,” not “made-up ones.”

These are some of the reasons why the childrenfor whom the stories were first writtenliked them and learned from them, and for thesesame reasons I think many of you will care toread about Docas, the Indian boy of Santa Clara.

THE AUTHOR